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History
• Methodist
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Read about the Shirley Road Church Pipe Organ here

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[NOTE: St Peter's Presbyterian Church, North Sydney, remained Presbyterian at the union of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational Churches into the Uniting Church in 1977. Because of that and the fact that the story of Crows Nest Presbyterian Church is not as intricately linked with North Sydney as is the case with the Methodists, there is no attempt here to cover the history of Presbyterianism in North Sydney except to say that St Peters was founded in 1844. The present church was opened in 1866.]
Read about their story by selecting "History" from their website menu.

Presbyterian heritage

The history of Crows Nest Presbyterian Church is closely associated with the residential development of the Crows Nest-Wollstonecraft area. Edward Wollstonecraft, merchant, built for himself in the 1820s, on the highest point of his large estate and of the lower North Shore, a cottage referred to as Crows Nest Cottage. He died in 1832 and his interests passed to his brother-in-law, Dr Alexander Berry, who with his wife Elizabeth lived in the cottage 1832-1840 - at which time he commissioned a more stately home known as Crows Nest House on land partly occupied by today's North Sydney Demonstration School on the Pacific Highway. When he died in 1873 (Elizabeth had died in 1845), David Berry, his brother, became heir to the combined Wollstonecraft and Berry interests, since both had died childless.

It was to David Berry that a church planning committee turned for help with a site for a church and manse. At this time no determination had been reached about the route for a proposed railway line, and as temporary relief Berry allowed use of, and later granted, land in Willoughby Road. The first church, a weatherboard structure, was built on this site in 1888. As the area continued to develop, the church committee "reminded" David Berry of his promise to provide a suitable site. David died in 1889 and his cousin John (later Sir John) Hay and Lady Hay became owners of the Berry estate and lived in Crows Nest House. They more than fulfilled the olriginal promise by granting the church the land on Crows Nest Hill including the Cottage.

The Cottage was demolished in 1905 to make way for the new Church to seat 350 and manse. The Willoughby Road church was used as a church hall until it was destroyed by fire in 1912. In 1914, a hall was built opposite the new Church on the corner of Sinclair Street and Shirley Road on land given by Sir John Hay. By 1968 the volume of traffic in Shirley Road made it hazardous to use as a Church Hall. The property was sold and a new Christian Education Centre was built at the rear of the Church, opened by the State Governor, Sir Roden Cutler, on St Andrews Day 1969.

Rev. H.A. Hutcheson 1888-1890	Rev. Dr David Bruce 1893-1911	Rev. W.H. Ash 1899-1909	Rev. Alex Clark 1909-1939	Rev. Colin Dyster 1939-1945	Rev. S. Russell Scott 1945-1966	Rev Doug Cole 1967-1981
as a Uniting Church...
Rev Dr Moira Laidlaw 1982-1992	Rev Dr Tom Plaizier 1992-2004	Rev Michael Barnes 2004-2012	Rev Chris Udy 2013-2017	Rev Michael Thomas 2018-

125th anniversary

In 2013 we celebrated the history of the church in which we now worship, from its Presbyterian origins to its place as Crows Nest Uniting Church. You can download the 125th year history here: pdf file.

You might like to look at these extracts from the Centenary History of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales

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Sources:
Uniting Church in Australia Northside Parish 1888-1978