It’s not every day your daughter casually drops, “I bought a church”, into a conversation.<\/p>\n
Especially when the church has no roof, no windows, and hasn’t heard a sermon since 1968.<\/p>\n
But that revelation was the moment life took an almighty turn for Helen and Terry Roebig of South East Queensland’s Scenic Rim.<\/p>\n
Four years, one very muddy midnight move, and hundreds of jars of homemade rosella jam later, the century-old timber chapel rescued by the Roebigs’ daughter, Jess, now sits proudly beside its renovated old schoolhouse.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The renovated church and schoolhouse now sit side by side on the hill. (Supplied: Helen Roebig)<\/p>\n
It’s a sweet reunion more than 100 years in the making.<\/p>\n
“It’s like the two buildings found each other again,” Helen said. “Now they can grow old together on the hill.”An old school and a forgotten church<\/p>\n
The Roebigs, along with their daughter Jess Bickerstaff, run the Vanbery Cottage Host Farm near Mount Alford, just outside Boonah.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The old Tarome schoolhouse has been converted into a guest cottage on the property. (Supplied: Jess Bickerstaff)<\/p>\n
The guest cottage \u2014 the former Tarome schoolhouse \u2014 had already been moved to its current site and renovated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So when Jess spotted the old Tarome church for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $4,000, and announced that she’d bought it, the Roebigs jumped at the chance to bring it home and install it beside the old school building, despite not having seen it in person.<\/p>\n
“They belonged together, Helen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The school and the church were from the same little rural community, so it just felt right.”<\/p>\n
After buying the old church, Jess Bickerstaff then had the task of relocating it to its present location at Mt Alford. (Supplied: Helen Roebig\/ABC News: Chris Kimball)<\/p>\n
The chapel that jam built<\/p>\n
Restoring a derelict church isn’t cheap, especially one that has spent the past 50 years as a hay shed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, Helen and Jess decided to raise funds with what they had \u2014 a patch of rosella bushes and a family tradition of jam-making.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We planted six bushes and made a few jars,” Helen said.<\/p>\n
They took them to markets and local shops, and sold them through a bush foods website as demand grew.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Helen Roebig says making jam from rosella flowers is a family tradition. (ABC News: Chris Kimball)<\/p>\n
“Now we’ve got 160 bushes, and everything we earned went into the chapel,” Helen said.<\/p>\n
“We treated ourselves to a coffee at the market once. That was it.”<\/p>\n
The Roebigs built their small business from the ground up: hand-picking the rosella buds, de-seeding them, and cooking every batch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jess and Daniel Bickerstaff have worked on the church renovation for years. (ABC News: Chris Kimball)<\/p>\n
The profits covered timber, trades, windows, fittings and more.<\/p>\n
“Between us, we’ve preserved jams, fruit, and now churches,” Helen said.<\/p>\n
So, what exactly is a rosella?<\/p>\n
Rosellas are a bright red hibiscus flower with a tart, fruity pod used to make everything from jam to cordial and tea.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Popular in Queensland backyards for generations, they’re rich in vitamin C and antioxidants.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rosella jam used to be a staple in many homes back in the day.\u00a0 (ABC News: Chris Kimball)<\/p>\n
Helen remembers rosellas being used for bartering on the family farm in Mulgowie, in the Lockyer Valley, where she grew up.<\/p>\n
“Everyone had them,” she said. “My sisters would peel them and make jam. I was the youngest, so I got out of most of the work.”<\/p>\n
Jess picked up the tradition years later while living in England, where she loved to forage for berries and experiment with making preserves.<\/p>\n
Helen said that so far this season, they had picked more than 400 kilograms of rosellas, which they have turned into jam, syrup, paste, topping, dried flowers and tea.<\/p>\n
Even the copper de-seeder tool Terry designed as the rosella business took off is now sold at local markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘That history would have been lost’<\/p>\n
The church hadn’t had a roof since a storm tore it off in the late 60s. Rebuilding it on a windswept hill was no small job, but the Roebigs found help in local builder Shane Goulding.<\/p>\n
“When he walked inside and said it was always his dream to restore a chapel, I knew we’d found the right person,” Helen said.<\/p>\n
The church before and after the renovations. (Supplied: Helen Roebig)<\/p>\n
Nothing in the old building was square, so Terry got to work restoring doors and windows, many of which were salvaged from knockdowns and timber recycling outlets.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“When the girls bought the church, I thought, not again,” he said. “We’d already restored a house in Brisbane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I figured my renovation days were behind me.”<\/p>\n
Slowly, piece by piece, the chapel came back to life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It’s taken four years and hundreds of jars of jam to complete the chapel renovations. (Supplied: Jess Bickerstaff)<\/p>\n
“Had it not come here, that history would’ve been lost,” Terry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It might’ve ended up in Brisbane, but it belonged here.”<\/p>\n
Love story blossoms<\/p>\n
Jess had only been dating her then-boyfriend Dan for two weeks when she told him she’d bought a church.<\/p>\n
“It didn’t scare him off,” Helen said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“A year later, they were engaged, and the next April they got married in it.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Even though the church was still a work in progress, Jess and Dan were married in it.\u00a0 (Supplied: Jess Bickerstaff)<\/p>\n
At the time, the building still had no roof. The floor was stained. Guests sat on hay bales.<\/p>\n
“But we had 90 people standing inside,” Helen said.<\/p>\n
“And why not, when you’ve got your own church?”A sweet success<\/p>\n
The restored chapel now welcomes visitors from across the country and overseas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some come for the views, others for a quiet getaway. A few help pick rosellas or just chat over a cuppa.<\/p>\n