Methodist Church of Australasia

It did missionary work in Australia through two organisations: the Methodist Overseas Mission (founded 1916), which focused mainly on Aboriginal Australians, and the Methodist Inland Mission (founded 1926), which served settler communities in remote parts of Australia.

Around this time, MOM was encouraging their senior staff to study anthropology under A. P. Elkin at Sydney University, to learn more about Aboriginal Australian culture, in particular the Yolngu people who lived in Arnhem Land.

The residents were free to come and go as they wished and the interaction was on the whole positive in those early days, with a lack of dogmatism by the missionaries, and the Yolngu people accommodating Christianity within a version of their own beliefs.

[6] Mitchell Library in Sydney holds records of the Methodist Overseas Mission, including more than 300 boxes of manuscripts; photographs; slides; negatives; and 159 reels of film.

These films provide insight into the Stolen Generations brought about by the policies of cultural assimilation pursued by the government of the day.

[8] Its first ministers were appointed in regional Queensland, including the towns of Boulia, Cloncurry, and Normanton.

[13] In July 1929, the Methodist Hall was transported from the town of Duchess to Mount Isa, and was the first church building.

[15] After the war it became hostel accommodation for children from remote areas of Central Australia so that they could attend school.