Handsome, historic, and made to last from good-old solid Australian hardwoods, Trunkey Creek’s 100-year-old Anglican church, was almost never built.

Village locals though, as they have done for decades, came to the rescue with the quaint and locally-built house-of-worship now celebrating its first 100-years this weekend.

Churchgoers far-and-wide are invited to the commemoration during the regular once-a-month service this Sunday, May 24, from 9.30am, with a special country-style morning tea to be held in the Trunkey community hall afterwards.

It may have come to nothing all those years ago, however – long-time local Colin Friend explained – if not for the generosity of one landowner in the close-knit community located half an hour south of Blayney.

“We were supposed to build it up in Lloyds Road, but there were these massive boulders that they couldn’t do anything about in those days,” Colin revealed.

“But then a parishioner said, ‘I’ve got a block down by the creek, why don’t we build it there?’,” he added.

With the foundation stone laid in June 1924, the work was carried out as and when materials and money became available.

“The two back pews still in the church are made from the local stringybark of which the building itself was constructed.

“Locals would get horse teams and drag local logs to Henrys Mill where it would be milled for the church, they’d just arrive and say ‘this is for the church’, and that was that,” Colin explained.

Eventually though, the building was completed with the consecration held during one of the major celebrations in the ecclesiastical calendar; a feast day often described as “The Birthday of the Church”.

“It was on Pentecost Sunday in 1926 (May 23), that’s how it got its name, ‘The Church of the Holy Spirit’,” Colin explained.

“This means, that the celebration this Sunday, is on the exact anniversary weekend from when the first service was held.

Hoping to make it back from Sydney after a medical procedure, Colin comes from a long line of church servants in the former gold-mining boom-town.

“My father, the Reverend John Friend, was a clergyman here 45 years ago, and used to travel as far as Black Springs (south of Oberon) to Mandurama for services.

I’ve been looking after things here for a number of years as a lay minister and warden and the like, and am hoping to make it back in-time for the service,” Colin added.

The building is also, unusually, home to the local Catholic congregation after termites rendered their similarly wooden-constructed St Joseph's Catholic Church, no longer functional.

“It was about 12 years ago when the Catholic Church was destroyed by white ants, so I said, ‘we oughta share it with them when we’re not using it’.

“So, I saw the Catholic priest who was here then, and we sorted it all out.”

With former Bishop of Bathurst, the Rev Richard Hurford, leading worship with the assistance of Parish Secretary, the Rev Linda Boss, locals have fully-prepared for the social function afterwards; with only the church’s capacity holding any concerns!

“It’s all catered for, people just have to turn-up on the day, but we’re definitely expecting more than 50 people, and the church only holds about 70,” Colin said.

“We’ve been told we could get 100, that’ll make it a full house, definitely!” he concluded.