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The plaque commemorates the establishment of the Methodist Church in Australia as a result of a meeting held on the 6th March 1812 in this vicinity.

Monday is the 138th anniversary of the introduction of organised Methodism into Australia. On March 6, 1812,  a few Sydney laymen met in the house of Thomas Bowden and thereafter regular 'class-meetings' were held until a chapel could be built. Among these early Methodists were several enthusiasts. One, John Lees, had been a private in the New South Wales Corps, but later he settled at Castlereagh, where he built a chapel of rough slabs at his own expense, and then presented it, together with three acres of land to the society in Sydney. This rough bush building, which was opened on October 7, 1817, was the first Methodist chapel in the land. Another enthusiast. James Scott, bought two blocks of land in Princes Street, Sydney, and on one of them he built a chapel which cost him 600 guineas. This, the first Methodist Chapel in Sydney, was opened on March 17, 1819. 
Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld), 11 March 1950.

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