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Showing posts from July, 2024

No. 1505 - Butlers Gorge - Anglican Chapel (1947)

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Butlers Gorge is a former Hydro Electric Commission village located in the Central Highlands region. It forms a part of the Derwent scheme that comprises eleven hydroelectric power stations. Butlers Gorge Power Station was the first station built in the scheme and its workers’ settlement was the first true villages built by the Commission. Tasmania’s vast hydro-electric scheme dates back to 1914 when the Tasmanian Government bought a small electricity company in financial difficulty and created the Hydro-Electric Department. The first power station at Waddamana in the Great Lake Power Scheme was opened in 1916. Over a period of 80 years, 30 power stations and 54 major dams were built. Construction camps and villages were built to support major projects and during this period 10 villages were established, most of which had a full social infrastructure including a school, public hall and a church. After the Second World War, large numbers of migrants were recruited to construct dams and ...

No. 1504 - Hobart - Bathurst Street - Union Chapel (1864)

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The Playhouse Theatre on Bathurst Street has been used as a venue for public entertainment for almost a century. The building was constructed in 1864 as a chapel for a Congregational sect led by Reverend John Wilkes Simmons. Following Simmons’ death in 1900 the chapel became the home of the Helping Hand Mission which was administered by Hobart’s Congregational Church. [ See No. 1362 ] In 1935 the building was sold and used as a cinema. In 1938 the former chapel was purchased by Hobart Repertory Theatre Society and was reopened as the Playhouse Theatre. The history of the Union Chapel is closely bound up with its founder, Reverend John Wilkes Simmons. Simmons was born in Birmingham in 1831 and upon completion of his schooling he trained for the ministry. He was ordained in 1856 and took charge of an Independent Church at Olney, Buckinghamshire. In 1860 he joined the London Missionary Society with the intention of engaging in missionary work in the Pacific ‘South Sea Islands’. He left ...

No. 1503 - West Kentish - Baptist Church (1891-1968)

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West Kentish is a village on the Kentish Road that leads to Lake Barrington west of Sheffield. It is named after Government Surveyor Nathaniel Kentish, who, with a party of 20 probationary convicts explored and surveyed the area. In earlier times the area around West Kentish was sometimes referred to as “Promised Land”. The first Baptist church at West Kentish opened in October 1891. The weatherboard church served the Baptists for 75 years before it was replaced by a modern brick structure in 1968. The Baptists commenced meetings at West Kentish in 1890 with services held in a barn on the property of Angus McNab. In 1891 McNab donated land for the construction of a church built by voluntary labour which included James Boutcher; Ben Martin; Archie McNab as well as the Davis; Jubb; May and Nibbs families. The North West Post records that a tea meeting was held on Wednesday 22 October to celebrate the opening of the church: “…A good many went out from Sheffield, shopkeepers in particul...

No. 1502 - Strahan - Holy Trinity Anglican Church (1892)

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Strahan is a small town on the west coast lying at the western end of the Lyell Highway. It was originally developed as a port of access for the hinterland mining settlements. The town was known as Long Bay or Regatta Point until 1877, when it was formally named after the colony’s Governor, Sir George Cumine Strahan. The first Anglican service at Strahan took place in October 1887 and was held in the Custom’s shed. A Sunday school was established in 1889 and in 1890 an acre of land was purchased off Mr Gaffney for the sum of £50. Until the opening of Holy Trinity Anglican church in 1892, services were held in the Strahan Court House. In April 1891 plans for a weatherboard church were approved and construction by the contractor, Mr Goddard, commenced later in that year. In May 1892 The Tasmanian reported: “Rev. Oberlin Harris paid his usual monthly visit to Strahan…in the afternoon, in company with two of the church managers, he visited the new church in Harvey-street, which is nearly c...

No. 1501 - Bronte Park - St Paul's non-denominational Protestant Church (1952-1959)

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Bronte Park is a former village on the Central Plateau built by the Hydro Electric Commission. It was established to house workers constructing the Tungatinah and Nive River schemes. By the early 1950s it accommodated 700 workers and the village had a store, police station, post office, school, cinema as well as two churches. When construction work ended in the late 1950s most of the workers left. The remains of the village were sold to a private operator in 1991. Tasmania’s vast hydro-electric scheme dates back to 1914 when the Tasmanian Government bought a small electricity company in financial difficulty and created the Hydro-Electric Department. The first power station at Waddamana in the Great Lake Power Scheme was opened in 1916. Over a period of 80 years, 30 power stations and 54 major dams were built. Construction camps and villages were built to support major projects and during this period 10 villages were established, most of which had a full social infrastructure including ...

No. 1500 - Bronte Park - St Michael the Archangel Catholic Church (1952-1959)

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Bronte Park is a former village on the Central Plateau built by the Hydro Electric Commission. It was established to house workers constructing the Tungatinah and Nive River schemes. By the early 1950s it accommodated 700 workers and the village had a store, police station, post office, school, cinema as well as two churches. When construction work ended in the late 1950s most of the workers left. The remains of the village were sold to a private operator in 1991. Tasmania’s vast hydro-electric scheme dates back to 1914 when the Tasmanian Government bought a small electricity company in financial difficulty and created the Hydro-Electric Department. The first power station at Waddamana in the Great Lake Power Scheme was opened in 1916. Over a period of 80 years, 30 power stations and 54 major dams were built. Construction camps and villages were built to support major projects and during this period 10 villages were established, most of which had a full social infrastructure including ...