Churches of Tasmania

A mortuary chapel is a building typically located within a cemetery or crematorium. It is used to hold funeral services, memorial services, or to temporarily house a coffined body before burial or cremation. With the advent of commercial funeral chapels in the early 20th century, mortuary chapel’s became redundant. In Tasmania mortuary chapels were located at cemeteries such as Carr Villa (Launceston); Cornelian Bay (Hobart); Devonport General Cemetery and Queenborough Cemetery (Sandy Bay). The closure of Hobart’s St. George's and St. David's burial-grounds in 1872, following the development of a new cemetery at Cornelian Bay, greatly inconvenienced the residents of Queenborough and Sandy Bay: “…the closing of these places imposed upon them the necessity of having to go to Cornelian Bay, a distance of at least four or five miles. Two or three funerals in the depth of winter — through cold, rain, and mud — and the inhabitants were roused”. In 1873 two Sandy Bay businessmen, Geor...