The first settlers in Port Adelaide in 1836 landed at the mouth of a man made in-let which terminated at the junction of Webb Street and Causeway Road. At that time ships couldn't reach the sandhills there, and people had to be carried, their goods floated ashore. Near this very temporary disembarkment point was a roughly hewn hall. This was used for worship by Anglicans and other Protestant churches.

The Church members launched a subscription list to acquire a building. £1,000 was raised (or promised) and the new church rose very quickly.

Captain Sturt drove the first pile for the building. The wooden church was erected with second hand timber and with calico for windows. It opened for worship on 15th May 1841 by the then Colonial Chaplain Charles Beaumont Howard. The tide had risen while the first worshippers were inside and they all had to be rowed away. The reason for the piles was evident.

This structure stood for 10 years but it was becoming very unsound as dust and rubbish blew through the gaps in the wooden walls. Finally,the priest, Father Edward Bayfield, refused to conduct any more services in the building. It collapsed during a storm in 1851. The scrap timber was quickly gleaned by local residents.

A new stone church was erected hastily in 1852, in front of the old one. It too was often flooded from the river. A barge was moored in front of the church to carry away worshippers in an emergency. The new church looked much better, and it had a bell tower! The bell came from an impounded French whaler, moored in the river as a light ship. The Ville De Bordeaux's bell, called residents to church for many years.

By the turn of the century this second building of St Paul's was in need of repair, and in 1905 Samuel Tyzack offered a sum of £4,000 to build a new church, to replace the then St Paul's. Samuel Tyzack was the son of Mr William Tyzack, a shipwright who resided in Exeter. He had been baptised in the second St Paul's Church and had in later years returned to live in England to claim an inheritance.

On 23rd September 1904 tenders were invited for the erection of the new church using the design of the architectural firm English and Soward. Walter Charles Torode won the tender to build the new church. He also got the contract for pulling down and removing the old church structure, which he did for £96.



The stained glass windows which had been especially shipped from England, and may still be seen in the church today, were also donated by Samuel Tyzack. The church was finally completed and opened on "All Saints Day", 1 November 1905. On 13th May 1905, Mrs Anne McFarlane, daughter of the late William Tyzack, finally laid the foundation stone of the new church.