St Peter’s Shoreham

The Catholic Community at Shoreham developed in the early 1860’s with the arrival of several Irish families taking up small parcels of land around Stony Creek. Some of these families are mentioned in C.N. Hollinshed’s book ”Lime, Land, Leisure”, (1982) and include Ellen Byrne, Martin Higgins, Patrick Kennedy and most importantly Peter Nowlan. Other pioneer families recorded on early maps and buried in the Catholic section of the Flinders cemetery included Edmond Riley, Michael Maher, Thomas Dowling and Michael Monahan. The Tuck family, acknowledged as the original pioneers of the area, were also part of the Catholic community as Henry’s wife, Catherine, was raised as a Catholic and Henry was recorded amongst the those confirmed at Shoreham by Archbishop Gould in 1877.
The Building of St. Peter’s Shoreham was undertaken after this important event. Initially the area was part of the Brighton Mission and a priest took 3 months to ride the circuit of the Peninsula around Port Phillip Bay to Portsea, across to Cape Schanck to Flinders and Shoreham and back via Western Port Bay, Cranbourne and Berwick turning west to Brighton. Later the Missions of Frankston and Mornington took responsibility for sending a priest to meet the spiritual needs of the people.   Fr. Matthew Carey of Mornington was the first to celebrate mass in the simple wooden church in 1878 erected on land donated by Peter Nowlan on the corner of Beach Road and Flinders/Frankston Road: hence the dedication to St Peter! ( it is interesting to note the former Catholic Church of St John at Balnarring was on land donated by John Buckley and the land at Somerville was donated by Brendan Conroy.)

A Second Church was blessed and opened by Archbishop Carr on the Beach Road site in 1901 at a cost of 330 pounds. The old church was removed to Martin Higgins property and acted as a shed for the farm. Many people remember crowding into the church for mass and talking outside, catching up with friends and neighbours. A photo is held of the church in September 1980 a few months before it was burnt to the ground in November. The children playing in the foreground are the great, great grandchildren of Edmond Riley

The Current Church of St Peter’s was blessed and opened by Archbishop Little in March 1984. In his address he recalled the history of this ‘cradle of faith’ and commended the local people for their initiative in having the church rebuilt on the beautiful new site in Byrnes Road, bequested by the Byrne family. There is a lovely story that tells of Grandmother Byrne being responsible for the sacred vessels and mass not able to commence until the Byrne family arrived. The view across the Shoreham valley is spectacular and reminds worshippers of the beauty of God’s creation; there is no need for stained glass windows here. By chance it also looks across to the land settled by Peter Nowlan where at his home “Ardare”, the people gathered for worship before a church existed. Today the valley resonates to the sound of the Angelus Bell rung at midday and evening. Dedicated to the pioneer families that settled here, he bell reminds us of our past and the strong faith that built this community