Churches of Tasmania

This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches. These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including of those that no longer exist. Cullenswood is located about two kilometres west of St Marys in the Fingal Valley. All that remains of the former village is its church and rectory. Christchurch at Cullenswood is the legacy of Robert Vincent Legge. Legge arrived in Van Diemans Land in 1827 and shortly after took up a 1200 acre land grant on the Break O’ Day Plains. He named his estate Cullenswood, after his family home in Ireland. Legge was a devout Anglican and in gratitude for his good fortune he built a church at Cullenswood in 1847. [ See No. 173 ] Legge also built a rectory and secured its first priest, his nephew, Dr Samuel Parsons. Little ...

The ‘Young Men’s Christian Association’, an international movement for 'the spiritual, intellectual, social and moral improvement' reached Tasmania in the late 19th century. The YMCA was founded in London in 1844 by George Williams and eleven friends. It emerged as a response to the social challenges faced by young men during the Industrial Revolution, offering a Christian alternative to the temptations of city life. Williams organised Bible study and prayer groups that eventually led to the formation of the YMCA. The initial focus of the YMCA was on the spiritual improvement of young men in trades. In 1891 YMCA's red triangle was adopted as a symbol for the whole person, representing the unity of the spirit, mind, and body which were core principles of the organisation’s Christian mission. The Association was formally established in Launceston in 1880 followed by Hobart in 1882. It was open to all boys and young men and promoted all-round development by providing activitie...

Alonnah is a settlement on the west coast of South Bruny Island. It was originally known as ‘Mills Reef’ but renamed in 1909. Alonnah is the partial Aboriginal name for Bruny Island: ‘Lunawanna-Alonnah’. St Brendan’s Catholic church was officially opened and consecrated in March 1906. Part of the Mercury’s report of the ceremony is reproduced as follows: “The new Roman Catholic Church, which is dedicated to St Brendan, was solemnly blessed on Sunday, 4th Inst. by the Right Rev Coadjutor Bishop Delany, D B , assisted by Rev Fathers O’ Lynn (Port Cygnet), Gillernn (Hobart), and Fleming (N S W ). There was a very large attendance of visitors, from Hobart, Franklin, and Port Cygnet, and as the day was beautifully fine, they expressed themselves well pleased with the day's outing to the picturesque island. Among the numerous visitors were -The Premier (Hon J W Evans) and Hon T M. Fisher, M L C….”. “The Nubeena from Port Cygnet, contained nearly 200 passenger, the Waldemar, from Franklin...

Rokeby is an eastern suburb of Greater Hobart on the east bank of the Derwent River. It remained a small village until the State Government’s Housing Department built a large public housing estate in the 1970s. The Rokeby Police Academy, officially known as the Tasmania Police Academy, opened in March 1976 as the first purpose-built police academy in Australia. Police training had previously taken place in various locations, including Sackville Street and Argyle Street in Hobart. The state of the art facility included a mock courtroom, television studio as well as a non-denominational chapel. The chapel was situated within the main administrative building and was dedicated and consecrated to St Barnabas in March 1978 by the Anglican Bishop Robert Davies. I have yet to find photographs of the chapel which is no longer in use. The Police Academy at Rokeby. St Barnabas Chapel was located in the administration building in the left foreground of the photograph: Source: Tasmania Police...

Barnes Bay is a small settlement on the northern end of Bruny Island. Barnes Bay was the site of the ferry terminal between 1954 to 1983 and also a quarantine station in the 19th and early 20th century. The settlement and bay is named after one of the first settlers on the island. In 1845 the first Anglican church established at Barnes Bay and dedicated to St John. It was also used as a schoolroom. [ see No. 1535 ] St John’s was replaced by a new church built in 1896 on a nearby site. [ see No. 1543 ] The new church, dedicated to St Peter, served the Anglican community for a little over 70 years when it was burnt in the 1967 bushfires which raged across southern Tasmania destroying over 80 churches. In 1968 St Peter’s was replaced by a new church, a modern cement block building which was dedicated by the Archdeacon of Hobart, the Venerable Ian MacDonald, on Sunday 15 December 1968. The foundation stone of the old church, along with that of St Mark’s Anglican church at Dennes Point [ s...

