Reverend Richard Johnson started fortnightly service on the banks of the Parramatta River after the First Fleet came to Parramatta in 1788. Reverend Samuel Marsden was the first resident minister of St John’s Church. In 1796 he dedicated a makeshift building of two old huts at the corner of George & Marsden Streets as the first church building in Parramatta.
The original church was built in 1803 on the present site in the Church Street Mall. The twin towers constructed in 1818 are the oldest surviving part of any Anglican Church in Australia. They are built from handmade sandstock bricks. It is a possibility that it is made by convicts. The church was designed by Elizabeth Macquarie, the wife of Governor Lachlan Macquarie. The church building, except the towers, was demolished in the early 1850s after a severe storm as it was no longer fit for use. The twin towers house the mechanism for the tower-clock in the north tower which was installed around 1823. The new building was opened in 1855. In 1923, the memorial bells were installed in the south tower.
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