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Welcome to Churches of Tasmania

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I love history and photography and also have an interest in architecture. When I started this blog in 2017 I had the goal of photographing every historical church in Tasmania. This was initially driven by the proposed mass sell-off of Anglican churches. I was concerned that these buildings would be modified and no longer be accessible once in private hands. As the years have passed this goal has changed to writing short histories of each and every church built in Tasmania, of which there are about 1600.   My earliest posts are rather amateurish but my research and writing has improved somewhat over the years.  In time my hope is to revise and update every article to a publishable standard. I have received an overwhelming amount of material from followers of the blog and I will incorporate this into the articles in the revision phase. Eventually I hope to publish the best of the articles. At present the blog attracts about 1000 views per day and I hope that this will continue to grow. 
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No. 1466 - Launceston - Margaret Street Catholic Deanery (1884-1962)

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This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches.These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including those which no longer exist. A dean is appointed by a bishop to lead a subdivision of a diocese comprised of a number parishes. The duty of the dean is to watch over the clergy of the parish and to ensure that they implement the orders of the bishop and observe liturgical and canon laws. The residence of a dean is officially called a deanery but it also accommodates priests serving in the parish. In 1884 a new deanery was constructed on Margaret Street on a site adjoining the Church of the Apostles. The building replaced an older deanery which was no longer adequate for the rapidly growing parish of Launceston. News of the construction of the ne
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No. 1465 - Springfield - Methodist Church (1870-1917) "Free from that ugly thing"

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Springfield is a rural area which lies approximately 5 kilometres south of Scottsdale in north-east Tasmania. Although Springfield never developed into a town, the district was settled in the 1870s with a post office opening in 1876 followed by a school and public hall. The district once supported four churches with the Wesleyan Methodists being the first to establish a church in 1870. In December 1870 a Methodist church was opened by Reverend John Harcourt on the property of Mr John Williams. Previously services had been held in a barn on the same property which were conducted by Reverend T.B. Inglis, a former Wesleyan Methodist minister. A record of the official opening of the new church on the 25 December 1870 was published by the Cornwall Chronicle: “One of those pleasing events which mark the triumph and progress of truth, and which strongly indicate that the attitude of vital Christianity is not of a retrograde character, took place on Sunday, 25th instant, on which occasion the
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No. 1464 - Lonnavale - Methodist Church

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Lonnavale is is an isolated community about 20 kilometres west of Huonville. It situated at the junction of Lonnavale Road and Lorkins Road and lies on the northern side of the Russell River. It was originally a timber producing settlement but around the turn of the 20th century settlers turned to orcharding. Reverend Max Stansall’s book, ‘Tasmanian Methodism’, a conspectus of Methodist churches existing in Tasmania in the period leading up to the creation of the Uniting Church in 1977, states that a church existed at Lonnavale. Stansell writes: “[In] about 1943 services at Lonnavale were commenced under the leadership of Mr Jessop who was a Home Missionary. Then for some years they apparently lapsed. Later the Rev. Oldmeadow conducted services in the local school. A Sunday school was started by Mrs Richardson. The cause at Lonnavale was not strong and apparently the church closed about the year 1951, although there is some record to support the belief that “services as arranged” appli
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No. 1463 - Inveresk - St Finn Barr's Catholic Church - Forster Street (1894-1925)

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St Finn Barr’s Catholic church on Invermay Road opened in August 1954, almost 30 years after the original church burnt down in 1925. The focus of this article is on original church which stood on a site at the corner of Holbrook Street (then called Gunn Street) and Forster Street**. I have yet to come across a photograph of the church which was built to a similar plan as St Canice at Glengarry. The foundation stone for Inveresk* Catholic church (and Launceston’s second Catholic Church#) was ceremonially laid by the Archbishop of Hobart on Sunday 29 January 1893. Land for the church was purchased at a cost of £300 while an additional piece of land for the construction of a convent was donated by Mr Patrick Dargan. The Launceston Examiner reported the event as follows: “Yesterday afternoon the Archbishop of Hobart performed the important ceremony of laying the foundation stone of a new Roman Catholic Church on property recently purchased at the corner of Gunn and Foster streets, Inveres
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No. 1462 - Springfield - St Paul's Sunday School (1894)

