Christopher EIPPER

EIPPER, CHRISTOPHER (b. Esslingen, Wurttemberg, 20 Aug 1813; d. Charleyong, Braidwood, NSW, 3 Sept 1894). Missionary to Aborigines and Presbyterian minister

From 1832-36 Eipper was supported at the Basel Missionary Institute by the CMS on condition of accepting employment under it. However, in terms considered insulting, he refused to accept Anglican ordination and was expelled by both the Church and Basel Missionary Societies and refused employment by the LMS. In March 1837 he was added to a party of Germans recruited by J D Lang (q.v.) for a mission to Aborigines at Moreton Bay and later ordained by German and French Protestant clergy in London.

Eipper laboured at the German mission, Nundah, near Brisbane, from May 1838 until its closure in 1843. This venture, based on the principle of evangelisation by a self-supporting hand of artisan-settlers, proved a dismal failure. A cessation of fund-raising left the new settlers destitute, they were forced to resist Aboriginal depredation, faced a constant threat of violence and were opposed by Europeans. Although the mission body made decisions democratically, outsiders treated Eipper and the other ordained member as its co-leaders.

Eipper was admitted to the Synod of Australia and stationed as minister at Braidwood 1844-46. During the in-fighting over the Synod's response to the Scottish Disruption he supported continued adherence to the allegedly Erastian Church of Scotland. Probably in consequence of the disruption of Synod in 1846 he became itinerant minister around Strath Allan, without a government stipend, until elected minister of Paterson in Oct 1847. He was prevailed upon to demit in Feb 1850. Reasons for his forced departure from this difficult charge encompassing many Gaels and non-employment elsewhere at a time of minister shortage have not been located. Hardly to be accounted a success in either of his roles he is significant chiefly as a pioneer.

C Eipper, Statement of the Origin, Condition and Prospects, of the German Mission to the Aborigines at Moreton Bay (Sydney 1841); ADB I

BARRY BRIDGES