Churches of Tasmania

Bothwell is one of the oldest settlements in Tasmania and it is also one of the most important Georgian towns in the State. It is situated on the Clyde River, about 75km miles north of Hobart. The majority of the first settlers in the region were from Scotland. Bothwell once had four churches of which the Anglican, Uniting (Presbyterian) and Catholic churches remain. 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. The former Sunday school at Bothwell is associated with the iconic St Luke’s Uniting Church. St Luke’s is amongst the oldest original Tasmanian churches. Building began in 1830 and was completed by the following year. Unusually, the church was shared ...

King island is located on the western side of Bass Strait approximately half-way between the Tasmania and Victoria. The island was discovered in 1798 by Captain Reid and named in 1801 in honour of the Governor of New South Wales Governor King. Established in 2022, the Barn Church, King Island’s newest church, is located at Pegarah Homestead about 13 kilometres from King Islands main town of Currie and 16 kilometres from the port town of Grassy. Reminiscent of church services in the early colonial period, worship takes place in a barn. It is an example of the many ‘home churches’ operating in Tasmania. Little information is available about the church however an interview broadcast on King Island Radio reveals the origins of the community. A link to the broadcast can be found < HERE > Sources and further information: https://www.facebook.com/groups/279356392254226  https://www.facebook.com/KingIslandRadio/ https://www.mixcloud.com/kingislandradio/king-island-barn-church-baptise...

Currie is the main town and administration centre of King Island. In 1866 the ship "Netherby" ran onto rocks off the island and was salvaged by Captain Archibald Currie. The harbour and later the settlement were named in his remembrance. Reverend Max Stansall’s ‘Tasmanian Methodism’ summarises the origins of the Methodist Church at King Island as follows: “As much as ninety years after the beginnings of Methodism in Hobart, the work in King Island was just commenced. Actually a young home missionary, C.C. Dugan, who later had a distinguished career as minister and historian, visited the island in 1903. But it was in 1910 that the real beginning was made. Rev. Joseph Penna that year became the first minister appointed to the island”. Soon after Penna’s arrival the construction of a church began in mid 1911. This was undertaken by volunteer labour under the direction of Mr Will Batton. The church was officially opened on Sunday 24 December 1911. The subsequent history of the ch...

Lady Barron is a small town in the south of Flinders Island. It lies about 25 kilometres south of Whitemark.The settlement was named in honour of the wife of the Governor of Tasmania Sir Harry Barron. The Anglican church at Lady Barron was originally located at Badger Corner. It opened in 1915 but was moved into Lady Barron in 1926. In 1938 the church’s new chancel was dedicated in memory of Mrs A.B. Smallfield. At the same service an altar was dedicated to the memory of Mrs J. Robinson as well as a brass altar cross to the memory of Mr and Mrs J. Robinson. The church was practically rebuilt in 1941. It was modernised with brick veneer at a later date. The 1938 chancel is well preserved although little remains of the exterior of the original 1915 building. St Barnabas at Lady Barron The chancel which was dedicated in 1938. Photograph: Facebook: Flinders Island Anglican Church Sources: Examiner, Tuesday 9 February 1915, page 6 Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 21 April 1926, page 2 Mercury, We...

Blackmans Bay is located close to the town of Kingston which is approximately fourteen kilometres south of Hobart. It is named after James Blackman who made a claim for a grant of land in the area in about 1844. It was once a popular place for holiday shacks but is now a residential area. The Kingborough Salvation Army Hall takes its name from the local government area which includes Blackmans Bay. As a relatively recently established place of worship, there is very little information about the history of the hall. A plaque records that the building was opened and dedicated by Commissioner John H Clinch on 7 August 1994. As more information becomes available this article will be updated. The Companion to Tasmanian History has the following concise summary of the history of the Salvation Army in Tasmania: “The Salvation Army had a seminal link with Tasmania. Launceston businessman and philanthropist Henry Reed, living in London, gave William Booth over £5000 to establish the Salvation A...

