Saint Alphonsus’ Catholic Church in Millicent has recently been confirmed on the South Australian Heritage Register.

Built in 1965/66, it was provisionally listed in 2022 and then confirmed at the latest meeting of the SA Heritage Council.

The council had considered just one public submission and it came from the Millicent Catholic Parish Council.

Parishioners endorsed the heritage listing of the church but not the adjacent post-war presbytery.

St Alphonsus is just the second such structure in the Millicent township to be heritage-listed with the other being the former stables at the Millicent police station.

According to Heritage SA, the church is an outstanding, critically-recognised example of late twentieth-century ecclesiastical Modern Movement architecture in South Australia.

“St Alphonsus’ Church is a pivotal example of a post-war church, as it was the first South Australian church to respond directly to the Instruction on the Liturgy, a key document arising from the Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican,” stated the Heritage SA submission.

“The George Street church is one of the largest churches built in regional South Australia after the Second World War.

“This reflects the rapid growth and prosperity of the town of Millicent as it emerged as a regional service centre for forestry and nearby associated industries during the post-war boom.

“Many were migrants, and those who attended Mass at St Alphonsus’ Church swelled the size of the Catholic congregation, leading directly to the construction of the new church in 1965-1966.”