Lutong was under heavy bombing during the World War 2 and WWII bombs scattered around the area still found recent days.
This place was once teeming with thousands of oil workers including from Shell, which pioneered oil refinery in Borneo. Lutong is now part of the Miri City boundary and is one of the 10 commercial and residential areas within the city jurisdiction.
A big portion of these expatriates have since left due to the downsizing of the oil industry amid global oil price slump that started about three years ago.
However, Shell and Petronas continue to maintain their regional head offices in Lutong and this little place is thriving with new commercial complex and shops and housing estates mushrooming.
Aside from Shell and Petronas refineries and office complexes, Lutong is also famous for the unique inter-racial and inter-religious bonds of unity and harmony whereby a church and mosque share parking lot compound and also share in each other’s festival celebrations.
Unique Racial and Religious Unity can be found here in Lutong, by looking at the Anglican Good Shepherd Church and An-Naim mosque are less than 100m each other in Lutong bazaar, 10km north of Miri City. The church opens its gate to allow Muslims to park their vehicles during Friday prayers. On Sundays, the mosque opens its gate to allow churchgoers to use the parking space in its compound. On special occasions such as Christmas and Hari Raya, both the Muslims and Christians will come together for joint gatherings. The mosque and church had been sharing carparks for past 50 years.
An-Naim Mosque
An-Naim mosque was built in 1981 and completed in 1983, the mosque was declared open by the then chief minister now Head of State Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud in September 1983. The prayer hall is able to accommodate 1,500 people. The mosque has an administrative office, a corporative shop, a study hall that can accommodate 200 people, an open multipurpose court, a dining hall and meeting room. An-Naim Mosque also has other facilities and a kindergarten.
Anglican Good Shepherd Church
In 1848, Francis Thomas McDougall: a doctor as well as a priest, led a group of missionaries under the order of James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak; consequently establishing the Anglican Church and spreading Christianity in Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. McDougall was appointed as the first Bishop of Labuan and Sarawak in 1849.
The founding of Anglican mission in Miri may be traced back to 1910, when an oil company employed 60 Europeans to work in the oil fields following the oil discovery in Miri. Soon a large number of local labourers descended on Miri to help. By 1920, there were 120 Europeans and 3000 local labourers working in the oil industry, majority of which were Anglicans.
In 1918, Bishop Logie Danson visited Miri and identified a site for the building of the church. The new church in Miri was consecrated on 18 March 1923, and was dedicated to St. Columba. St Columba was an Irish abbot and missionary accredited with spreading Christianity in Scotland. It 1925, St. Columba’s Church Miri had her first resident priest, Frederick Synott. Chong En Siong arrived to assist Synott in 1928. In 18th March 1929, St. Columba’s Church Miri was consecrated.
En Siong also visited Lutong. In 1939, a new church building in Lutong was consecrated and was dedicated to the Good Shepherd.
Lutong is also home to the famous Piasau Camp where beautiful bungalows used by Shell expatriate and top managers are sited amid tall trees and thick bushes.
Now the Piasau Camp is being conserved as a nature reserve known as the Piasau Nature Reserve due to the presence of rare Hornbills and eagles that are living and nesting there.
Piasau Nature Reserve
The Piasau Nature Reserve is today a protected park and will be used as natural attraction for nature lovers and eco-tourists. This place is the home of the Oriental Pied hornbills and wild barred eagles-owls and their population are increasing, according to studies done by the park wardens.
Lutong Airport
Lutong had its own little airport once and the airstrip used to belong to Royal Dutch Shell, dedicated for the offshore petroleum activities.
All offshore flight operations are now based in Miri Airport and Lutong airport terminal has been demolished but the runway was preserved. The old airstrip is now being used for drag racing and Paramotor.
Official Link :
https://tgschurchlutong.com/about/
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