2026 Tidy Towns: Heritage and Culture Finalist - Cyril Young Memorial Chapel Association
An outdoor bush chapel built from local Moorooduc stone, nearly sold off from under a community that had grown up with it. That was the starting point for the Cyril Young Memorial Chapel Association's eight-year restoration project in Shoreham.
The chapel, now 75 years old, sits within YMCA Camp Buxton and doubles as a registered war memorial, named for Captain Cyril Young, who died as a prisoner of war in Borneo. It commemorates YMCA members and campers who served and were lost in the Second World War, built as a place for young campers to hold onto self-reliance, community spirit and a love of the bush.
Over eight years, volunteers fought to keep the chapel on public land, developed a Conservation Management Plan, restored the original stonework and jarrah seating, replanted the surrounding bushland with local indigenous species, and installed low-key signage telling Cyril Young's story alongside the chapel's origins at an International Older Boys Camp held to celebrate peace after the war.
What the committee learned, after eight years of it, is plain: a small group with a shared, long-term goal can outlast almost any setback, provided they keep showing up for it together.
The X-factor is the pairing itself: a place built to celebrate carefree childhood in nature, standing as a memorial to young lives lost in war.
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