Churches of Tasmania

Dominic College in Glenorchy was established in 1973 as Tasmania’s first co-educational Catholic college. It was formed by amalgamating St John's Primary; Savio Primary; Holy Name School and Savio College. The College is rooted in the Salesian and Dominican traditions of the founding schools. It is located on a 28-hectare site that previously housed the Catholic orphanage ‘Boys’ Town’. The College’s chapel, an award wining contemporary building, was constructed in 2006 and was designed by Elvio Brianese. The chapel is positioned to blend into the natural environment and as such features a dramatic glass wall that uses Mount Wellington as an "altar backdrop”. It is the fourth chapel established on the College site. The first chapel (1945–1946) was housed within “Grantleigh”, a large house and estate once owned by Alfred Sawyer, an orchardist and local politician. The property was acquired when Boys’ Town was established in May 1945. With the conclusion of the Second World War ...

Fern Tree is a suburb of Hobart located on the eastern side of Mount Wellington, about 8 kilometres from the city centre. It is named after the ‘Fern Tree Inn’ established in August 1861 by Alfred Hall, a local landowner. The Inn took its name from the ‘tree fern’ (Dicksonia antarctica) which are found in abundance in the area. St Raphael’s is the only church built at Fern Tree. Anglican services were first held at “St Chad’s”, the summer home of Alfred Mault and his two daughters, Agnes and Martha [ 1 ]. The home of Miss Sarah Hall, of Fern Tree Inn, was also used for services. In January 1892 a “strawberry festival and cake fair” was held at the Fern Tree Bower in aid of a building fund for an Anglican church. The success of the festival resulted in it becoming annual fundraising event, known as the Fern Tree “Strawberry Feast”, which continued to be held well into the 1940s. Two sites were offered for a church, one by Mrs. Dunkley of Leslie Farm, and the other by Mrs Emily Dobson [ ...

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”. ...

Queenstown is the largest town in the West Coast region. At one time it was Tasmania's third largest town. In common with most West coast towns, Queenstown’s history has been shaped by the once dominant mining industry. The origins of Queenstown’s Presbyterian church date to 1897 when Reverend Matthew Hart, minister of Chalmers Church, Launceston, proposed that a church be established at the rapidly growing town. On 1 March 1897 a meeting was held at McKay, Sampson and McKinlay’s department store which stood at the corner of Orr and Sticht Streets. Following the meeting Mr R.A. Barton was appointed as missionary to Queenstown. On 30 June 1898, Mr James Cairns, owner of Cairns Hall, granted the Presbyterian community free use of the building for a period of three months. On 3 July church services commenced and a Sunday school was established on the same day. In 1899 the construction of a church was seriously contemplated following a donation of of £50 by Mr Robert Sticht, the gener...

St John’s Anglican church is Launceston’s oldest place of worship. The bicentenary of the first Divine Service, held on Friday 16 December 1825, is celebrated this year. Before the construction of St John’s was completed, religious services were conducted in various buildings which were prepared as temporary places of worship. One of these included a converted blacksmith’s shop in Cameron Street where parishioners were summoned to “Divine worship” by an iron drum. The early history of the Anglican church at Launceston (and George Town) is closely bound up with the life of Reverend John Youl (1773 – 1827), the first chaplain appointed in the north of Tasmania.  This blog entry reproduces a paper read by Rev. W. R. Barrett to the Northern Clerical Reading Union which he delivered in 1928. The paper focuses on the life of John Youl and his work in George Town and Launceston. The following extract was published in the Launceston Examiner: It is my purpose in this paper to put toge...