The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Australia - First Missionaries, Convert, and Congregation

First Missionaries, Convert, and Congregation

The LDS Church was introduced into Australia when William James Barratt, emigrated from England to Adelaide in November 1840. He had been ordained an elder by George A. Smith, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who instructed him to share the gospel whenever he could. Barratt, whose descendants still live in the Adelaide area, eventually drifted away from the church, but not until after he had baptized, probably the first Australian convert, Robert Beauchamp. Beauchamp later became president of the Australian mission. Andrew and Elizabeth Anderson, also British converts, immigrated to Wellington, near Dubbo, New South Wales, with their three children in 1841. Anderson baptized several converts and in 1844 organized the first Australian branch of the Church, in Wellington.

Official LDS missionary work did not begin in Australia until John Murdock and Charles W. Wandell arrived in Sydney from Utah on 30 October 1851.

The first church building was constructed in Brisbane in 1904 and the country’s first temple, located in Sydney, was completed in 1984.