Churches of Tasmania

St Joseph’s, Hobart’s oldest Catholic church, is located at the corner of Harrington and Macquarie Streets. It was built following the appointment of Father John Joseph Therry as Vicar-General of Tasmania in 1839. Therry was an ambitious church builder but his incautious handling of finances became the cause of considerable controversy. He intended to build a church at “Mount Carmel”, the site of St Virgil’s Chapel [ see No. 944 ], now the location of St Mary’s Cathedral. St Virgil’s had been abandoned in 1836 due to the deterioration of the building and Mass was held at the Argyle Rooms until St Joseph’s opened in 1841. It was Therry’s intention that St Joseph’s would serve as a secondary church until a more substantial church could be built at Mount Carmel. However, given that St Mary’s Cathedral was only completed in 1866, St Joseph’s unofficially served as Hobart’s first Catholic cathedral for a quarter of a century. Indeed, the first Bishop of Hobart, Robert William Willson, was i...