The Oldest Lodge

27 May 24

Masonry has a long history but the question is often asked as to which is the oldest Lodge in Australia.

Lodge Antiquity No 1 on the register of the UGL NSW & ACT, which meets in the Sydney Masonic Centre, is undoubtedly the oldest of the Australian lodges.

It first met in Sydney in 1820 as the Australian Social Lodge. In 1878, the lodge changed its name to Australian Social Mother and in 1920 the name was changed to Antiquity. The actual steps necessary for the formation of the lodge were taken by Lodge No 218 IC, a military lodge attached to the 48th British Regiment serving in Sydney in 1820.

Eight Master Masons, who were nonmilitary members of Lodge No 218, Irish Constitution, signed a petition which was sent to Ireland. On 6 January 1820, the Grand Lodge of Ireland issued Warrant No 260 to constitute a new lodge in Sydney under the name of ‘The Australian Social Lodge’. The warrant arrived in Port Jackson on 5 August 1820 and the first regular meeting of the lodge was held on 30 August 1820.

The old records of the NSW Department of Lands show that a Lodge St John No. 1 was meeting on Norfolk Island in 1800 and it is likely a fraternal society on the island formed themselves into an irregular lodge as no trace of it can be found in the records of the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland or Scotland.

A masonic meeting, which may have been designed to institute proceedings for the formation of a lodge was held in Sgt Whittle’s house in Sydney in 1803. Permission to hold the meeting had been previously refused by Governor King but despite this, the meeting was held. It was broken up by a party bearing the Governor’s warrant to arrest the whole assembly. In 1903, at a special Grand Lodge Communication held in the Sydney Town Hall, the then Grand Master, MW Bro J C Remington, claimed that the meeting held in Sgt Whittle’s house was the ‘Dawn of Freemasonry in Australia’.

The first lodges formed in other States in Australia were: Tasmania 1828, South Australia 1834, Victoria 1840, Western Australia 1842 and Queensland 1859.

In 2020, Lodge Antiquity No. 1 Celebrated its 200th anniversary.

Original Article FREEMASON SUMMER 2011