Swedes of Melbourne fear church at historic Toorak House could close

5 days ago 4

Scandinavians in Melbourne are in uproar over the possible sale of the heritage-listed Swedish Church in Toorak against the will of local congregants.

The Swedish Church Abroad has owned Toorak House on St Georges Road since 1956, but the Lutheran denomination’s leadership in Sweden decided three years ago to sell properties overseas as membership declined.

Swedish Church members Kjell Andersson, Marie Kudnig, Berit Öström and Debbie Sayers outside Toorak House on Thursday.

Swedish Church Australia was recently told that church governors in Sweden now planned to discuss Toorak House’s future at a meeting in November.

But local churchgoers argue their current Melbourne home is irreplaceable and are rallying to save it, starting with an online petition that has garnered more than 2300 signatures since last week.

Kjell Andersson, 83, arrived in Australia as a teenaged sailor in 1959 and quickly found a Scandinavian home away from home at Toorak House, which was also Victoria’s first Government House in the 1850s.

“It would be a very devastating situation to not have this centre here any more,” he says. “It has been an extension of our loungeroom at home.”

Kjell Andersson, Marie Kudnig, Berit Öström and Debbie Sayers in Toorak House.

Toorak House is open to the public and has about 60,000 annual visits as people flock to popular church events such as the Christmas market. A cafe and shop with Scandinavian gifts is open five days a week. Norwegian and Danish celebrations are also held at the mansion, which the suburb of Toorak is named after.

Debbie Sayers, a church council member, fears a sale meant a private buyer or developer would take control, locking out Melburnians from one of the oldest and most significant mansions in Victoria’s history.

“Nobody in Australia wants to sell it,” she says.

“It’s the tyranny of distance. The value of this place looks great on a spreadsheet. But a sale would mean a lot less church and a lot less community.”

The Swedish Church in Toorak is open to the public and includes a small cafe.

The Church of Sweden has been grappling with a decline in members since it ceased to be the Swedish state religion in 2000, leading to reduced revenue and increased financial pressures.

Rickard Jönsson, director of the Church of Sweden Abroad, said regulatory difficulties and maintenance costs had led to the decision to decrease international property ownership, but denied that revenue from a possible Toorak House sale would be used to prop up the church in Sweden.

He said if a sale proceeded, the profits would be reinvested in the church abroad, and committed to finding the Melbourne congregation a better-suited setting.

“This church has been an important gathering place, and we know many Melburnians have strong connections to it,” Jönsson told The Age via email.

Toorak House on St Georges Road has become a key hub for the Scandinavian community in Melbourne.

“At the same time, we need to balance our mission with the realities of sustainability. The Toorak property, while beautiful and historically significant, has become too large and too costly for our current congregation to maintain.

“The financial burden of upkeep diverts resources away from the core purpose of our church: serving people and building community.”

But churchgoers in Melbourne disagree with the suggestion that Toorak House has become unsustainable.

While acknowledging the upkeep of a historic building can be costly, they point to regular church events and the cafe business as evidence the church can sustain itself.

Toorak House was reportedly the finest house in the colony when finished in the early 1850s.

Swedish Church Australia’s last financial statement showed it recorded a small $12,345 net surplus in 2024, though this was down on the year prior as grant money from Sweden fell.

Mats Marklund, chairman of Swedish Church Australia, said a sale had been “on the cards for a while” as other international Swede parishes with dwindling congregations had closed.

But he argued the community in Melbourne was different and remained popular.

“We may get a decision we won’t like,” Marklund said. “But we’ve got a lot of fighting spirit and want to show the importance and strength of the church here in Melbourne.”

The Swedish Church also has a small shop of Scandinavian treats for the diaspora in Melbourne.

Toorak ward councillor Tom Humphries said many locals outside the church community enjoyed Toorak House as much as its congregants.

Heritage Victoria’s statement of significance reports the Victorian Italianate mansion was the finest in the colony when built around 1851. Governor Charles Hotham lived in it before the current Government House in King’s Domain was completed.

“It’s quite dear to a lot of people’s hearts,” Humphries said. “I suspect there’ll be many people watching this with bated breath.”

Marklund said if any sale were to happen, it still would be a long way off and he was confident another home could be found if it proceeded.

Governors who once resided at Toorak House adorn its walls, which may no longer be publicly accessible if the Swedish Church sells it to a private buyer.

Jönsson, who is based at the Church of Sweden headquarters in Uppsala, added: “No decision has been made yet, and it is a question for the board of governors.”

But Marie Kudnig, another Swedish expat who has visited Toorak House since the 1990s, feared any move could permanently harm the Scandinavian community in Melbourne.