Dedication of the Melbourne Australia Temple
Edna Ord of Melbourne, Australia, served as the secretary to Elder Bruce R. McConkie when he served as a mission president in Melbourne from 1961-1964. During her service with Elder McConkie, he told her, “I promise you, Edna, you will have a temple in Melbourne.”
After the announcement on Oct. 30, 1998, of a temple to be built in Melbourne, Ord told Church News, “Everybody’s excited. When I heard the announcement, I said, ‘Oh, Elder McConkie, you were right.’”
The Melbourne Australia Temple was dedicated June 16, 2000, by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley. Murray Lobley, president of the Pakenham Stake in Victoria, Australia, told Church News at the dedication that “the lives of tens of thousands within the Church and without will continue to be touched by the temple — here in Melbourne and beyond.”
The Melbourne temple was one of four temples dedicated in one overseas tour by President Hinckley — a first in history — and one of two temples in Australia dedicated within two days, with the Adelaide Australia Temple having been dedicated the day prior, on June 15.
The new temples dramatically cut the travel distance for members to receive ordinances. The closest temple to Melbourne before was the Sydney Australia Temple, a distance of about 300 miles. At the time of the Melbourne and Adelaide temple dedications, two other temples in Brisbane and Perth were in planning stages or under construction.
The four new or upcoming temples marked the rapid growth of the Church in the country, with membership increasing from around 5,000 in 1950 to around 100,000 by the Melbourne dedication. The Church of Jesus Christ was the fastest-growing Christian faith in the country, according to the most recent national census at the time the temple opened.
Parts of the initial temple district had originally been settled by British convicts. Making a comparison to these early convicts, Melbourne temple President Keith O’Grady remarked in his dedicatory address that “many of our ancestors are also in chains — spiritual chains. An essential part in their progression is the temple work which we will do for them here in this beautiful new house of the Lord.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “It is now vested with a peculiar and wonderful sanctity. Henceforth it will be open only to those who are properly recommended as worthy to enter its portals. As they come here, we pray that Thou wilt endow them with special blessings, with sacred covenants, with wondrous promises that only Thou canst give. May they know that they walk through sacred halls. May they always act reverently as Thy guests. May they leave rejoicing, standing taller as sons and daughters of God, with strengthened resolve to walk in Thy paths.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Melbourne Australia Temple here.
Timeline of the Melbourne Australia Temple
A temple for Melbourne was announced via letters to priesthood leaders in the temple district on Oct. 30, 1998. The groundbreaking ceremony for the temple was held March 20, 1999.
Visitors toured the completed house of the Lord from June 2-10, 2000. The Melbourne Australia Temple was dedicated by Church President Gordon B. Hinckley on June 16, 2000.
Architecture and Design of the Melbourne Australia Temple
The 10,700-square-foot Melbourne Australia Temple was built on 5.98 acres of land, and snow white granite makes up the temple exterior. Grass fields, trees, shrubbery and walkways fill the temple grounds.
The interior of the temple features two instruction rooms and two sealing rooms. Both the Melbourne temple and the Adelaide Australia Temple, which were dedicated a day apart and built during the same time, have the same square footage, number of instruction and sealing rooms, and exterior finishes.