[1] Alberto Dies Soares received a sound education at Stoke, Newington, Mercantile & London University schools.
Following three years of study he became an ordained Minister of the Church of England and was appointed to Collector as Assistant to the Rev.
[1] In 1857 Soares married Catherine Lane of Orton Park, Bathurst and on 18 May of that year he was transferred to Queanbeyan as the Parish Priest.
It had been opened for worship on Christmas Day 1844 on the same site where Christ Church now stands; it was not consecrated however, until the Bishop of Australia, Bishop William Broughton, officiated at the ceremony on 8 March 1845, just four days before he consecrated the Church of St John the Baptist, Canberra.
[1] A report in the Goulburn Herald of 14 September 1859, stated that the old Church of England, Queanbeyan, had been razed to the ground and that a new building was rapidly being erected.
During the month of the opening, tiers of stepping stones, each weighing from 10 to 15 cwt, were laid across the river from the foot of Rutledge Street to where the Severne Flour Mill once stood, thus giving access to residents of Dodsworth and Irish Town to Christ Church School which had been built in 1843.
Soares met the cost of these stepping stones which were obtained from a source some three miles away and laid by Mr M O'Keefe.
[1] Soares' other architectural achievement following his arrival in Queanbeyan was the beautiful Victorian Ecclesiastical Gothic of St Philip's at Bungendore; its foundation stone was laid in 1864.
Gualter Soares, who was a catechist and a schoolmaster at the Christ Church schoolhouse; St Paul's foundation stone was laid on 12 December 1867.
Soares also re-designed the Queanbeyan Rectory and in 1865 was responsible for the brick addition to the old stone schoolhouse which still stands.
[1] To enable guidance for the erection of a more sympathetically designed hall and control over the restoration of the school houses and stables, an Interim Conservation Order was made over the property on 24 November 1978.
The Hall is important for its contribution to historic streetscapes and the application of technical details such as cement render and locally (Canberra) made bricks.
[5][1] Christ Church Anglican was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.
[5][1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.
The Hall is important for its contribution to historic streetscapes and the application of technical details such as cement render and locally (Canberra) made bricks.
[5][1] This Wikipedia article was originally based on Christ Church Anglican Group, entry number 00043 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 1 June 2018.