The New Church of Jerusalem has a long history in Australia. Deriving from the Swedish scientist and theologian Emanuel Swedenborg and spreading to England, the first known service in Australia was held at Adelaide in 1844 by Jacob Pitman, brother of Isaac, the shorthand exponent. New Church societies were formally inaugurated in Adelaide in 1847, Melbourne in 1853, Brisbane in 1865, Sydney in 1875 and Perth in 1928. The first Australasian Conference of the New Church was held at Melbourne in 1881. In Brisbane the declaration of faith was signed on 25 May 1865 by Silvester Diggles, Benjamin Backhouse, John Henry Nicholson, George Slater, Ephraim Stronell and John Elliott. Diggles was the inaugural leader of the Brisbane Society from 1865 to 1875, and then the first president until his death in 1880. Meeting in private quarters in 1865 and transferring to a room in the Town Hall in Queen Street in 1867, the Brisbane Society regrouped at the Town Hall Chamber of Commerce in 1873 and moved two years later to the Temperance Hall in upper Edward Street. By 1879 they could afford their own building in Wickham Street, opposite All Saints. In 1910 they opened a new brick church in Ann Street, and in 1961 they moved from Ann Street to suburban Rosalie.