The first Europeans to make a living from the Jamberoo area were the cedar getters in the early 1800s.

Following them came the early settlers in the early 1820s.

There were no parishes in those days and Anglican ministry was handled by the regional chaplains.

In 1841 a landholder named Michael Hyam laid out a private village on his land on the southern side of what was then the Main South Coast Road, now Allowrie St.

Included in the layout were lots given for churches.

The former Presbyterian church building and the Uniting church building stand on the lots given back then.

The Anglican lot had a school house built on it which was licensed on 31 March 1842 by Bishop Broughton, Bishop of Australia.

This weatherboard school house was furnished with a font, communion table, chalice and paten.

A burial ground was laid out on the property and many pioneers of the district are buried there.

This cemetery is still accessible, despite the rest of the lot being sold a number of years ago.

No one has been buried there since 1927.

From 1850 until 1857 Jamberoo was the centre of the Parish of Kiama.

Back then Kiama Parish ran from Lake Illawarra, across the Shoalhaven River to Sussex Haven.

The Parish of Jamberoo was proclaimed in 1857 and originally encompassed the areas of Terry’s Meadows (now Albion Park), Oak Flats, Warilla, Lake South and Shellharbour.

The first separation occured about 1867 when Albion Park became a separate parish.

Later, Oak Flats was handed to Albion Park (and it itself has been a separate parish since the early 1970s).

Jamberoo Parish has, at times, had a turbulent history as many Reformed Protestant church members railed against the more Anglo-Catholic clergy sometimes assigned to the parish.

The church building itself is a Blackett design, and is thoroughly Protestant in its design.

However, over the years some modifications have been made to make it more ‘churchy’.

Following the creation of the parish of Shellharbour in 1962, and the loss of St Paul’s Shellharbour in the process, Jamberoo has been a provisional parish.

From 1962 until 1988 it was under the oversight of the rector of Kiama with a curate from Kiama resident in the provisional parish and from 1988 until 2006 it has been under a part-time curate-in-charge (the term for a rector in a provisional parish).

From July 2006 we were under a full-time curate-in-charge, the first time in 44 years that this church enjoyed a full-time resident ministry.

Unfortunately, full-time ministry proved unsustainable and, by 2011, the church was again under a part-time curate-in-charge.

After a time of uncertainty, on 1st February 2015, Bishop Peter Hayward announced a New Partnership Initiative whereby Jamberoo would partner with the Oak Flats Parish and its Rector, the Rev. Jodie McNeill, would become Acting Rector of Jamberoo and reside in the parish.

This arrangement offered a permanence of leadership and the resources of a larger church to assist in the development of ministry in Jamberoo.

In 2019, Jodie McNeill became the full-time rector of the parish, and since then we have continued to grow to weekly attendance approaching a hundred people across our two services.

Since 1857 the Parish of Jamberoo has proclaimed the gospel of the risen Jesus throughout the district.

For most of that time ministry has been based at the Church of the Resurrection in Jamberoo itself.

At the time of writing, this church has existed for 162 years as a parish, 176 years as a church, and 152 years in our present building and site.