Monday, January 21, 2013

Two New Stakes in Australia

The Church created two new stakes in Melbourne, Australia over the past two Sundays.

On January 13th, the Melbourne Australia Gippsland Stake was organized from the Melbourne Australia Braeside and Melbourne Australia Narre Warren (formerly Pakenham) Stakes and includes the following five wards and three branches: The Cranbourne, Devon Meadows (Samoan), Lynbrook, Moe, and Pakenham Wards and the Bairnsdale, Sale, and Wonthaggi Branches.

On January 20th, the Melbourne Australia Craigieburne Stake was organized from stakes in western Melbourne.  Information on the names of wards and branches pertaining to the new stake is currently unavailable.  I will post this information as a comment once I receive it.

The organization of two new stakes in Melbourne came as a total shock to me due to the relatively small number of units in the six preexisting stakes.  The creation of the new stakes has coincided with the organization of at least three new wards, thereby providing a sufficient number of wards for all eight stakes.  No additional stakes appear likely to be organized in the Melbourne area for the foreseeable future.  With the creation of two new stakes in the Brisbane area last November, members in Australia speculate that two new stakes may be in the works for the Sydney area considering a couple of the stakes have a sufficient number of wards to divide.

There are now 36 stakes and nine districts in Australia.

9 comments:

TempleRick said...

Units in the Melbourne Craigieburn Stake include the Seymour Branch, Bendigo Ward, Craigieburn Ward, Glenroy Ward, Greenvale Ward, and Tullamarine Ward (Samoan).

Mike Johnson said...

Thanks. In which case, the Deer Park Stake has lost four of the seven units in the stake and probably had some units move from the Wyndham stake.

Mike Johnson said...

Looking at the Sydney area, there are 9 stakes (including Canberra), 3 districts, and a mission branch.

The 8 non-Canberra stakes have 63 wards and 5 branches. Three additional stakes would still mean an average of 6.2 units per stake in the 8 + 3 = 11 stakes in the Sydney area (higher than in either the Brisbane or Melbourne areas).

The stakes associated with the Australia Sydney Mission, plus districts and mission branch are:

Canberra Australia Stake
Belconnen Ward
Ginninderra Ward
Tuggeranong Ward
Woden Ward
Merimbula Branch

Liverpool Australia Stake
Fairfield 1st Ward
Fairfield 3rd Ward
Fairfield 5th Ward (Samoan)
Green Valley Ward
Ingleburn 1st Ward
Ingleburn 2nd Ward (Samoan)
Liverpool 1st Ward
Liverpool 2nd Ward (Samoan)
Liverpool 3rd Ward (Tongan)
Prairiewood 1st Ward
Prairiewood 2nd Ward (Spanish)

Macarthur Australia Stake
Camden Ward
Campbelltown 1st Ward
Campbelltown 2nd Ward (Tongan)
Campbelltown 3rd Ward (Samoan)
Campbelltown 4th Ward (Samoan)
Dapto Ward
Macarthur Ward
Minto Ward
Wollongong Ward
Mittagong Branch

Newcastle Australia Stake
Cessnock Ward
Charlestown Ward
Gosford Ward
Maitland Ward
Newcastle Ward
Ourimbah Ward
Tamworth Ward
Toronto Ward
Toukley Ward
Tuggerah Ward
Salt Ash Branch
Taree Branch

Penrith Australia Stake
Claremont Meadows Ward
Emu Plains Ward
Leura Ward
Minchinbury Ward
Penrith Ward
Richmond Ward

Sydney Australia Baulkham Hills Stake
Baulkham Hills Ward
Dural Ward
Kellyville 1st Ward
Kellyville 2nd Ward
Normanhurst Ward
Oatlands Ward
Parramatta Ward
Winston Hills Ward

Sydney Australia Harbour Stake
Harbour YSA Branch
Ashfield Ward (Mandarin)
East Lakes Ward (Tongan)
Greenwich Ward
Harbord Ward
Manly Ward
South Harbour Ward
Summer Hill Ward

Sydney Australia Hebersham Stake
Blacktown Ward
Doonside Ward
Hassall Grove Ward
Mount Druitt Ward
Oakhurst Ward
Quakers Hill Ward
Ropes Crossing Ward

Sydney Australia Mortdale Stake
Bankstown 2nd Ward (Samoan)
Bankstown 1st Ward
Hurstville Ward
Mortdale Ward
Sutherland Ward
Bankstown 3rd Branch (Cantonese)

Coffs Harbour Australia District
Armidale Branch
Coffs Harbour Branch
Grafton Branch
Port Macquarie Branch

Nowra Australia District
Narooma Branch
Nowra Branch
Ulladulla Branch

Orange Australia District
Bathurst Branch
Cowra Branch
Dubbo Branch
Forbes Branch
Mudgee Branch
Orange Branch

Narrabri Branch

Aaron and Kamyra said...