Emita is a small settlement on the west coast of Flinders Island and is situated approximately 20 kilometres north of the town of Whitemark. Originally known as Settlement Point, the name was changed to Emita in 1913. A village grew around the administration centre for the aboriginal settlement at Wybalenna. The word 'emita' is aboriginal for "sand". In the book ‘In Our Heritage of Anglican Churches in Tasmania’, Dorothea Henslowe writes: “In 1915 there were plans to build a church at Emita, but in 1939 services were still held on the jetty…There were plans again in 1952, but it was October 1956 before the foundation stone was laid and October 1957 before the concrete church was dedicated…”. The move to build a church in 1952 were in fact expedited by the destruction of the Emita Hall in fire in January of the same year. The hall, which was built in 1931, had been used by Anglicans for many years. The loss of the hall is recounted in the Launceston Examiner: “A fire r...

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. This blog entry is adapted from an article published in the Meander Valley Gazette. It was written by Mark Butson who now owns the former Catholic presbytery located on West Goderich Street. The house was used as a presbytery from 1899 to 2002. “The original Georgian style house was built in 1888 by Mary Terry and bought from the Terry family by the church in 1899, along with another acre of land around the house for gardens and stables. The Church of the Holy Redeemer was built in 1886…Opposite the Church, Blakes Manor…built in 1861 served as the first Presbytery from 1871 to 1895. Archdeacon Michael Beechinor was...

Mount Read is a mountain located in the West Coast region of Tasmania. A small township at Mount Read, located about 4 kilometres southeast of Williamsford, has long disappeared. Mount Read township was surrounded by the Hercules mine which was situated at altitude of 1000 metres, making it the most elevated town which has existed in Tasmania. The mine was in production in the late nineteenth century and was connected by a haulage incline to Williamsford. Very little is known about the Methodist church established at Mount Read. According to Reverend Max Stansall’s ‘History of Tasmanian Methodism’, a Methodist church was established at Mount Read in about 1899. Stansall writes: “Dundas, Ringville and Mount Read separated from Zeehan to become a Home Mission Station in 1897. Rev. W. R. Featonby was the first minister in charge. Of those three Churches very little is known….. Rev. C. W. Atkinson, who apparently succeeded Mr. Featonby in the station, is known to have visited the now non-...

Linda is an abandoned mining settlement situated east of Queenstown on the Lyell Highway. Linda was located very close to Gormanston which is now a ‘ghost town’. Both towns were dependent on the mining industry, with Linda supporting the North Mount Lyell Mine and the terminus of the North Mount Lyell Railway. Copper ore was taken from the mine to smelters at Crotty (now under the waters of Lake Burbury). The refined metal taken to Pillinger on the shores of Macquarie Harbour at Kelly Basin. When North Mount Lyell was taken over by Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in 1903, Linda was reduced in significance and gradually most residents moved to Gormanston. According to Reverend Max Stansall’s ‘History of Tasmanian Methodism’, a Wesleyan Methodist church was established at Linda in late 1899. Stansall writes: “Linda, another of the ‘past history’ towns, once had a Wesleyan Church. This was probably right at the end of the [nineteenth] century. It was too close to its mother Church ...

This article is one in a series about public buildings in country areas that were used as places of worship. In these communities churches may have been planned but were never built due to lack of finance or changing circumstances. In many settlements, before a church was built, worship was typically held in homes, schoolrooms, barns, halls and other buildings. Conversely, in some communities, churches were sometimes the first public building erected and were used as schools and community halls. The focus of this series will primarily be on the public halls and schools that were used as churches. These buildings, and the religious communities which used them, are often overlooked in published histories of churches. Hampshire is a small rural settlement approximately 30 kilometres south of Burnie. It was the site of a sawmill established for building a railway before it was taken over by the Van Diemen's Land Company. In recent years plantations for the wood chip industry have come ...

The Coal Mines historic site one of 11 places listed as Australian convict World Heritage sites. The former convict precinct and mines are located on the northern promontory of the Tasman Peninsula adjacent to Little Norfolk Bay The Coal Mines were established in 1833 as a punishment station for re-offending convicts and operated as an outstation of the Port Arthur penal settlement. In 1840 it was turned into a probation station based on coal mining. It was a severe place of punishment due to the dangerous conditions in the mines and punishment regime. At its peak the settlement had a population of almost 600 which included prisoners, soldiers, prison guards and their families. The mines closed in 1848 on economic and moral grounds. In Tasmania’s penal institutions religious practice was, at least in theory, considered a critical part of reforming convicts. A 2008 a report for UNESCO notes that this was achieved through: “…The construction of churches and chapels for the use of convict...

