The chapel that JAM BUILT

A $4000 CHURCH BECAME A FAMILY LEGACY

- By Megan Rowe

When Jess Bickerstaff casually told her parents she'd bought a church, their jaws hit the floor. But it wasn't just any church. It was a roofless, windowless relic that hadn't heard a sermon since 1968 and was sitting in the tiny town of Tarome, in Queensland's Scenic Rim region.

For Jess' mum and dad, Helen and Terry Roebig, though, that surprise announcement marked the beginning of a four-year labour of love on their Scenic Rim farm.

"My parents already had a renovated old schoolhouse from Tarome on their farm, which they use as a guesthouse," Jess, 41, tells New Idea. "So, when I saw the church from the same community was on sale on Facebook Marketplace for $4000, I bought it sight unseen. Now the two buildings can grow old together on the hill."