No. 237 - The 7th Day Adventist Church at Launceston

The 7th Day Adventist’s presence in Tasmania began in 1888 with a tent meeting held in Hobart. By 1894 the Adventists were active in Launceston:

“[They] have pitched their camp on the vacant piece of ground adjoining the Oxford Chambers, Brisbane-street, where they hold their first meeting this evening at half-past seven. A commodious tent has been erected which will accommodate at least two hundred people, comfortably seated, and provided with Rochester lamps for lighting and a small organ… The missionaries will probably spend a couple of months in Launceston, and they are hopeful of success”.



The Adventist did meet with some success and there are reports of camp meeting being held in several locations across the city over the next decade, including Inveresk Park and the Sand Hill tram terminus at Glen Dhu. Regular Adventist services were also held in the old Temperance Hall in York Street.

In 1903, the Adventists built their first church in South Launceston on Maitland Street, which was dedicated on April 26th by Pastor Farnsworth of Melbourne.

To support the Adventist ethos of a vegetarian diet, a health food shop was opened in Launceston in 1902. The Sanitarium Health Food Company operated a factory in Derwent Park from 1949 to 1992 to support Tasmania’s Adventist communities.

The church in Maitland Street thrived and was extended in 1944. However, this building was outgrown and the Seventh Day Adventists now worship in modern church on Talbot Street in South Launceston.



Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018

Photograph: Duncan Grant 2018
Sources:


Launceston Examiner Thursday 6 December 1894, page 7
Daily Telegraph Saturday 4 May, 1895, page 5 (Religious Notices)
Daily Telegraph Tuesday 19 February 1901, page 2
North Western Advocate and Emu Bay Times, Wednesday 29 November 1911
Daily Telegraph Wednesday 12 August 1925, page 6
Examiner Monday 30 January 1928, page 7


http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/S/Seventh.htm

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