Churches of Tasmania

Nietta is a rural community situated approximately 30km south of Ulverstone. Settlement of this once densely forested district began in 1886 but it was not until the establishment of a railway line to Ulverstone in 1915 that the area became readily accessible. A post office and a State school were opened in 1910 but the school was subject to frequent closure due to the poor condition of the roads. Methodist and Anglican churches were built in the early 20th century but these are now closed and have been removed. Two Methodist churches were built at Nietta; the first opened in 1920 but was replaced by a second church in 1934. In 1919 land was donated by Mrs Green and in October of that year the Advocate reported that “arrangements were practically completed for the erection of a church”. However, residents of the district were disappointed that the church was not “centrally situated” so as to serve both Nietta South and Nietta. In the same month the Methodist Assembly gave permission...

Elphinstone was once a small rural centre located approximately 8 kilometres from Cressy on the Elphinstone Road. The Elphinstone Methodist Church was opened on 2 May 1909. The congregation had been established eight years earlier with worship conducted in the adjacent State School. The church had previously been situated at Bishopsbourne, located on the road half-way to Carrick and was known as the Liffey Church. The Cressy correspondent for the Hobart Mercury reported on the opening services: “An event of more than ordinary importance has just occurred in our district - the opening of a new Methodist Church at Elphinstone, or rather the removal of the building from a neighbourhood where the congregation had almost vanished to a position where it would be better attended a distance of about 10 miles. The contract was secured by Mr. H. Masters, of Bracknell, and included the taking down, re-erection, iron roof, new porch, and pantry outside, and varnishing inside. The cost was £40. On...

Penguin is a coastal town situated approximately 30 kilometres west of Devonport. It was one of the last coastal towns to be settled in the 1860’s. The Victorian gold rush created a renewed demand for timber and consequently wood cutters and splitters settled in the area. The town was named by the botanist Ronald Campbell Gunn after the penguin rookeries that were once common along this part of the coast. Penguin Baptist Church is a modern building situated on Ironcliffe Road about 2 kilometres from the centre of the town. This building replaced the first church built in 1908 which was situated near the centre of Penguin on the corner of Crescent Street (previously Station Street) and Ironcliffe Road. [ see No. 533 ] Until a few years ago this was the location of ‘The Rock Community Church’ which has since moved to premises on Dooley Street. The new church, known as the ‘Penguin Baptist Centre’, opened in 1995. Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019 Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019 ...

Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania. When it was first settled in 1827 by the Van Diemen’s Land Company it was named Emu Bay. In the 1840’s the settlement was renamed Burnie after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company. St Mary’s Star of the Sea is the second Catholic church built at Burnie. An earlier church, St Saviour’s, was built in 1855 in the centre of the town on the corner of Cately Street and Wilson Street. [ see No. 523 ] The events leading up to the construction of a church on a new site, outside the centre of the city, is explained by the Launceston Examiner in a report published in 1890. The sale of the Cately Street site proved to be problematic and necessitated the involvement of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, which originally donated the land: “Nearly 40 years ago the late Rev. M. Burke, respected and loved by all was the first Roman Catholic priest stationed in this district by the late Right Rev. Bishop Willson. At that...

Summerhill is a suburb of Launceston lying southeast of the city centre and which stretches to the banks of the South Esk River. For a time the area was called Summerdale and this name is reflected in the name of the Summerdale Primary School which stands opposite the Baptist Church. Although established in 1959, the Summerhill Baptist Church’s roots go back to the 1870’s as the Summerhill Christian Mission Church which was associated with Henry Reed’s Mission Church located on Wellington Street. The Summerhill Christian Mission Church will form the subject of a separate article in the near future. Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019 Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019 Photograph: Duncan Grant 2019

The brutality of the convict system in colonial Tasmania is rightly a central theme in popular history. However, a critical point is that for all of the system’s notorious cruelty, it was in fact (at least in theory) a revolutionary system designed to reform the criminal class. As such, religion was an integral part of the penal system in Tasmania and played a critical role in the reform of the convict population. A report from 2008 which advocated World Heritage listing of Australia’s convict sites notes that this was achieved through: “…The construction of churches and chapels for the use of convicts; employment of chaplains at penal stations responsible for the moral improvement of convicts; compulsory attendance at church services; reading of prayers by authorities and ‘private masters’ and distribution of Bibles. Separate churches or rooms were often provided for convicts from different religious denominations. Religious observances were often an essential part of the daily lives...

Burnie’s Gospel Hall is a place of worship for the city’s Christian Brethren. The Christian Brethren, also known as the Plymouth Brethren, originated in Great Britain in the 1820s. By the mid 19th century the movement had spread to Australia with the first revival meetings held in Tasmania in the late 1860’s. As a result of evangelisation fellowships were formed in Hobart, Launceston, the Huon Valley, Smithton, Sheffield, Wynyard, Burnie and Scottsdale by the end of the 1870s. The Brethren placed an emphasis on weekly communion, the baptism of believers by immersion, and evangelism. The Christian Brethren should not be confused with the 'Exclusive Brethren, a restrictive group which broke away in 1848. In Tasmania, most Brethren are 'open', that is, they do not belong to the 'exclusive' Brethren who avoid contact with outsiders to the religion. The 'open' Brethren are evangelists and carry-out community work, including overseas missions. The magnifi...

The origins of Beaconsfield, previously known as Brandy Creek, dates back to the late 1840s with the first discovery of small quantities of gold. Commercial gold mining only got underway in the 1870s which led to a boom in the town’s population. Brandy Creek was renamed Beaconsfield in 1879 in honour of Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield and the British Prime Minister. By this time the reef was the richest gold discovery anywhere in Australia and virtually overnight Beaconsfield had become Tasmania's third largest town. Like most boom towns, churches were soon established and the Wesleyan Methodists and Primitive Methodists arrived at Brand Creek in the mid 1870’s. The Primitive Methodists first appeared in Launceston in 1857 and developed a strong presence in northern Tasmania. Their camp meetings attracted the working classes, who sometimes did not feel well-accepted by the Wesleyan Methodists. The “Primitive” movement began in 1808 led by Methodist lay preacher, Hugh B...