By Emily-Rose Toohey
Yangan’s historic Settlers Church, built and consecrated in 1905, is serving a new purpose in 2022 after Warwick local Don Drane transformed the location into a popular Airbnb.
Don purchased the church two years ago after a chance encounter inspired him to make the decision and as a result, everything started happening quickly over the following two months.
“I was living in Warwick working for a company and was travelling around the Yangan area for work,” he said.
“One day, I was driving back to Brisbane and saw that a real estate agent was banging in the ‘for sale’ sign outside the church.
“I did a U-Turn and walked in and as soon as I walked through the front door I thought, ‘oh yeah this is perfect’ – it had a good feel to it.”
After employing the talent of Ian Darnell, a local engineer who drew up Don’s vision, work began on the renovating process.
“It’s a pretty special job we’ve done and how we’ve done it,” he said.
“I had a local guy who did a lot of the painting – we wanted to keep it real and authentic.”
As a result, Don undertook a lot of research to learn about the church, which was deconsecrated in 2010.
“Before we bought it, it was just sitting here, gradually getting run down,” he said.
“All the windows have been maintained and we found the sign.”
And the team’s hard work paid off, as Building Design Queensland awarded the project winner of the 2022 South West Regional Design Awards Heritage Building Design category.
“Next month, we’re going down to the Gold Coast for the State Awards dinner – we’re hoping to get a gong,” Don said.
However, the competition will be stiff as all the regional winners in their category will be competing to be the best in Queensland, but they’ve already made it this far.
“Ian had the idea and submitted it for awards consideration and he said, ‘we’ll see how it goes’ – we were confident but knew nothing for sure,” Don said.
Now, the completed church has housed 10 separate stays through Airbnb since April, normally a popular couples retreat overlooking the picturesque Yangan scenery.
“We’ve been pretty busy, and people absolutely love it,” Don said.
However, Don has grand plans for the Settlers Church and when he retires, is hoping to live there.
“I’ve done it up with the purpose of retiring here but in the meantime, we’re actually able to get some revenue from it – a lot of money has gone into the project,” he said.
The location also holds some special memories for Don, as he and his wife Gail were married in the church on June 25 of this year.
“It was epic – such a good day,” Don said of the day.
Settlers Church is located at 46 King Street, Yangan, overlooking the town itself.
