Biarra Hall 1987
Terry Conway

German and choirs visited from Fairney Lawn, Minden, and Marburg. The Lutheran Church of Australia conference for 1927 was held in the new church.

In August 1938 Brisbane contractor, Cyril Sievenhausen, moved the Bethel church over Dennein's bridge to be closer to the manse. At the same time an old church erected in 1925 at Clarendon was shifted in to Park Street, Lowood by G.A. Hart to form a new Evangelical Lutheran church, named St Mark's.

Pastor Doehler fostered both bushwalking and social welfare in his parish; he took the parish youth group on bushwalking trips throughout the Brisbane Valley teaching them an appreciation of the geography and geology of the region. He published several booklets on the subject, By Stock Route to Murgon, Two Tree Hills, Mt Cotton, Mt Walker and Mount Glorious From the West in the 1940s. He also encouraged his parishioners to support the Hope Vale Aboriginal Mission Station in Cape York. Pastor Doehler became a legend in the district. He was known to swim regularly in the river even in winter and he walked barefoot often, even through frost. The Bethel congregation held numerous social functions together like camp-fire socials at Sippel's farm at Patrick Estate with a
huge log fire and twenty dozen saveloys and eight and a half dozen bread rolls for seventy-four people. Bevan Gerchow provided music on the accordian. Our Saviour's, a new Lutheran congregation, was formed in Lowood in 1977 and the congregations have continued their diversity within the one faith.3O

The Esk Lutheran church building, constructed before 1900, lasted until 1968 when it was replaced by a 58 by 20 feet one brought from Silverleigh near Oakey on the Darling Downs.31

The Apostolic churches, originally associated with the Baptists, have formed close-knit congregations in the Brisbane and Lockyer Valleys. The Baptists opened a new church on the Upper Brisbane River in September 1873; very likely this was at Tarampa and became the Apostolic Church there. The land had been donated by Mr Lancaster and it was a hardwood building to accommodate one hundred people. The congregation had been formed three years earlier with two other German churches in association with the English Baptist churches under the ministry of Superintendent Gerrard. Five acres had been purchased to build a
chapel, minister's house, and school room. Two of the churches seceded from the association and the building did not proceed. The second priest of the Tarampa Apostolic community was August Ferdinand Dargusch who immigrated to Queensland in 1876 and selected 120 acres at
Tarampa on 26 May 1876.32