Nearby Sacred Heart Church was opened and blessed by Bishop Higgins on 24 June, 1906. The wooden structure was replaced in 1926 by the present building costing 4,000 pounds. Father Gerald Payne became Parish Priest in 1949. He inaugurated the procession, a very significant event in the regional Catholic calendar which was held annually for forty years. Catholics from parishes all over the Mallee came to take part and pray for the health and prosperity of the farming communities. Father Payne, by his own request, was buried in the Culgoa cemetery on his death in 1968. Culgoa was a strongly Catholic community and was something of a spritual centre.