No. 1036 - New Norfolk - Derwent Valley Salvation Army Corps

New Norfolk is a large town on the banks of the Derwent River approximately 40 kilometres west of Hobart. It is a historic town mostly settled by Norfolk Islanders soon after its establishment. When Governor Lachlan Macquarie visited the township he named it Elizabeth Town after his wife. However, it was later decided to adopt the name New Norfolk to acknowledge the new settlers.

New Norfolk has been the home of at least 10 religious denominations since the area was settled over two hundred years ago. The Salvation Army had an early presence in the town with a group of evangelists from Hobart preaching in 1887. There are few records of the ‘Army’s’ early years in the New Norfolk. Gatherings took place in a building on Montague Street.

After the Great War the expense involved in maintaining a Corps at New Norfolk led to the withdrawal of the Salvation Army’ in about 1920. The ‘Army’ was reestablished in the town in 1936 with meetings held in the old library hall. When a bequest of £500 was left “for the advancement of the Army work in the Derwent Valley” a new hall was built on Hackett Street. In 2003 the Hackett Street Hall was ‘decommissioned’ and vacated. After this the Salvation Army used the Seventh Day Adventist Church as a place of worship before new facilities were established on Hamilton Road, north of the Derwent River.

The new Salvation Army premises on Hamilton Road - source Derwent Valley Salvation Army Facebook Page


Sources and links of interest:

https://www.salvationarmy.org.au/derwentvalley/





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Welcome to Churches of Tasmania

No. 624 - Dunalley - St Martin's Anglican Church - "In grateful memory of the men who fought in the Great War"

No. 592 - Gretna - St Mary the Virgin - "Worthy of Imitation"