Churches of Tasmania

Wilmot is a village on the Wilmot Road approximately 30 kilometres south of Ulverstone. The district was named after Sir John Eardley-Wilmot, who was the first non-military Governor of Tasmania. The area was settled in the 1890s and was called “The Junction” by the locals. Settlers were challenged with the difficult task of clearing land which was densely timbered and where roads were poor in an isolated district. In 1903 the settlement was officially proclaimed as Wilmot and by this time it had two churches; a Wesleyan Methodist church built in 1899 and an Anglican church, St John the Evangelist, which opened two years earlier. The Methodist church was a small building, measuring only 30ft by 18ft and featured Gothic windows and a porch. However, the building proved to be too small and was replaced by a new church which opened in March 1912. The new building was designed Mr. W.H. Morris of Sheffield and was built alongside the the original church which was retained for use as a Sund...

Liffey is a rural area at the foot of the Great Western Tiers about 40 kilometres south-west of Launceston. Three Baptist’s churches have existed in the Liffey region. The first was a short-lived chapel built on the Stanford Estate in 1881. [see No. 463]. Prior to the opening of the second church in 1902, Baptist services were held in the State school. The Daily Telegraph carried a report of this church’s opening in September 1902: “The Baptist chapel, which has been lately erected, was opened on Sunday, when Pastor V. G. Britton preached appropriate sermons in the afternoon and evening. People from all parts of the district assembled for the opening services, and it was estimated that there were about 150 present. A meeting was also held on Monday evening, but the rain prevented many from attending. The offerings, which amounted to nearly £2, are to be devoted to the building fund. A Sunday-school has been started in the afternoon, and a number of children have been enro...

Lower Barrington is small farming community about 20 kilometres south of Devonport. The Don River Trading Company had a tramway terminus in the Lower Barrington area from which timber was railed to the mill at the Don. This resulted in opening up the district which is now one of the richest farming areas in Tasmania. In 1891 a Baptist Church was established in nearby Sheffield. In 1893 the Sheffield and District Church was created to serve the Kentish region. Lower Barrington became one of six satellite churches along with West Kentish; Staverton; Beulah; Paradise and Nook. In 1914 land was purchased to build a church at Lower Barrington and in the following year construction began. The foundation stone for the church was laid on 29 September 1915. The building is identical to the Nook Union Church, the plans of which were loaned at no cost. The North Western Advocate and the Emu Bay Times carried a report on the foundation stone-laying ceremony: “Another stage was reached by the Bap...

Newnham is a suburb of the city of Launceston. Originally part of the municipality of Lilydale, Newnham was proclaimed a town in 1946. There are several active churches in Newnham including the Uniting Church, a chapel at Aldersgate, the Christian Brethren, the Church of Christ and an Anglican church, St Barnabas’, now better known as “Barney's”. The current church is the third Anglican church built at Newnham. The first church opened on Sunday 4th May 1851 but little is known about its subsequent history. It closed at some point in the 1880’s. The second church was opened and consecrated by Bishop Mercer on Sunday 25th February 1906. In 1959 a new hall was opened near the church and this was made into a church hall in 1966. It was then converted into a modern church and dedicated in June 1968. The church has had another makeover in recent years but the shape of the 1950’s hall can be seen in the photographs below. The 1906 weatherboard church stands nearby and can be seen nearb...

North Motton is a village and dairy farming district on the Preston Road about 10 kilometres south of Ulverstone. North Motton was one of only four locations in the greater Ulverstone region where the Primitive Methodists built churches; with other churches built at Gravel Hill, Norfolk Creek and Penguin. In 1865 a handful of Primitive Methodist families settled in the North Motton district including Nathan and Sarah Brothers, John and Ann Eagle, Isaac Brett and the Revell family. The first church service was held in the house of John Hudson. In 1867 Reverend W.H. Walton was appointed to the Penguin Mission and preached to scattered settlers from Leven (Ulverstone) to Emu Bay (Burnie). Following the appointment of Henry Robinson to the Mission in 1875, a church was built a North Motton. Land for a church was donated by John Hudson while Nathan Brothers collected money for the construction of the building. The Cornwall Chronicle carried a report about the church’s opening on 3 Septem...

Longford’s historical Christ Church is in fact the third Anglican church built at the town. The first church which built in the late 1820’s and was no more than a temporary wooden hut which served as a place of worship until a more substantial church could be built. The second church, St Augustine’s, was used for less than a decade before it was torn down. At the time when St Augustine’s was built, Longford was known as Latour and was at the centre of the Norfolk Plains, a region which derived its name from the Norfolk Islanders who had been relocated to Tasmania and encouraged settle in the area. The Islanders by and large did not remain at Norfolk Plains and farms were purchased by other British settlers as well as by corporate landholders such as the Cressy Company.  The settlement of Latour was named after Major-General Latour, Chief Director of the Van Dieman’s Land Establishment, later known as the Cressy Company, which began operations in 1826-27. The ‘founder’ of Lo...

Sheffield is a country town in northern Tasmania approximately 25 kilometres south of Devonport. The area was explored by the surveyor Nathaniel Kentish in 1842 who was trying to find a route from Deloraine through to the north west coast. The area was subsequently opened up to settlement and by 1862 plots of land had been sold and the settlement of Sheffield had been named. According to J R Skemps’ ‘A History of the North West Coast’, in 1861 the first licence for a public house, the Sheffield Inn, was taken out by James Poulett, a native of Sheffield in England, and this probably gave the town its name. The Baptists were amongst the first denominations to become established in the region and churches or tabernacles were opened at Beulah, Paradise, Promised Land, West Kentish, Staverton, Lower Barrington and of course at Sheffield. The current Baptist church is Sheffield’s second Baptist place of worship after the first ‘tabernacle’ [ see No. 467 ], which opened in 1891, was destroy...

Sheffield is a country town in northern Tasmania approximately 25 kilometres south of Devonport. The area was explored by the surveyor Nathaniel Kentish in 1842 who was trying to find a route from Deloraine through to the north west coast. The area was subsequently opened up to settlement and by 1862 plots of land had been sold and the settlement of Sheffield had been named. According to J R Skemps’ ‘A History of the North West Coast’, in 1861 the first licence for a public house, the Sheffield Inn, was taken out by James Poulett, a native of Sheffield in England, and probably gave the town its name. The Baptists were amongst the first denominations to become established in the region and churches or tabernacles were opened at Beulah, Paradise, Promised Land, West Kentish, Staverton, Lower Barrington and of course at Sheffield. The current Baptist tabernacle is Sheffield’s second Baptist place of worship after the first ‘tabernacle’ was destroyed in a fire in 1930. This article cove...