No. 1131 - Gardners Bay - Methodist Church (1893-1941)

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Gardners Bay is rural community approximately 8 kilometres south of Cygnet on the Woodbridge Hill Road. The settlement takes its name from the bay south of Cygnet.

Little is known about the Gardners Bay Methodist church. According to Max Stansell in Tasmanian Methodism:

“Church-work began …very early but was discontinued in the year 1879. It was revived during the 1890s and a chapel was built in 1893…”.

A record of the church’s opening, which took place on Thursday 28 September 1893, was published in the Hobart Mercury:

“The opening of the new Wesleyan Church took place here on September 28. There was a crowded attendance, showing the great interest taken in the event by the people in the district. The building, which supplies a long felt want in the locality, is a wooden structure of pretty design, and substantially built, having sitting accommodation for 100 people. The celebration took the form of a sacred concert, followed by a coffee supper….At the conclusion the Rev. A. T. Holden, B. A., who presided, expressed his pleasure at seeing such a large gathering, and in the course of his remarks briefly referred to the encouraging success that had attended the efforts of the Wesleyan denomination in Gardener's Bay during the past three years. A hearty vote of of thanks was accorded Mr. W. Henley for his gift of the land on which the church stands, after which the benediction was pronounced, and a most enjoyable evening brought to a close…”.

Another report in the Mercury records that the church was to "provide accomodation for Sunday-school children in the locality".

The only known photograph of the building appears in Frank Bolt’s ‘Vanishing Tasmania: a photographic essay’. According to Bolt, services ceased in 1941 and the church was removed in 1987.

Cover photograph



Gardners Bay Methodist Church. (1986) Frank Bolt

          
Sources:

Mercury, Thursday 7 September 1893, page 3
Mercury, Wednesday 4 October 1893, page 3

Bolt, Frank. Vanishing Tasmania : a photographic essay / by Frank Bolt Waratah Kingston, Tasmania, 1992.

Stansall, M. E. J. and Methodist Church of Australasia.  Tasmanian Methodism, 1820-1975 / [by M.E.J. Stansall ... et al]  Methodist Church of Australasia Launceston, Tas  1975






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