The Australian Free Church seeks to maintain the heritage of the Presbyterian Church as established in Scotland at the Reformation and recovered at the Disruption of 1843.

The denomination was formed in 1979 in an effort to uphold our standards and the pure Word of God in a day of declining doctrinal integrity . 

We use the word “Free” in our title to identify ourselves with the Free Church of Scotland, constituted in 1843, when a large number of ministers, elders and people withdrew from the established Church of Scotland for conscientious reasons. 

We began with a single congregation under the ministry of the Rev Eric S. Turnbull, meeting in hired premises, until the church at Chadstone in Melbourne was purchased in 1989. In 2002 the Revs. Cunningham and Nelson were ordained and Rev Turnbull retired (d. 2013). Rev Cunningham ministers to the AFC congregation in Hamilton.

​Rev Winzer was ordained in 2005, initially ministering in Burnie, Tasmania and Rockhampton, Queensland before moving to Beaufort in Victoria. 

Rev Nelson retired in 2019 and the Rev Winzer was subsequently called to minister to the Chadstone congregation.

We enjoy fraternal relations with the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) and the Southern Presbyterian Church in Tasmania.