Church to rise from ashes

After a fire that destroyed a treasured piece of Marble Bar history, the Marble Bar Tourist Association has begun crowdfunding to help rebuild its church.

In the week before the fires, which tore through 25ha of scrub land, the Marble Bar Tourist Association had been offered the church to help increase tourism in the town, president Dean Hatwell said.

Since the damage, the cost for the association to have the Marble Bar Church up and running has increased dramatically and a GoFundMe page has been created as a “call-out” for the community to help.

“The church has been a part of the Marble Bar scene for a long time, and now it’s gone,” he said.

“It’s an icon on the hill and should be replaced.”

After the fires, Mr Hartwell sat down with the association’s vice-president Brooke Patterson, as well as the secretary and treasurer, and a decision was made to go ahead with crowdfunding.

“We want to look at getting locals involved in the rebuild and boost the whole community and not just a nice building,” Mrs Patterson said.

“We want to have a meaningful outcome from it all.”

The GoFundMe page, which has a goal of $200,000, will be used to raise money, not just for the rebuild but for wages for the first year as well.

At this stage, the association’s preliminary plans are to recreate the old church with a more fire-resistant metal and incorporate the timber from the old church as much as possible.

“The church has a lot of history in the town — people got married there, christened and baptised there,” Mrs Patterson said.

“We want to be able to restore an iconic Marble Bar location, it’s just out of scope to achieved it ourselves.”

To be a part of the rebuild and donate, visit gofund me.com/marble-bar-church-rebuild.