No. 1183 - Irishtown - Union and Baptist Church (1906)

Irishtown is small rural town on the Irishtown Road, approximately 10 kilometres south of Smithton. The area was first settled in the late 1850s when it was known as Upper Duck Creek.

Irishtown’s Baptist Church was established as a Union Church. Plans to open a church date to 1904 and the building was completed in 1906. The church was mostly used by Baptists who had the longest period of involvement. The building was also used by the Christian Brethren, Methodists, Presbyterians and briefly by Seventh Day Adventists.

A single report records the church’s opening in March 1906:

“After nearly two years of work, the Union Church of Irishtown has been completed, and was opened by Rev. Tulloch, of Stanley. There were fully 100 present. Mrs W.R. Johns played for the choir”.

The land on which the church was built was donated by Mr. Albert Thorpe in 1904. The church was disused for periods of time but was reopened by the Baptists in the 1930s.

The church closed in the 1980s and was converted into a cottage.

Irishtown Baptist Church  c.1995 - photograph: Jennifer Hemsley


Sources:


The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times, Thursday 17 March 1904, page 2
The Mercury, Tuesday 27 March 1906, page 2

Hemsley, Jennifer Around the country circuits : reminiscences of the Baptist Church family throughout "Tassie's top half". Regal Press, Launceston, Tas, 1996.








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