Churches of Tasmania

St Helens is the largest town on Tasmania’s east coast. It was established as a fishing village and whaling station in the 1830s. When tin was discovered in the hinterland in the 1870s, St Helens was developed as a port for the mines. It was named by Captain Furneaux after a town of the same name on the Isle of Wight, England. In the 19th century the St Helens district was also referred to as Georges Bay. The history of the parish dates back to about 1862, when Rev. John Chambers, who was then in charge of the Fingal, Cullenswood, and Falmouth districts, commenced holding occasional services at St Helens. In 1867 six acres of land was granted to the Church of England “for church, burial and school purposes”. In late 1870 a weatherboard church was built on Tully Street. There is no surviving written record of the church’s opening and consecration. However this likely took place in early December 1870 when Bishop Bromby visited Goulds Country. In February 1871 a report on a meeting of th...

One of goals of the Churches of Tasmania project is to record every place of worship established in Tasmania since settlement began. A significant number of early places of worship were associated with Tasmania’s convict system with chapels built at prisons, probation stations and ‘female factories’. Little is known about many of these chapels which were often temporary structures or used for only short periods of time. The Kings Meadows convict station, which was situated south of Launceston, was a short-lived convict facility used from 1836 to 1837. It was built to house prisoners working on a scheme to bring fresh water to Launceston from the South Esk River: “An ambitious scheme to provide fresh water to Launceston was begun in 1836. The original plan was to tunnel from the South Esk down stream from "Riverview", at Evandale, then flow through open channels, following the contour lines into Launceston, ending on top of Windmill Hill. From there, water was to be gravity fe...

Dover is a small town on the Huon Highway approximately 80 kilometres south of Hobart. The area was first settled in the 1850s. The original name for Dover was Port Esperance after one of the ships of the French Admiral Bruni D’Entrecasteaux. The Salvation Army was active in the Huon soon after its arrival in Tasmanian in the 1880s. The ‘Army’ commenced its work at Franklin in 1893 and Huonville in 1897. in 1908 Ranelagh became the centre for the Salvation Army and further centres were established at Crabtree and Dover. In June 1913 Lieutenant Stephen Rappell was appointed to take command of the Corps at Dover and soon after this fundraising to build a hall began. In early 1915 a timber hall was built by Ensign Etterstadt with the assistance of volunteer labour. The hall, which measured 40ft by 20ft, was officially opened in early May 1915. The Huon Times reported: "The Salvation Army is doing splendid work in this district, and is making good! progress. For a long time, however, ...

The Hutchins School was founded in 1846 as a memorial to The Venerable William Hutchins, first Archdeacon of the colony of Van Diemen’s Land. The school was established by the Church of England as a feeder school for Christ’s College at Bishopsbourne. [ see No. 354 ] The Hutchins School commenced under Headmaster J R Buckland at Ingle Hall in lower Macquarie Street, one of the oldest homes still standing in Hobart. In 1849 it was relocated further up Macquarie Street to a purpose-built schoolhouse designed by Tasmanian architect, William Archer. In 1957 a new Junior School opened at Sandy Bay. The Senior School moved to Sandy Bay in stages, after the purchase of the former Queenborough Cemetery in 1960. The Macquarie Street school buildings were sold in 1965 after the relocation to Sandy Bay was completed. In 1936 Tasmanian architect Alexander North was commissioned to design a school chapel to be built at the Barrack Street side of the Macquarie Street site. This became the focus of a...

This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches and religious orders. These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, orphanages, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a basic record of these buildings, including of those that no longer exist. Chalmers Presbyterian Church manse is both literally and figuratively in the shadow of Launceston’s iconic church on Prince’s Square. Both the church and its manse were built in 1860 and were designed by Tasmanian born colonial architect, William Clayton. Clayton also designed several significant Launceston buildings including St Andrew's Kirk, the Mechanics' Institute and The Theatre Royal. Clayton was also responsible for planning Launceston’s Quadrant. Both the church and its manse were sold in the 1980s. The manse has been somewhat altered and converted into two flats. C...

In 1898 the Christian Brethren established a Gospel Hall on Harrington Street. The building was previously a ‘Baptist Chapel’ built in 1841. The Brethren arrived in Australia in the 1860s as a result of the efforts of the immigrant English evangelists of the 1859 revival. These included Frank Brewster, John Baird, William Brown, Charles Perrin and many others. The evangelists preached to large congregations and won converts who established local assemblies and built gospel halls. The Hobart Brethren rented the old Baptist chapel from May 1898. For the next 9 years meetings at the Harrington Street Gospel Hall were regularly advertised in the Mercury. Visiting preachers and overseas missionaries regularly addressed meetings. In 1906 the Harrington Street building was sold by the Baptist Union which caused the Brethren to find new premises. In April 1906 the Mercury reported: “For some time past services of an evangelical character have been held by a body of Christ was known as the ...

This ‘blog entry’ is one of a series of articles about places of worship that are barely represented in the historical record. Often no images of these buildings have survived. My hope is that these brief articles may result in further information and photographs coming to light enabling a more complete history of Tasmanian churches. Dover is a small town on the Huon Highway approximately 80 kilometres south of Hobart. It was first settled in the 1850s. The original name for Dover was Port Esperance after one of the ships of the French Admiral Bruni D’Entrecasteaux. Very little is known about a group of ‘evangelists’ known as ‘the Christians’ who established a place of worship at Dover in the late 1876. The following information about the group appears in ‘A History of Dover and Port Esperance’ written by Norm Beechey and Dorothy Baker: “The group of Christians who began to follow the teachings of Brethren Moyse came under the leadership of John Drysdale and his sister Marjory, their ...

The focus of this article is exclusively on the ‘Memorial Church’ at Mount Saint Canice. The more controversial history of Mount Saint Canice Convent of the Good Shepherd (also known Magdalen Home) and other buildings on the site will be the topic of a further article on ‘Churches of Tasmania’. The Catholic Church’s Mount St Canice property at Sandy Bay was established as a reformatory for “fallen”women. It was run by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd on farmland purchased in November 1886 with funds from the estate of Father William John Dunne. The site covered an area of approximately eleven hectares and comprised of Magdalene House, a presbytery, the Memorial Church, Stella Maris and several other buildings. In 1995 Mount St Canice served as the Catholic Church’s administrative headquarters. It is now a retirement complex operated by Southern Cross Care. The Memorial Church was built as a memorial to Father Dunne, a former Vicar-General of the Catholic Church in Tasmania. The church ...