No. 1535 - Barnes Bay - St John's Chapel and Schoolroom (c.1846)

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Barnes Bay is a small settlement on the northern end of Bruny Island. Barnes Bay was the site of the ferry terminal from 1954 to 1983. The settlement and the bay is named after one of the first settlers on the island. The name was in use as early as 1829.

St John’s Chapel and Schoolroom was built about the same time as St Peter’s Anglican church, the ruins of which can be seen at Variety Bay, South Bruny. In July 1845 The Herald of Tasmania reported:

“Mr William Lawrence has promised to make over to the Church ten acres of land, and also build a small Chapel at his own cost; whilst Mr. Pybus has offered the free gift of a convenient site near Barnes’s Bay for the erection of a similar building; at which places the Catechist recently licensed by the Bishop will be enabled alternately to officiate”.

There is strong evidence that there was personal rivalry between the two landholders. Richard Pybus and William Lawrence’s gift of land for the building of the two churches is evidence of this. The foundation stone of William Lawrence’s church at Variety Bay was laid in July 1846 and it is likely that construction of St Peter’s began a short time after this. St Peter’s was probably completed in 1847. St Peter’s was situated on the hill overlooking Simmonds Bay at the southern end of Barnes Bay. St Peter's was built with subscriptions and a grant from 'The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts'. The church was consecrated in August 1850. The building was also used as a school. Very little is known about either the church or the school.

In 1895 the old church was replaced by a new building on another site in the vicinity. With the opening of the new church the old St Peter’s was used exclusively as a school until 1908. In that year the school was moved to the Cricket Hall at the Barnes Bay settlement which was located behind the present CWA Hall.

In January 1920 the old church was destroyed in bushfires. A memorial plaque and a faint outline of its foundations are the only tangible reminder of the old St John’s church and schoolroom. No photograph or image of St John’s exists.


A memorial plaque marks the site of the original church.


Sources and further information:

The Herald of Tasmania, Friday 18 July 1845, page 2
Hobart Town Advertiser, Tuesday 16 June 1846, page 2
Mercury, Thursday 19 December 1895, page 3

Henslowe, Dorothea I and Hurburgh, Isa. Our heritage of Anglican churches in Tasmania / by Dorothea I. Henslowe ; sketches by Isa Hurburgh s.n [S.l. 1978

https://www.aaybee.au/BarnesBayChapel/History.html

NOTES ON BRUNY ISLAND CHURCH HISTORY
(First compiled by Norma Campbell and revised by Kathy Duncombe in 2022).


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