St Martin's

St Martin’s Anglican Church in Wandering is a quaint brick chapel built in 1929, overlooking the original homestead of the town’s first settlers. For decades before it was built, faithful settlers gathered wherever they could – in a schoolhouse, the Agricultural Hall, or a neighbour’s home – whenever an itinerant Anglican clergyman came through Wandering. In those pioneer years (1860s–1920s), ministers like the Rev. Joseph “Holy Joe” Withers and later Rev. Frederick Gillett would travel vast circuits to hold worship in small wheatbelt communities. Archival records note that by the 1890s, Wandering’s Anglicans met in the local school whenever a priest from Williams or nearby parishes was available. These humble, sporadic services kept the flame of faith alive in Wandering’s early days.

From Paddock to Parish – The Founding of St Martin’s

By the late 1920s, the farming families of Wandering longed for a church of their own. In 1929 a plan took root to build the town’s first permanent church – a plan fueled by hope and the “confidence felt by the local community in the town’s future”. The project was spearheaded by a hardworking local committee of Church of England members who organized fund-raising fairs and community events to make it a reality. Generous donations poured in, including a gift of land on Watts Street from Mr. George Stedman Watts Jr., whose family had been among Wandering’s founding pioneers. The chosen site sat on a gentle rise overlooking the very paddocks where the first settlers had built their homestead – a constant reminder of the town’s heritage.