Churches of Tasmania

This is a short blog entry to supplement an earlier article on the former St Paul’s Anglican church in East Devonport [ See No. 195 ] The Priestly Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) is a society of Catholic priests founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. The society is named after Pope Pius X (1835-1914) who is known for vigorously opposing Modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine. Consequently the SSPX retains the Tridentine Mass and pre-Vatican II liturgical books in Latin which are used for administering the sacraments. The SSPX is not in full communion with the Catholic Church. The SSPX is an international society with churches, priories, seminaries, schools and charitable bodies established in over 60 countries. In Tasmania, the Priestly Society of Saint Pius X has offered a monthly Mass in private homes and hired venues for over 30 years. St Paul’s Anglican church was recently purchased by the SSPX and the building was reopened and blessed on Sunday 25 May 2025 by Fr. D...

Devonport was created in 1890 with the merging of two towns on the opposite banks of the Mersey River: Formby on the west bank and Torquay on the east bank. The area was first settled in the 1840s The Seventh-Day Adventist Church was established in Tasmania in 1888. The denomination originated in the USA in the 1860s. In 1885 a group of Adventists travelled to Australia and began preaching in Melbourne. After a church group was established in Melbourne in 1886 members moved on to Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart. Public tent meetings were held in Sandy Bay in 1888 which led to the establishment of a church at Collinsvale and later at Hobart and Launceston. The Adventists were first active in Devonport around the turn of the 20th century. By 1903 substantial progress had been made towards establishing a permanent congregation as a result of “evangelistic work” undertaken by George Teasdale in West Devonport. In January 1903 the Adventist Union Conference Record recounts: “Brother Teasdale ha...

Tunnack is small rural town located about 20 kilometres south of Oatlands. The district around Tunnack was predominantly settled by Irish-Catholic migrants after the mid-19th century. Settlement was promoted by the passage of the Waste Lands Act (1863) which made available small lots of cheap land for clearing and farming. The original settlements centred around properties at "The Bluff" and "Brandy Bottom”. As the Irish population grew the district was informally known as Limerick. When a township was surveyed at the crossroads to Levendale the name Tunnack was adopted. Tunnack is derived from an Aboriginal word for "cold". Tunnack’s first Catholic church can be dated to 1866 when a 4 acre site at ‘The Bluff’ was granted for a church and burial ground. In June 1868 Father Marum wrote to the Board of Education requesting permission for “the temporary use of a chapel as a school building” and expressed his “desire to comply with the regulations of the Board”. ...