This history was begun over ten years ago, while I was minister of the Church of Christ, Dawson St., Ballarat. As an historian I was fascinated by the richness of extant records and decided to graph the early history of the congregation.

As I began to read through the material I was soon aware that the history of Dawson St. was entwined with the histories of the other Churches of Christ in Ballarat. I, therefore, broadened the scope of the project to include all Churches of Christ congregations within the Ballarat district. Carried along by this initial enthusiasm, I wrote a 200-page draft of the early history to 1918.

I relinquished the project, before concluding my ministry at Dawson St., to concentrate on a thesis. It was not until mid-way through 1993 that I returned to the task. In the meantime I had purchased a computer and computer programme that allowed me to footnote material easily. While I kept the notes on which the earlier manuscript was based, I had not used footnotes, as, at that stage, the project was far from ambitious. Therefore, after writing up the second half of the history, from 1918 to the present, I was forced to engage in an archaeological dig to discover where I had mined the original material.

The book falls naturally into two sections, before and after 1918. Noticeable differences in style and approach, in the two sections, are due to four factors. The first is the twelve-year time-lapse between the writing of the two narratives. The second relates to the fact that the minutes of the earlier period are frank and revealing, written with a candour that is absent from the sanitised records of later years. Personal and congregational crises were frankly discussed. The third factor is more personal. While I could have written up the later history of the church with the degree of critical analysis evident in the first section, because I was writing about people who were still alive, or, who, if they were not living, were remembered by current members or were familiar names to them, I considered such a course insensitive, impolite and impolitic. It is also true that contemporary history is notoriously difficult to write, because of the lack of perspective and the increased likelihood that personal prejudices will muddy the interpretation.

I enjoyed the eight years I spent in Ballarat as minister of the Dawson Street Church of Christ, from 1976 to 1983. I found the church accepting and supportive. While committed to the basics of the faith, the congregation was willing to experiment with new approaches. I also appreciated contact with the wider family of Churches of Christ in Ballarat.

I would like to thank Dawson St., Mt. Clear, Peel St. and York St. for making their records available to me. I am grateful to Christine Hearn, my secretary during the time I was at Dawson St., for typing the original version of the first half of the narrative, and to Margaret Watkins, for retyping it onto computer discs. Updating computers presented me with another problem. When I could not find anyone with the equipment to transfer the material from outdated Amstrad discs to a Macintosh format, Chris Ambrose, editor of the Australian Christian, encouraged me to use his scanner to scan the 200 pages. Chris also allowed me access to past editions of the Christian in his possession, when those in the Historical Society were being re-bound. I would also like to express appreciation to Russell Boak, who ferreted out information for me in the early years and to the Australian Churches of Christ Historical Society for permitting me access to historical material in their archives. Others who have been particularly helpful in drawing my attention to material or making available photographs have been Colin and Lylia Hocking, Jan Oats, Valda Tudball and Bob Norman. In addition, I am indebted to the Ballarat Municipal Library, for allowing me access to early Ballarat newspapers and for permission to publish selected excerpts, and to the Courier for generously allowing me to reproduce a selection of photos. I am also indebted to the Federal Literature Department of Churches of Christ for advice and for underwriting the project. I would also like to thank the Churches of Christ Theological College, at Mulgrave, for encouraging me in the project, and my wife Eileen for graciously accommodating a husband who was occasionally distracted.

Graeme Chapman

9 June 94

[BCOC vii-viii]