Churches of Tasmania

Ranelagh is a township situated on the Huon River approximately 2 kilometres north of Huonville. Formerly known as Ranelagh Junction it had previously shared the name ‘Victoria’ with neighbouring Huonville. Four religious denominations have been represented at Ranelagh including Methodist, Catholic, Salvation Army and the Anglican. The Anglican presence at Ranelagh dates back to 1839. By 1850 a simple ‘bark church’ was in use. In all, three churches were built in the second half of the 19th century and the sequence of their establishment can be summarised as follows: 1853 - The first permanent church, a brick building, was constructed in 1853. It was consecrated in the following year. The building could seat about 100 people but little more is known about it. 1879 - A second church was built. This was a timber structure which was consecrated in 1880. 1896 - A third church (the present building) was built after a fire destroyed the earlier church. While little is known about the second ...

Kingston is a large town located approximately 12 kilometres south of Hobart. The area was first settled in 1804 and was known as Brown’s River, after Scottish botanist Robert Brown, who had visited the area. The settlement later became known as Kingston which was eventually officially adopted in 1882. The Uniting Church at Kingston is located on a 3 acre site at Boronia Hill, which previously served as a Presbyterian youth campsite, Rowallan Park. The camp operated from the 1950s through to the 1970s. The site included a basic wooden church hall and simple dormitory facilities. It was named after Lord Rowallan (Thomas Corbett), who served as the Chief Scout of the British Commonwealth from 1945 to 1959. During the post-World War II era, it was highly popular for churches to name camp sites and bush properties after prominent scouting figures to highlight outdoor education, resilience, and youth fellowship When the Presbyterian, Methodist, and Congregational churches merged in 1977 to ...

St John’s Presbyterian church was the third Presbyterian church built at Hobart. The first church, which opened in 1824, still exists and is located behind the Scots Memorial Uniting Church (then called St Andrew’s) on Bathurst Street. [ See No. 1524 ] By the time St Andrew’s opened in 1837 it was already evident that the building would not be large enough to accomodate the Presbyterian community. The fact that three Presbyterian churches were built within the space of 20 years is testimony to Hobart’s Scottish community, who, while not the largest group numerically, exerted a vastly disproportionate level of influence over the colony's economy, architecture, media, and civic institutions. The arrival of Scottish free settlers established a strong Presbyterian foothold in the colony. In 1822, the Reverend Archibald Macarthur arrived in Hobart as the first ordained Presbyterian minister. Macarthur was replaced by Rev. Dr John Lillie, (1837–1854) who is widely regarded as the most i...

The Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic religious order founded in 1866 at Penola in South Australia. Its first member and Superior was Mary MacKillop. The Sisters were active in several Australian states in education and child welfare, establishing several schools, orphanages and babies’ and children’s Homes. The Sisters have been in Tasmania since their arrival in 1887 when they established the first Josephite school in Westbury. Since then, they have ministered in 25 schools and numerous parishes across Tasmania. In 1968 a Josephite Convent was established at Thirza Street in New Town. The building was blessed and opened by Archbishop Guilford Young on 19 August 1968. Initially it operated as a nursing home and hostel for Sisters of Saint Joseph. In time hospitality was also offered to members of other religious congregations and relatives and friends of the Sisters during times of illness. By 1989 it had become clear that St Joseph’s was too small to be eligibl...

Rivulet is a residential Aged Care Facility situated alongside the Hobart Rivulet which runs past the property. Rivulet was acquired by Southern Cross Care in 2020. Southern Cross Care was established in October 1972 by the Knights of the Southern Cross, a Catholic community group of laymen with a mission to provide dignified and respect-based care for the elderly. The Rivulet Aged Care facility on Gore Street is located on a site deeply layered with Hobart's colonial history. It was once the site of the Derwent Distillery established in 1823 and the area evolved into a major brewing and manufacturing hub. In 1872, William Gracie (a former manager at Cascade Brewery) took over the business. He demolished the old structures to build a new, five-storey stone and brick Artillery Brewery in 1873. In 1883, the premises were leased to Johnstone Brothers (Messrs. Johnstone and Co.). They converted the brewery into a steam-powered woollen mill. The mill produced blankets and tweeds before ...

Shipwrights Point is now known as Port Huon. It was so named as it was the centre of boatbuilding in the district. For many years it was well known for regattas which attracted large numbers of spectators. A visitor to the area in 1875 described the settlement as follows: “Its population numbers perhaps a hundred and fifty, the labouring portion of which are mainly employed in connection with the shipbuilding yards of Messrs. Inches and Sons and Messrs. Hawkins and Co. Old Mr. Inches, by the way, settled here more than thirty years ago, started the industry with which his name will long be associated, and gave to the town the descriptive appellation it still bears. With some slight intermissions, shipbuilding has been carried on here ever since….Mr. Hawkins, in addition to his shipbuilding business, some years ago started a jam manufactory, which, though not of course so large as kindred establishments in Hobart Town, is remarkably complete in its appointments. Steam is used in the man...

