A Shoreham heritage celebration
The restored bush chapel in Shoreham
By Ann Renkin
The Shoreham Cyril Young Memorial Chapel Association (CYMCA) invites the community to join a celebration of the restoration of the open-air, outdoor chapel at former Buxton Campsite on Saturday, December 19. The guest speaker will be the Rev Tim Costello.
The event marks the 75th anniversary of the chapel opening and the 100th year anniversary of the first YMCA Buxton Camp.
The chapel was built as a memorial to YMCA members who served in the Second World War and was named after YMCA leader Cyril Young who perished as a prisoner of war in Borneo in 1945.
It was originally an integral part of the YMCA Camp Buxton in Marine Parade, a youth camp that operated until 1981 when it was sold.
People flocked to the bush chapel opening in 1951
The chapel was opened with great fanfare in December 1951 during a special international YMCA camp. Many of the boys who attended came from diverse faith traditions across the Asia-Pacific, including from Japan.
Numerous dignitaries came to the opening, including the Governor of Victoria Sir Dallas Brookes and the Hon. Harold Holt MP, later to become Prime Minister of Australia.
The opening ceremony celebrated hope, reconciliation and peace after the long Second World War. It enshrined the values of self-reliance, global fellowship and a love of the natural world. These were core values promoted in young people through the camping experience at YMCA Camp Buxton and symbolised in the triangular YMCA logo representing the balanced development of Mind - Body - Spirit.
Since 2018 the CYMCA has worked to restore the heritage chapel as a war memorial and a meaningful contemplative space within Shoreham’s natural bushland.
The association’s Committee is comprised of members of the Shoreham Community, former campers, the Young family, Flinders District Historical Society, Flinders Sub-branch of the R.S.L. and Shoreham Community Association.
The chapel is now heritage listed with the Victorian War Heritage Inventory.
With funding assistance from the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council (MPSC), the Federal Department of Veteran Affairs, YMCA Victoria, Flinders District Historical Society and the Balnarring Community Branch of the Bendigo Bank, as well as the tireless support of MPSC Councillor David Gill, the committee has restored the chapel in line with a professional Conservation Management Plan.
The CYMCA has also installed interpretive signage and planted local native plants in the surrounding bushland to create a bush pathway to the chapel.
Cyril Young Memorial Chapel celebration
Date: Saturday, December 19
Time: 11.00am
Location: Buxton Woodland Reserve, Shoreham
Followed by lunch at the Shoreham Community Hall
RSVP and for more details contact the following: ShorehamBushChapel@gmail.com
P.O Box 307 Shoreham 3916
Ann Renkin 0428 226 650