The fact that they consolidated one stake in the syndey area because of migration to the suburbs and the fact that they are waiting longer it seems before they create new stake(s), it is quite likely that they may create 2 new stakes in sydney and then one in Newcastle area perhaps a bit later. Newcastle is far away enough from sydney that they could not use sydney stakes to help with the split of Newcastle. I could see one new stake created in the Campbelltown area which is south west of sydney and and one in the blacktown area west of sydney. Then in the north there has been talk of a Central coast (gosford etc)stake and a newcastle stake. I served my mission in the sydney North mission and served a lot in the newcastle area and also in Western sydney. Newcastle has not set any records but has had steady growth in particular in the smaller areas outside newcastle and south west and western sydney has seen really good growth now for many years. We will see I guess

Mike Johnson said...

Thanks, A&K, I find that interesting.

I don't know the sizes of the branches in the districts around the Newcastle Stake, but it seems to me that in a split, the nearest of these branches could be included as well. One of the Newcastle wards--the northernmost, has one district to the east and one to the west and several branches are closer to that ward than the ward is to the stake center.

The Newcastle Stake has two wards meeting in the stake center in Newcastle, with five wards (3 meeting houses) strung along the coast to the south, and 3 wards and 2 branches to the north--2 wards and 1 branch running east to west just north of Newcastle and then a branch on the coast to the north and then a ward in the interior furthest to the north. Looking at the layout, I think it might be difficult to form two stakes without drawing in branches from the districts flanking that northernmost ward.

Mike Johnson said...

The eight stakes in the Melbourne area now have 42 wards and 7 branches:

Melbourne Australia Braeside Stake
Frankston Ward
Moorabbin Ward
Mornington Ward
Patterson Lakes Ward
Springvale Ward

Melbourne Australia Craigieburn Stake
Bendigo Ward
Craigieburn Ward
Glenroy Ward
Greenvale Ward
Tullamarine Ward (Samoan)
Seymour Branch

Melbourne Australia Deer Park Stake
Ballarat Ward
Brimbank Ward (Tongan)
Deer Park Ward
Hillside Ward (new ward)
Sunbury Ward
Horsham Branch

Melbourne Australia Gippsland Stake
Cranbourne Ward
Devon Meadows Ward (Samoan)
Lynbrook Ward
Moe Ward
Pakenham Ward
Bairnsdale Branch
Sale Branch
Wonthaggi Branch

Melbourne Australia Heidelberg Stake
Caulfield Ward
Eltham Ward
Epping Ward
Fairfield Ward
Footscray Ward
Melbourne Branch (Mandarin)

Melbourne Australia Maroondah Stake
Croydon Ward
Doncaster Ward
Mooroolbark Ward
Wantirna South Ward
Wantirna Ward
Waverley Ward
Yarra Valley Ward

Melbourne Australia Narre Warren Stake
Churchill Park Ward
Dandenong Ward
Hallam Ward
Hampton Park Ward (Samoan)
Narre Warren Ward

Melbourne Australia Wyndham Stake
Geelong Ward
Melton Ward
Point Cook Ward
Tarneit Ward (new ward)
Werribee Ward
Warrnambool Branch

R J Ryan said...

Whatever happened to Traralgon Ward? Are they building new stake centres to cope with this growth?

Unknown said...

There is also a ward that has just been created at the end of last year in the Melbourne Australia Narre Warren Stake. It’s River Gum Ward.

Unknown said...

Also don’t forget the 1 district Melbourne has

Melbourne Australia Wangaratta District
Shepparton Branch
Wangaratta Branch
Albury Branch
Wagga Wagga Branch
Griffith Branch
Echuca Branch
Swan Hill Branch
Finley Branch