This church was first established by Moravian Missionaries in 1856. The original settlement can be seen to the west of the present church. This is where the first church buildings were established and the burial plots of those people are located.
(This is on private land and there is no access.)
The first minister of this church is the great great Grandfather of my wife.
Below are some of his writings.
Diary of the late CSD Schondorf
"In the first place, land had to be looked over and picked, and the following points observed:-
1. Land had to be good for farming.
2. Water had to be found(This I think was the hardest point as in examining, we could not tell just where to dig a well).
3. Was there timber nearby for building?
4.Not to be too far from where we could get rid of our produce".
There was to be an auction for land in the area and on 14th November 1855 he reports.
"The next day the two Brethren came back from Adelaide with news of the auction. Also a letter from my agent with the news of the auction that the three quadrat miles of land were knocked down to me, but only after some Gold Baron, who was a land speculator ran it up in price, thinking to have it for themselves, to sell again at profit. They quit, only when they saw that they could not get a 100% profit. The 1912 acres were knocked down to me at a price of 3214 pounds sterling."
And then on 20th February 1865 he writes:
"It was a day without bell ringing or brass music, so that I could like Jacob, say in Genesis 28;16, "Surely the Lord is in this place" and I called this place Bethel."