Churches of Tasmania

Smithton is the commercial and industrial centre of the Circular Head district in the far northwest of the island. The early settlement was known as Duck River but this was changed to Smithton in 1895. Smithton is named after an Irishman, Peter Smith, who had been a constable, and later the licensee of ‘The Plough Inn,’ at Stanley. Smith moved to Duck River after buying some 500 acres of land from the Poke and Ollington families. Smith’s successful enterprises enabled his return to Ireland. The first Catholic churches in the Smithton district were built at Irishtown (1903) and Montagu (1910). St Attracta’s Catholic church at Smithton was built in 1934 at a site on Emmett Street [see No. 903] In the late 1970s the church with its associated convent school moved and reopened at a new site at Sampson Avenue on Tier Hill. The new church was dedicated to St Peter Chanel, a Marist priest who was martyred on Futuna Island in 1841, and who was to become Polynesia's only Catholic saint. St...

Acton is a suburb of the city of Burnie in north-west of the State. Acton is most likely named after a former English village which has been absorbed into Greater London. Acton Chapel was opened in 1982 by the Christian Brethren. The Christian Brethren, also known as the Plymouth Brethren, originated in Great Britain in the 1820s. By the mid 19th century the movement had spread to Australia, with the first revival meetings held in Tasmania from 1869. As a result, fellowships were formed in Hobart, Launceston, the Huon Valley, Smithton, Sheffield, Wynyard, Burnie and Scottsdale by the end of the 1870s. The Brethren placed an emphasis on weekly communion, the baptism of believers by immersion, and evangelism. The Christian Brethren should not be confused with the 'Exclusive Brethren, a restrictive group which broke away in 1848. In Tasmania, most Brethren are 'open', that is, they do not belong to the 'exclusive' Brethren who avoid contact with outsiders to the reli...