The day the Red Shield came to the Red Centre
The day the Red Shield came to the Red Centre
Alice Springs Corps members stand in front of the Red Shield Hostel after its dedication in 1970. Captain Wilga Morris is pictured back left, in red.
Since 1965, The Salvation Army has been a haven for the Alice Springs community. Its beginnings were small, yet just as the mighty Todd River runs once a year through the Northern Territory town, early officers witnessed the floodgates of heaven overflow and God move mightily in the region.
Captain Hilton Morris signs a guest into the Alice Springs Red Shield Hostel, built five years after the corps started.
From 1930, Salvationists from Quorn in South Australia would visit the Alice Springs community annually, and a Red Shield Ministries base was set up there to support the Defence Forces in World War Two.
But it was Captain Hilton Morris who first heard about the need for a more permanent expression of The Salvation Army in the Red Centre. Appointed to Quorn with his wife, Captain Wilga Morris, and their four children, Hilton would travel across the area regularly as a pilot in the early 1960s. And according to an article in the War Cry in 1972, enthusiasm for the Army’s work was high: “‘The Army is needed here’ people exclaimed wherever [Hilton] went. So enthusiastic was his report on return to the base that the divisional commander also visited the town and returned just as enthusiastically. Twelve months later, the Uniting Church at Alice Springs invited the Army into fellowship, and after another evaluator visit by the succeeding divisional commander, a quarters was purchased on the east side of town.”
Small beginnings
The Salvation Army opened in Alice Springs on 11 July 1965 with – what else, an open-air meeting! Taking place in The Gap area of town, Salvationists swapped their traditional navy uniform for white cotton. Walking the streets on Sunday was the first sign of a community and an Army growing together.
The Salvation Army – made primarily of the six Morrises in the first few weeks, began with an open-air meeting in The Gap part of town. As the Army grew, so did their Alice Springs YP band, pictured here between 1967-70!
The following week, The Salvation Army in Alice Springs was officially endorsed by Chief Secretary Colonel Goddard in the Uniting Church, whose members allowed the Salvos to conduct Sunday night services in their youth hall. Sixteen people comprised the Army in that first service, and it’s worth noting that six had the surname Morris!
In the early days, corps officers struggled to engage locals in spiritual matters. An entry in the corps history book dated January 1965 states: “Good rains fell and the river ran several times, the same blessing seems far away in the spiritual realm. On three occasions, only one other at the meetings besides ourselves. People seem very happy with our social work, but how can we get them to come to our indoor meetings? When the spirit strives with them, we must be ready.”
The town of 6000 would boom over the next decade, doubling its population, and the Army was ready to serve.
The Army expands
Owning a hall wasn’t yet a necessity due to the generosity of the Uniting Church, which provided ample room for a congregation that grew to 40.
Salvationists Gloria and Danny Colson in front of the new Red Shield Hostel. Danny was Corps Sergeant Major at Alice Springs when this was taken in 1970.
And their ministry expanded to visiting the elderly and those in prison. Soon all streams of the corps began to develop. The Home League grew from five people to 40 and had no less than 34 children in Sunday School.
Initially, the Army began doing Young People’s work in a railway cottage – somewhat an obvious starting point given the age of the Morris children. But when the group of young adults blossomed to 50, they moved to the recently purchased quarters at 58 Giles Street.
Two years later, the Army retained this property, and the Morrises moved to quarters on 88 Hartley Street. This became the first iteration of the unofficial Red Shield Hostel – a place for transient men to stay for a period. But with the need so great, they purchased a new property across from the hospital. And the word ‘new’ is figurative. In reality, the 200 x 90ft block of land would need plenty of renovations and clearing to serve the community. But Hilton was on it! Ever the handyman, he renovated the house, using the front and side verandahs to create two more bedrooms and an office.
The back verandah would become the toilet and bathroom area.. Hilton subcontracted himself to help build the hostel, and it was opened in June 1970, with all but one of its 17 beds filled on the first night. Ministry was non-stop, and when Hilton was called away to assist with flood relief in 1971, Wilga oversaw everything.
Captain Hilton Morris oversaw the building of the Red Shield Hostel behind the quarters. It was completed in June 1970.
A hall of their own
By the time the Morrises departed for Darwin in January 1972, the Army in Alice Springs had grown exponentially. Captains Laurie and Rohna Venables took over the ministry, including constructing the new hall opposite the quarters. Officially opened on 13 May 1972, a feature in the War Cry boasted about the day that saw “five salvations and two recommitments, 22 junior soldier enrolments, and 100 children in attendance at Sunday School”.
“Together as a community in Alice Springs, let us press on to accept the responsibility of fulfilling the total needs of man,” Laurie wrote to correspond with the dedication. “Christ, our example, was concerned for ‘body, mind and soul’.”
And this continues to be the Army’s mission in Alice Spring to this day.
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