St Aloysius Catholic College is an independent Roman Catholic co-educational primary and secondary school with campuses in Kingston Beach and Huntingfield. The school was founded in 1960 by the Sisters of Charity as St Aloysius Primary School. The Grade 5 to 8 campus is situated at Huntingfield on the outskirts of Kingston. It was constructed between 2008–2012 following Archbishop Adrian Doyle's acceptance of the school's proposal to extend into a Middle/Secondary School in 2007. A school chapel was built during the first phase of the school’s development. The Chapel at the Huntingfield Campus - Photograph https://www.staloysius.tas.edu.au/grounds-and-facilities Sources and Further Information: https://www.staloysius.tas.edu.au/

The first members of the Church of Christ arrived in Tasmania in 1865 and soon after established a ‘Meeting House’ at Northdown near Latrobe [ see No. 1084 ] In the 1870s churches were set up in Launceston and Hobart. Initially the group identified themselves as the ‘Christians’. After 1885 they were known as the 'Disciples of Christ' and from 1915 as the 'Churches of Christ'. A church was established at Hobart in early 1872 by an American evangelist, Oliver Anderson Carr, who began preaching at the old Particular Baptist Chapel on Harrington Street. A prominent member of the congregation was John Bradley, who was later to become Chairman of the Hobart Stock Exchange a Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. Services moved to the Odd Fellows Hall and then to the “People’s Hall” on Bathurst Street. In July 1872 the former “Mechanics School of Arts” building on Collins Street was acquired and worship took place there for the next 9 years. The Mechanics' School o...

Cape Barren Island is the second largest island in the Furneaux Group. It is situated at the southern end of Flinders Island and separated by the Franklin Sound. The island is also known as truwana, an Aboriginal word meaning 'sleeping water’. In 1881 Cape Barren Island Reserve was established for the descendants of Aboriginal women and European sealers living in the Furneaux Islands of Bass Strait. The Church of the Epiphany is the second Anglican church built on Cape Barren Island. The history of the first church and the involvement of the Anglican Church in establishing an aboriginal mission is described in a previous article on ‘Churches of Tasmania’ which can be found on the link here: No.1590 - Cape Barren Island - Church at The Corner. By the 1930s the original church, built in 1893, was in a serious state of disrepair. In 1937 Reverend S.C. Brammall, the Flinders Island chaplain, complained: “If the wind blows before they go into the building…they do not go in”. Despite th...

Trevallyn is a suburb of Launceston located in the hills on the north-west side of the city centre. It is named after a 12 hectare property owned by William Barnes (1790 - 1848). Launceston 'Awake church' was established in 2023. The Church meets for worship in the Max Fry Hall, Trevallyn. The hall opened in 1968 and is named in memory of Max Fry (1912-1965), a member of the Tasmanian Legislative Council for Launceston. The Awaken Church is affiliated with the “Acts Global Churches”, a “second generation name for the Apostolic Church Australia”. The Apostolic Church is a Christian denomination in the Pentecostal movement. The term "Apostolic" reflects the denomination's belief that it follows the teachings of the twelve apostles who followed Christ. With roots in the 1904–1905 Welsh Revival, the church seeks to revive first-century Christianity in its faith, practices, and governance. Max Fry Hall - Source: Facebook Max Fry Hall - Source: Facebook Sources and Fur...

North Franklin is a rural area approximately 2 kilometres north of the town of Franklin in the Huon Valley. A Congregational church was built at Franklin in the 1840s and over the time branch churches were established at Cradoc; Woodstock, Pelverata and North Franklin. Little information is available about the church at North Franklin. It was located on Maxfields Road near the Congregational cemetery. In 1952 it was sold to the Anglican Church and removed to Judbury where in 1955 it was consecrated and dedicated to St Luke. It is not known when the church was built and there is no description of it opening. The first service advertised appears in the Huon Times dates to November 1911. Newspaper reports about events associated with the church appear from 1912. The following are a selection of reports from Huon Times which make reference to the North Franklin church: “Last Sunday afternoon harvest thanksgiving services were conducted in the North Franklin Congregational church when the l...

Whitemark is the main town and administrative centre of Flinders Island. The name is reputedly taken from a conspicuous white mark placed in the vicinity of the present town, for survey purposes. Little information is available about St Alban’s Anglican church. The building’s foundation stone was laid in 1915. Launceston’s Daily Telegraph reported: “The Bishop of Tasmania has been here for the past fortnight travelling through the district. The residents were very pleased at his visit, and have turned up well at the different entertainments. His lordship laid the foundation stone for a church at White Mark, to be called St. Alban's. Already £80 have been collected towards erection”. There is no published description of the official opening of the church in 1921. However Archbishop Hay’s visit to the Island in June of that year is well recorded as he was stranded for a time and was had to return to Bridport on a police boat. The Hobart Mercury reported: “Altogether the Bishop has ba...

Triabunna is a small town on the east coast situated at the northern end of Spring Bay, after which the settlement was named before Triabbuna was adopted in 1850s. It was established as a whaling station and was later used as a garrison town to service the Maria Island convict settlement. Triabbuna is an aboriginal word for 'native hen'. Only two churches were built at Triabunna. In 1909 a correspondent for Hobart’s Daily Post commented: “Judging from the small number of churches seen here, only two, the Anglican and the Roman Catholic, the spiritual side of the people is thoroughly neglected. There are supposed lo be fortnightly services held in the Anglican, and occasionally in the other. There are no Methodist, Presbyterian, etc., church to be found here as may be seen elsewhere. On the whole there is little or nothing done to encourage church going. The young fellows have to turn their attention to football on Sundays”. Anglican services were first held in a house on Rostre...