The former Kalangadoo Catholic Church has sold at auction for $195,000.


The auction was attended by a gathering of 45 and three bidders participated.


The new owners are a young couple.


The 120-year-old stone structure had been emptied of all its furnishings except its marble altar and one pew.


The altar had been the gift of the Sutton family, of Dismal Swamp.


A capacity congregation had attended the final Mass at Saint’s Joseph’s Church last August.


Among the 100 worshippers were six priests, Penola-based Josephite nun Sister Loreto O’Connor and Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven.


Regular services had not been held at the church for several years and there were rising maintenance costs.


The sole church remaining at Kalangadoo is now St Alban’s Anglican Church which was erected in the early 1960s.


Over the past 40 years or so, Catholic churches have also been closed at Tantanoola, Glencoe, Lucindale, Nangwarry, Greenways and Kongorong.


This pattern of closure has been mirrored by other mainstream churches.