Isis Masonic Lodge

Isis Masonic Lodge is a heritage-listed masonic temple at 18 Macrossan Street, Childers, Bundaberg Region, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by F H Faircloth and built from 1897 to 1909. It is also known as Corinthian Lodge. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 April 2000.HistoryThe Isis Masonic Lodge in Childers is a two storey timber building constructed in two stages, the first in 1897 and the second in 1909, to the design of Bundaberg architect Frederick Herbert Faircloth. Located in Macrossan Street, a block behind the main street of Childers, the building survived a major fire in the town in 1902 and remains as one of the oldest buildings in the town.In the 1870s timber cutters were the first European settlers to come to the area surrounding Childers, attracted by large quantities of hoop pine, red cedar and other timbers. The town was established during the 1880s after the land in the nearby area was surveyed into 50 acre farm blocks in 1882. There was no official town survey and Childers developed following the private subdivision of portions 870 and 871, at the railhead of the 1887 Isis railway line from Isis Junction. On 31 December 1886, the Isis Divisional Board was proclaimed and the extension of the railway to Childers in 1887 provided further impetus for the development of the town.The Freemasonry movement was an integral part of community life in the 19th century and the establishment of a Lodge was a local event representing progress and consolidation of the community. The first meeting of Freemasons in the Childers district took place in 1894 and was called by Constable Richard Henderson and Thomas Gaydon, a local chemist. Early members came from all three constitutions of the time, the English, Scottish and Irish and a vote was taken at a second meeting in January 1895 which resolved to establish a Lodge under the English constitution. This was achieved in April of the same year with the inauguration of the Corinthian Lodge No. 2573 EC. There were 14 founding members and the Master was Worshipful Brother Robert Henry Blisset who had been master of the Star of the East Lodge in Maryborough.