Previously the site had been used as an out-station during the penal settlement of Brisbane (1827-1831), a Catholic mission to local Aborigines (1843-1847) and a Quarantine Station (1850-1864).

[1] The Benevolent Asylum may be likened to the English poorhouses which were established to house and feed those members of the community who were unable to provide for themselves.

[1] The Australian version of the workhouse was the Benevolent Asylum; however it was not a place of committal and was generally considered by the authorities and advocates to be of better social standing.

The hospital committee disagreed and objected to the proposal resulting in Herbert arranging for the benevolent asylum to be housed by the immigration department.

Following years of debate between the hospital and Queensland Government concerning the responsibility of the asylum, the Colonial Secretary assumed complete control of the facility in 1867 and established an administration which lasted until 1947.

[1] Dunwich became a repository for the male and female pauper population of Queensland including the old and infirm, the sick and disabled and the orphaned.

The asylum was now populated with able bodied people, and the administration developed a plan to create in-house work which would help support the facility.

The development quite obviously expanded the original quarantine station layout and was established on the high ground in a "u" shape around a lower lying open community space (now the public reserve) which fronted the beach.

[1] The development of North Stradbroke island as a popular holiday retreat and rich mineral sand mining resource has meant the barge landing facilities and surrounding area at Dunwich have undergone continual change since 1947.

The annual report to the Queensland Parliament for the Dunwich Benevolent Asylum for the year ending 1907 noted that, owing to the munificence of an anonymous donor, who takes a great personal interest in the poor, a small church is to be erected.

In an address to the Queensland Women's Historical Association, Bonty Dickson, a long time resident of the island claimed that when Lady Chelmsford visited the Benevolent Asylum she was shocked and amazed to find that the inmates had no place of worship and so gave the money to build a church at Dunwich.

Dods was an exceptionally talented and original architect, introducing to Queensland the "formal and philosophical ideas of both the British Arts and Crafts movement and Edwardian classicism."

Dods produced an impressive and high quality body of work in Queensland including hospital, commercial and ecclesiastical buildings as well as many residences.

[1] The first chaplain of the church was Reverend W Richner who was appointed in an honorary capacity, representing the City and Dunwich and St Helena Mission.

However the Stradbroke residents united to raise funds to carry out emergency repair works and save the church from demolition.

This tram system was also used to transport food in huge pannikins from the kitchen, located approximately 200 yards away, to the mess hall.

the earlier verandah enclosure was removed and new toilet facilities established in a separate building connected to the hall by way of a timber battened breezeway.

At the corner junctions, the boards are mitred and at the gable ends the weatherboards are slightly separated to create a vent to the roof space.

The paired entry doors to the church have an arched head and are timber framed and clad with tongue and groove boards.

[1] Internally the church is a single volume space with a small vestry formed in the southern corner by low height partitions.

A painting by the late aboriginal poet and local Stradbroke resident Oodgeroo Noonuccal ( or Kath Walker) hangs on the southern wall near the altar.

The site is generally an open grassed area with a small number of gum trees to the north east side of the building.

[1] The hall is a substantial low set stretcher bond brick structure which is rectilinear in plan with a simple corrugated iron hip roof.

Located on the south eastern end of the building is the boiler room extension which is constructed of brick to match the existing structure and has a simple skillion roof.

Six timber casement window suites with high level pivot fan lights punctuate the north eastern and south western elevations of the building.

Ventilation to the sub floor area and roof space is via metal and clay wall grilles and timber battened eaves soffits.

[1] St Mark's Anglican Church and Dunwich Public Hall was listed on the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 July 2000 having satisfied the following criteria.

St Mark's Anglican Church and the Dunwich Public Hall are important in demonstrating the evolution of Queenslands history, being surviving buildings of the former Benevolent Asylum.

The establishment and administration of the Benevolent Asylum illustrates the social policies adopted by the Queensland Government of the late Nineteenth and first early part of the Twentieth century to deal with those elderly, sick or disabled members of society who were unable to care for themselves.

St Mark's Anglican Church exhibits outstanding architectural quality and has significance as a surviving intact example of the ecclesiastical work of important Queensland architect Robert S.(Robin) Dods.