The place named Wallerawang derives from the language of the Wiradjuri Aboriginal people who occupied the area before white settlement.

[1] A road was surveyed from Hartley to Mudgee in 1823, eleven years after the first successful white crossing of the Blue Mountains.

He is remembered as having good dealings with his convict workers and also a remarkable relationship with the local Wywandy Aboriginal people.

[1][4] Their daughter Georgina Walker-Barton married Edwin Barton, who was the surveyor / engineer of the Zig Zag railway.

[4] It was to be used as the Wallerawang Estate Chapel and a "union" or public dual-denomination church: by both the Presbyterian and Anglican denominations in memory of James Walker, his wife Robina and Georgina's late husband Edwin Barton.

She mainly financed the construction and established a small Gothic Revival style brick school nearby, which is still standing.

The carving on the Western Australian karri pews was designed to represent the Scottish heritage of the Walker / Barton family.

George senior had been encouraged to migrate to New South Wales by Governor Macquarie who wished him to assist with government building works.

He worked on stone railway bridges at The Great Zig Zag and Marrangaroo and married Marion Wiles, daughter of one of the construction foremen.

After the failure of the deep lead gold boom of the 1870s George returned to the Lithgow valley and established a construction business with Thomas Crowe.

He also built Cooerwull Academy (now De La Salle College, Littleton) for Brown, and the Church of St. John the Evangelist at Wallerawang.

[1][4] Knowing Blacket's great success since 1843 in both Sydney and Australia for harmonising religious desires for austerity/simplicity with High Anglican richness, detail and iconography, Georgina ensured a magnificent opening ceremony in 1881, officiated by various dual denominational clerics.

Dr. Robert Steele, MA, Minister of St. Stephens Presbyterian Church, Phillip Street, Sydney.

[1][4] Sometime during 2001 the church's insurance company ordered the property to be locked and fenced after an engineer's report revealed serious cracking in the bell tower that could be dangerous to people within the grounds.

Suggestions ranging from dismantling and rebuilding the church in Canberra to bulldozing it completely were met with vigorous opposition from the Presbyterian Bowenfels parish.

Their efforts were supported by the establishment of the Friends of St. John's Church, to save this important community asset.

To mark the occasion of the official re-opening of St John the Evangelist Church a Thanksgiving Service was held on 14 May 2006.

The building is symmetrical with rectangular body, of cruciform plan with square high bell tower in three lifts (no turret), smaller chancel and transepts.

The tower is even topped with battlements and pinnacles of a real "Carpenters" Gothic type and has interesting animal face gargoyles.

It is associated with the Lithgow pioneering family of James Walker and Edwin Barton, who was the surveyor of rail routes to western New South Wales.

[7][1] St John the Evangelist Church was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 10 September 2004 having satisfied the following criteria.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

Materials and workmanship used throughout the church are of high quality including many stained glass windows, detailed carving to the sandstone and timberwork.

St John the Evangelist Church has been the focus of Presbyterian and Anglican activities in the Wallerawang area for over 100 years.

The church contains a number of memorials commemorating local people and is valued by the community as a place of religious significance.

[1] The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales.

[1] This Wikipedia article was originally based on St. John the Evangelist Church, entry number 01702 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 2 June 2018.