Geeveston is a country town on the Huon Highway approximately 45 kilometres south of Hobart. The town is named after William Geeves, an English settler, who received a land grant at what was then called Lightwood Bottom. The settlement was renamed Geeves Town in 1861 before becoming Geeveston. St Peter’s Anglican church has closed in recent years and the building was sold in 2017. [ See No. 1134 ] The church was built in 1971 replacing an earlier church which opened in 1887. The old church was demolished in 1970. There is little information about the establishment of the original church. I have not come across any reports describing the buildings opening which took place in January 1887. A report in the Mercury from April 1887 confirms that the church had been completed: “Among the improvements to the township of late is the completion of the Church of England. A bazaar was held in December last, when sufficient money was netted to effect the necessary work. The church has been lined...

Potters House Christian Fellowship is a Pentecostal church based in the United States of America. It was established in Arizona in 1970 by Wayman Mitchell. In 1978 the Fellowship “planted” its first overseas church in Perth, Western Australia. The Potter's House Christian Fellowship has over 3500 churches worldwide The Potter's House church at Launceston was established by Pastor Greg and Lisa Mitchell in 1986. The church has operated from various premises including the former C T Finney Memorial Chapel on Cameron Street and more recently in the former Charles Street School Hall on the corner of Canning Street. In 2020 the Fellowship purchased the former St Mark’s Anglican church on Hobart Road. The church has recently established a new congregation based at hall in Federal Street, North Hobart. The church also holds meetings at Kingston. * Internationally, The Potter's House has received criticism throughout its existence and has been labelled by many as a cult. Further in...

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. St John’s Presbyterian church on Macquarie Street opened in 1843 after the congregation outgrew the original church. St John’s Presbyterian Manse is located behind the church and fronts on Davey Street. It is named ‘Bellkirk’, a play on the Gaelic word for church and Reverend James Bell, the minister for whom the manse was built. In August 1848 tenders were advertised for the construction of the manse and the building was completed in 1849. It is built in the Late Georgian style and possibly designed by Alexander Dawson.  Not long after Reverend Bell moved into the Manse he became seriously ill and passed away ...

Moonah is a suburb of Greater Hobart and is located approximately 5 kilometres north of the central business district. Moonah was previously known as South Glenorchy before it was developed as a residential area in the late 19th century. Moonah’s Ukrainian Catholic church is located within the Ukrainian Community Centre on the Main Road. The chapel was consecrated in 2010 and serves approximately 100 Ukrainian Catholics. There are around 7000 Ukrainian Catholics Australia-wide. Ukrainians were among the migrants to Tasmania after the Second World War, with many employed in hydro-electric works in the highlands. The majority, about fifty families, eventually settled in Hobart, with about twenty families settling in Launceston. In 1957 the Association of Ukrainians in Tasmania bought a house at 201 Main Road Moonah and converted it into a community hall. In 2006 the Association moved to the current premises located at 185 Main Road. In Launceston premises were built at St Leonards and t...

Carlton River is situated approximately 50 kilometres east of Hobart lies on the west side of the mouth of the Carlton River. The area was settled by the 1820s, with early settlers being McGuinness, Joseph, Quinton and Steele. An independent church, school, Watch House and Post Office were established by the 1840s. With the opening of Port Arthur and the establishment of probation stations, Carlton prospered. With the closure of Port Arthur in 1877 and the opening of the Sorell Causeway in 1874, Carlton went into a steady decline. The Congregational church became active in the Pittwater district in the 1830s and a small community of worshippers met at Carlton in 1838. A burial ground was also established in the same year. In 1938, at the centenary celebration of the establishment of Congregationalism at Carlton, it was recalled that: “Early in 1838, itinerant ministers, under the auspices of the Colonial Missionary Society, pioneered the work of the Congregational Church in the distri...