St Joseph's Guest House St Albans

Church in St Albans, Sydney, NSW, AU

89% Recommended•

10 people

Pet-friendly

Our property is an 1839 convict-built sandstone Catholic Church. It’s the oldest Catholic Church on Australia’s mainland and it’s set just metres away from the Hawkesbury River, surrounded by bush and farmland.

Whether you're looking for a charming and relaxed setting to get away with friends or family or somewhere to tie the knot, St Joseph's Guesthouse is a home-away-from-home, exclusively yours when you book.

On weekends we generally booked out for a full house of 10 guests from the same group it’s $1600 per night minimum 2 nights plus cleaning fee.

We also do weddings 👰 🎩 couples take the church for up to 5 nights including the accommodation for 10 guests and the use of the church and its grounds as a function centre for up to 100 guests - it’s a flat rate of $7,500.

The church is a do it yourself venue the 5 luxury bedrooms are made up ready for your 10 guests you are then welcome to jazz up the church with your own personal flair as to how you would like your wedding ceremony. You would need to get in touch direct for wedding and event pricing.
The Church is a daytime wedding venue and closes down at 10 pm and couples and their guests are welcome to then come to the Settlers Arms Inn at St Albans. There you can soak up the historic 1836 convict built pub as part of your reception.
The pub is licensed until midnight and couples can bring along a small band or a jukebox.

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Features and Amenities

5 bedrooms

5 beds

5 bathrooms

Air conditioning

Bath

BBQ

Details

Check in after 3:00pm
Check out before 10:00am
Weekday minimum booking: 2 nights
Weekend minimum booking: 2 nights

Cancellation Policy:

Receive a 50% refund of the total booking amount (minus service fee) up until 1 week prior to check-in.

STRA Registration: PID-STRA-27040

Additional Information

CHURCH DETAILS
You'll find our beautiful property in St Albans, just two hours from Sydney and Newcastle.

We have lovingly restored the church over the years, from the crumbling, uninhabitable state it was in when we acquired it in 2009. Nothing brings us more joy than sharing this beautiful part of the world with guests - returning and new.

While staying true to the original aesthetic, we pieced the church back together and made some changes along the way. See that steel steeple on the church? And the gap beneath it? That’s our rooftop lounge area, complete with fire pit for you to toast marshies in comfort. We’re pretty confident it’s the best old church to witness a sunset from, this side of Europe.⁠

The church features accommodation for 10 guests onsite in five separate bedrooms – four with ensuites and one with an in-room claw foot bath. There's also a large kitchen, dining area, lounge room with television, 8 x 8m deck and a plunge pool for warm summer days, with plenty of lawn area for activities and even weddings.

For functions, eg Weddings, a venue hire fee is applicable. Please email us for further information.

Find us on Instagram for more images: @stjosephsguesthouse.

GUEST ACCESS
Guests have exclusive access to the entire property when booked.

Prices

Base Price $1,865 / night
Cleaning Fee $400
Security Deposit $500
Discounts
20% discount for bookings of 6 nights or longer

Finding fulfillment

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Reviews (18)

89% Recommended

bec

13 Jul 2026

The property is absolutely stunning and even bigger than you would expect from the pictures. We had a few minor things go wrong to which the hosts came and inspected. Would definitely come back again .

Slowness

Rejuvenation

Matthew

26 Jan 2026

Unique vintage church, however caretakers not doing the simple things, light globes out, advertised wifi not working, no operational t.v 's and remotes, cob webs everywhere, patio furniture dated and ...dangerous, heard of church mice didnt expect to meet one in the bedroom. Further meet bugs throughtout the lounges. Bedroom door handle , broken and trapped one of the family in the room .
Visited by a surprise delivery of laundry / new linen for next visitors in the middle of our stay.
Garbage bins half full, on our arrival.
Dissapointing adventure for the $1600 per night plus we are charged a cleaning fee if $400 when the place was clearly not cleaned before we arrived.
Could be a great place if more care and attention spent on the place.
No happy adventure, to be honest and fair we should be refunded at least the cleaning fee, as this place was far from clean.

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Peacefulness

Freedom

Pat

28 Oct 2025

Beautiful venue and great communications from owner!

Host

Steve

Email Verified

Phone Verified

St Albans

1Listings

I've lived in the region of St Albans for many years. A builder by trade, when St Joseph's Church came onto my radar, it seemed like an opportunity too exciting to pass up. After several years of renovations with the help of family and friends, we finally restored St Joseph's Guesthouse and won the 2012 National Trust Best Restored Heritage Building in NSW award. My wife Tilly and I live just down the road from the church with our young sons and look forward to welcoming you to the area.

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Location

The map shows the listing location and awesome adventures nearby.

Listing location

Adventures nearby

Adventures Nearby

Here are some details about the adventures nearby. Refer to the map for their location.

Fishing Hawkesbury River

Wet a line in the Hawkesbury River, or closer to home, the Macdonald River.

Devines Hill Loop

Head to Devines Hill loop in Dharug National Park, near Wisemans Ferry for a bike ride or walk along the historic World Heritage-listed Devines Hill loop. 28km loop.

Fishing The Macdonald River

Fishing in the McDonald River can get you everything from amazing freshwater Australian native bass a great fighting fish and a bit further down the river towards the Hawkesbury you can get flathead whiting bream mullet and crabs

Yoga At The School Of Arts

Come to our yoga class that starts at 8 am on Saturday mornings at the school of arts building probably just meet at the pub(The Settlers Arms Inn) across the river first for a coffee yoga classes go for one hour and they are $15 per head.
Come meet some locals.

Pushbike Riding Around The Valley

The McDonald Valley has one river and two roads running around you can ride down Settlers Road 20 km back to Wisemans Ferry catch the ferry and come back to St Albans via St Albans Road 20 km.
There are also a number of convict road trials and fire trials.