Forteviot is a significant historic house built in 1899 for Alexander John Harley (1854-1905), headmaster of the Macquarie Street State School. The house is named after Forteviot, a village in the Perthshire region of Scotland, the birthplace of Alexander Harley’s father. The large Victorian-style house, located at Sandy Bay, on the shore of the River Derwent, was designed by architects Robert Flack Ricards and Douglas Salier. In 1958 Forteviot was purchased by the Catholic Archdiocese of Hobart. For a brief period the house was a base for Sacre Coeur, a prayer community of lay women who promoted educational, missionary and parish work of the Catholic Church. In 1961 Forteviot was purchased from the Archdiocese by the Society of Christian Doctrine. The Society of Christian Doctrine, widely known as the Preca Community, is an international society of Catholic lay faithful. It was founded in Malta in 1907 by St George Preca. The community consists of celibate men and women who dedicate t...

Longley is a rural settlement approximately 20 kilometres south of Hobart. The area was originally named Leslie, a name that has been preserved in Leslie Hill which lies on the eastern side of Longley. The focus of this article is on the first Catholic church built at Longley. St Columba’s opened in 1885 and was destroyed in bushfires which swept through Southern Tasmania in 1898. It was replaced by a new church in 1899. While the church existed for a little over 10 years, and no photograph of the building exists, the building’s history is vividly captured in three newspaper reports, covering the churches beginnings through to its destruction. The reports from the Hobart Mercury have been mostly reproduced here in full as they beautifully capture the texture of life of the faithful Catholic community living along the Huon Track. The first report tells the story of the ceremonial laying of the church’s foundation stone on Sunday 9 March 1884: “Yesterday, in the presence of a large co...

Goodwood is a small residential suburb found near Bowen Bridge south-east of the Brooker Highway. It was named after the nearby Goodwood Racecourse which was later renamed Elwick Racecourse. Most houses in Goodwood were built in the 1950s as public housing. Little information is available concerning a short-lived Catholic church built at Goodwood in the early 1960s. Our Lady of the Sacred Heart church fell within the Lutana-Goodwood Parish, which was formed out of the Moonah Parish in 1961 by Archbishop Young. A 1981 booklet commemorating the golden jubilee of St Therese's Parish (Moonah) briefly mentions the Goodwood church: “A Church, named Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, was built at Goodwood by Mr H. Scoles and helpers, who included, from time to time, Fr. McGuane. Mass was said at Goodwood, because the Catholics in that area had increased”. The building was a temporary structure but a permanent church was never built. In 2002 Archbishop Adrian Doyle merged the parishes back tog...

The Adrian Doyle Chapel is located at St Mary’s College, Hobart. The chapel is named in honour and recognition of the tenth Catholic Archbishop of Hobart, Adrian Leo Doyle. On 10 November 1997, Doyle was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart by Pope John Paul II. He received his episcopal consecration on 6 February 1998 from Archbishop Eric D'Arcy. He succeeded Archbishop D'Arcy as the tenth Archbishop of Hobart upon the latter's resignation on 26 July 1999. On 26 January 2009 Archbishop Doyle became a Member of the Order of Australia for his service to the Catholic Church in Australia and to the community, particularly as Archbishop of Hobart and through Caritas programs supporting international aid to developing countries. Adrian Doyle is the first Tasmanian-born Archbishop of Hobart. In 2014 the Adrian Doyle Chapel was built in a converted space on the second floor of the old St Mary’s Convent building. It is located in one of the two extension wings added to the orig...

Snug is situated on the Channel Highway, approximately 25 kilometres south of Hobart. The name is believed to have come from sailors who found 'snug' anchorage for their ships. The earliest settler, John Dunn (1790-1861), took up a land grant on ‘Snug River’ in 1837. Around the 1840s and 1850s a small settlement was established at what was then called “The Snug” or “Snug River” The focus of this article is on the third Catholic church built at Snug in 1968. The first church [ See No 1649 ] was replaced by a new church in 1897 [ See No 1653 ] which was lost in the 1967 bushfires which swept across southern Tasmania and destroying over two dozen churches and taking 64 lives. Snug’s third Catholic church, also dedicated to St Mary, was rebuilt in record time. It opened on Wednesday 13 December 1967, 10 months after the bushfires. The church’s opening and dedication was an interdenominational service led by Archbishop Guilford Young and accompanied by Anglican Bishop Dr R E Davis....