Churches of Tasmania

The suburb of Hobart North, as the same suggests, is on the northern fringe of the city centre. It is a mixed residential and commercial area. The Society of Friends Meeting House is located on Boa Vista Road and adjoins the Friends School Argyle Street campus. The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers have had a presence in Tasmania for almost 200 years. The first meeting house was established on Murray Street in 1837. The Quakers second meeting house was built in 1960 following the development of the Argyle Street Campus in 1955. The Meeting House and Friends School are located on the former Boa Vista Estate built in 1828 for Dr James Scott, the colonial surgeon. The Boa Vista mansion was demolished in 1970, leaving the entrance lodge as the only physical remnant of the property's long history. The former entrance lodge to the Boa Vista Mansion, the only physical remnant of the property's long history.  

The Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers have had a presence in Tasmania for almost 200 years. This blog entry will review the Quakers first meeting house which was established on Murray Street. This article is substantially based on the University of Tasmania’s Companion to Tasmanian History which was developed by the Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies. The history of the the ‘Society of Friends’ dates back to the early 1830s when two English Quakers, James Backhouse and George Washington Walker visited Van Diemen's Land with a mission to investigate contemporary Quaker concerns: the treatment of convicts and Aborigines, promoting temperance, and preaching the Gospel to settlers. The first Quaker meeting for worship in Australia took place in Hobart on 12 February 1832. Encouraged by Lt-Governor Arthur, Backhouse and Walker spent three years visiting almost every convict and Aboriginal settlement. Detailed reports to to Governor Arthur as well as the Colonial Office and...