[2] On 5 August 1839 the foundation stone for the original church was laid, and Governor John Hutt opened it fifteen months later, on 29 November 1840.

It was built on land owned by the Church Mission Society and in memory of Lucy Yule, the wife of Magistrate T. N. Yule who died in 1838 and was the first person buried on the site.

The church was built with an octagonal layout and could hold about 100 people.

[3] It was designed by Richard Roach Jewell and consecrated by Bishop Matthew Hale on 10 March 1869.

The adjoining graveyard includes graves of many notable European settlers of the Swan River Colony from 1838.