A CHRISTMAS gift is how one St Brigid’s parishioner described the long-awaited sign-off by the Ipswich City Council on the plans to repair and restore St Brigid’s Catholic Church in Rosewood.

Late last week, Council approved the relocation of the historic church (to escape the shifting soil below its foundations) and the relocation of the church hall, presbytery and presbytery garage to make way for the heritage listed church building.

The plans are for the presbytery is to be relocated north along Matthew Street, the church into the area left vacant by the presbytery and the hall into the area left vacant by the St Brigid’s church building.

Ipswich Mayor Teresa Harding said the Ipswich Catholic Community, had originally proposed to relocate the church and hall but demolish the old presbytery.

“Council did not support the latter and following discussion between all parties, the application was changed to include the relocation of the presbytery and garage on the existing land.”

Deputy Mayor Russell Milligan said the proposal had been put forward on the basis the St Brigid’s church had been closed since July 2020 due to ongoing structural engineering issues.

“The church requires significant structural work, and it is proposed to restump the building in a new location in order to allow the new building foundations and stumps to be excavated to a sufficient depth to resolve issues of reactive soils at the site,” he said.

Cr Kate Kunzelmann added that the presbytery was listed as a ‘Character Places of the Ipswich Planning Scheme’ and, as such, there were significant aspects all parties needed to consider during the development application process.

“While it is acknowledged that the current presbytery building was constructed after a fire that destroyed the former pre-1946 presbytery building, the significance of the building is that there is a strong cultural association between the building and the church,” she said.