Churches of Tasmania

National Park is a small settlement on the Gordon River Road. It developed around the entrance to the Mount Field National Park. A railway once transported day-trippers from Hobart to the National Park which was established in 1916. At its peak the settlement had a school, church, hall, a railway station, post office and a hotel. Little is known about the Anglican church which was established near the entrance to the Park in 1920. It was housed in a public hall built in 1920. In December 1920 the Mercury reported: “The thriving centre of the Upper Derwent, National Park, was the scene of unusual activity on Wednesday, 28th inst., being the occasion of the official opening of the new Public Hall. There was a very representative gathering from all parts of the district, and everything went off very successfully…. Councillor T. W. Shoobridge… at the outset complimented the people on the completion of such splendid building. It would, serve a very useful purpose, and…that all denomination

This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches.These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including of those that no longer exist. Richmond is a heritage town located in the Coal River Valley approximately 25 kilometres east of Hobart. The valley was one of the earliest areas penetrated by the first British settlers outside of Hobart. Richmond’s origins go back to 1823 when a bridge was constructed across the Coal River. Beyond the bridge lies the church of St John the Evangelist, Australia’s oldest Catholic church along with Tasmania’s first Catholic school. Another historical building on the site is the old Catholic presbytery which was later converted into a covent with an oratory for the Sisters of St Joseph. The history of the establishme

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. Dover’s Catholic church, one of the oldest original churches south of Hobart, was built in 1866. It is the southernmost Catholic church in Australia and the oldest timber building in Dover. When the church was opened and consecrated in January 1867 the intention was to dedicate the building to St “John the Baptist”. This was later changed to “St Mary of Hope”. It was named St Mary Our Hope, reflecting Port Esperance Bay, with “esperance” meaning “hope”. In January 1867 the Mercury published a lengthy and interesting report describing the church’s official opening: “The new Church of St. John’s, at Port Esperance, was consecrated last Tuesday by the Right Rev. Dr. Murphy, Bishop of Hobart Town, assisted by the Very Rev. Dr. Dunne, Vicar-General, the Rev.

Westerway is a small town approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Hobart and is situated close to Mount Field National Park. Westerway was previously known as Russell or Russelldale, after the Surgeon J. J. Russell, one of a party of explorers who discovered a set of waterfalls near Fenton Forest. A report in 1921 described the settlement as having only “a score or so of unpainted weatherboard dwellings” and being “the product of only the last three years, since the coming of Martin and Co.'s mill [where] practically the whole male population above school age, are employed…”. Although three religious denominations were represented at Westerway, no churches remain. In 2004 the Catholic church was destroyed in a fire while a church used by the Anglicans and Methodists has been removed. Westerway’s Anglican church was housed in a former Methodist church built in 1921. For reasons which are not clear the church was used by the Methodists intermittently with services ceasing in the ea

This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches. These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including of those which no longer exist. Buckland is a small historic village on the Tasman Highway about 70 kilometres east of Hobart. It was originally known as Prossers Plains, after a convict Thomas Prosser, who escaped in 1808 and evaded authorities by hiding out in the area. In 1846 Governor Franklin renamed the settlement in honour of Dean Buckland, a well-known geologist. The main attraction in the village is the church of St.John the Baptist. Reverend Frederick Cox was one of six ordained ministers secured for Van Diemen’s Land by Bishop Francis Nixon. Cox arrived in Hobart in February 1846 and was given charge of the Prossers Plain district w

Notre Dame Priory is a Catholic Benedictine monastery located on the Jerusalem Estate near Colebrook. The community was founded in 2017 and is the second Catholic monastery established in Tasmania. In 2018, the community purchased Harwick House (c.1857) near Colebrook. In early 2019 the monastery moved into the old manor house on the Jerusalem Estate. In December 1919 an old wooden church, ‘Holy Family Church’, located in the Launceston suburb of St Leonards, was transported to Jerusalem Estate. This is the second time the church had been moved as it was originally located in the mining town of Pioneer in Tasmania’s north east. Known as St Anthony’s Catholic church, it was built in 1911 and moved to St Leonards in 1947. [ See No. 267 ] On 25 March 2021 the chapel was blessed and dedicated by Archbishop Julian Porteous as the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception of Our Lady. Further information about the Notre Dame Priory can be found via the links provided at the end of this page. Chape

Westerway is a township approximately 70 kilometres northwest of Hobart and is situated close to Mount Field National Park. Westerway was previously known as Russell or Russelldale, after the Surgeon J. J. Russell, one of a party of explorers who discovered a set of waterfalls near Fenton Forest. Westerway was established after World war One. A report in 1921 described the settlement as having only “a score or so of unpainted weatherboard dwellings” and being “the product of only the last three years, since the coming of Martin and Co.'s mill [where] practically the whole male population above school age, are employed…”. Although three religious denominations were represented at Westerway, no churches remain. In 2004 the Catholic church was destroyed in a fire while a church used by the Anglicans and Methodists has been removed. Westerway’s Methodist church was opened and consecrated on Saturday 24 September 1921, the same day as the opening of a Methodist church at the neighbourin

Fentonbury is rural settlement located about 30 kilometres north west of New Norfolk. The area was named to honour the parliamentarian Captain Michael Fenton (1789-1874). Very little is known about the first Methodist church built at Fentonbury which was located at 264 Ellendale Road. The building was destroyed in a bushfire which swept through the district in January 1914. A new church was built on the same site and in 1920. This building was removed in 1956. In “Tasmanian Methodism”, Reverend Max Stansall states that the first church was opened on 16 May 1897 and “was constructed on a block of land which was given to the Church for that purpose”. There is no published record of the opening of the church and I have found only a single newspaper reference to the establishment of the church in the previous year when Mercury reported: “A new building is being erected at Fentonbury for religious purposes, under the auspices of Mr. L. M. Shoobridge, who takes a great interest in the plac

Ware Street, (now Feltham Street) was the location of a Sunday school and Mission which operated for a period of almost 90 years. The neighbourhood around Federal Street (previously called Colville Street) and Feltham Street was once an area of considerable poverty. This article will focus on the Ware Street Baptist Mission which was established in the mid 1920s. The Ware Street Mission hall was built in 1859 as a branch of the Campbell Street Sunday School Association. [ See No. 1550 ] In 1885 the building was sold by the Sunday School Association. Out of concern that the area would no longer have a place of worship, the building was rented by the Holy Trinity Anglican parish. The building then became known as as the ‘Ware Street Mission’. It was used as an Anglican mission until 1896 when a new brick Mission building was constructed on Federal Street. The Ware Street hall was then used for a variety of purposes including a public hall. In 1927 it became the premises of an “Undenomina

Hastings is located in south-western Tasmania and lies approximately 6 kilometres west of Dover. It was once a thriving timber town built around the large Hastings timber mill. The discovery of good stands of timber in the 1870s led to the growth of the town and its port at Ida Bay. In the early 1880s the settlement at Hastings was described in some detail by a correspondent for the Hobart Mercury: “Hastings has, in connection with the timber, cutting business, about 21 miles of tramway, laid into almost inexhaustible and grand beds of timber, and the establishment employs, direct, from 50 to 60 hands. There are 54 buildings of one description and another dotted about, some of them surrounded with good patches of cultivation, and the entire population comprises about 254 souls. Amongst the public establishments may be mentioned a very good school, under Mr. Langley, the books of which show an average of 40; a post and telegraph office, the latter managed by Mrs. Langley. There is also