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This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches.These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including of those that no longer exist. Springfield is a rural area which lies approximately 5 kilometres south of Scottsdale in north-east Tasmania. Although Springfield never developed into a town, the district was settled in the 1870s with a post office opening in 1876 followed by a school and public hall. The district once supported four churches with the Wesleyan Methodists being the first to establish a church in 1871. Anglicans at Springfield used the Wesleyan church until they opened their own church in 1884. St Paul’s church was officially opened on Sunday 23 March 1884. An Anglican Sunday school was built in 1894 on a site near the old Springfi
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No. 1461 - Cranbrook - 'Gala Kirk' (1845)

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Cranbrook is a rural area located about 10 kilometres north of Swansea on the east coast of Tasmania. Gala Kirk is the oldest church on Tasmania’s East Coast and is closely associated with the Amos family. In 1884 a visitor passing through the area succinctly summarised the early history of the settlement: “There are several estates whose boundaries converge, and within a comparatively small area are several large homesteads - a church (Presbyterian), two cemeteries, a smith's shop, and a few workpeople's cottages. By reason of having a post office, it is called the town of Cranbrook…Cranbrook is then the nominal centre of four fairly large properties - Gala, Glen Gala, Glen Herriot, and Cranbrook… There is a wee house at Cranbrook, on the east of a basaltic hummock, called Cragie Knowe, which, being interpreted, meaneth "rocky hill." This part was settled on in the second decade of the [19th] century, or the first year of the third, by the Brothers Adam and John Amos
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No. 1460 - Richmond - St John's Catholic Schoolhouse (1843)

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This article is one of a series about buildings associated with Tasmania’s historical churches.These buildings include Sunday schools, parish halls, convents, schools and residences of the clergy. Ancillary buildings are often overlooked and rarely feature in published histories. My aim is to create a simple record of these buildings, including of those that no longer exist. Richmond is a heritage town located in the Coal River Valley approximately 25 kilometres east of Hobart. The valley was one of the earliest areas penetrated by the first British settlers outside of Hobart. Richmond’s origins go back to 1823 when a bridge was constructed across the Coal River. Beyond the bridge lies the church of St John the Evangelist, Australia’s oldest Catholic church along with Tasmania’s first Catholic school. The original school has survived and is located behind St John’s church. The origins of the school date back to 1843 and its founding recounted by Catholic church historian, Fr Terry Sout
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No. 1459 - Hobart - Murray Street - The 'Ebenezer Chapel' (1870)

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The United Free Methodist Church was formally established in Hobart on 11 December 1854*. Distinguishing features of the church were circuit autonomy and freedom to be represented in the Methodist Assembly by whichever minister or layman the congregation elected. Further congregations of the denomination were established at Wynyard, Burnie and Penguin. The ‘Free Church’ initially met in the rooms of the Upper Murray Street Infant School. In early 1855 plans were made to build a weatherboard church adjoining the Infant School. This building was officially opened on Sunday 7 October 1855. [ see No. 1440 ] In 1869 a new church designed by Edward Rowntree was built in front of the old Murray Street church. It was called the Ebenezer Chapel, from the Hebrew ebhen hā-ʽezer, meaning “stone of help”; a reference from the Book of Samuel where a stone was set up in commemoration of God's help to the Israelites in their victory over the Philistines. The foundation stone for the new “chapel” w
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No. 1458 - Mengha - Presbyterian Church

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This article is one in a series about public buildings in country areas that were used as places of worship. In these communities churches may have been planned but were never built due to lack of finance or changing circumstances. In most settlements, before a church was built, worship was typically held in homes, schoolrooms, barns, halls and other buildings. Conversely, in some communities, churches were sometimes the first public building erected and were used as schools and community halls. The focus of this series will primarily be on the public halls and schools that were used as churches. These buildings, and the religious communities which used them, are often overlooked in published histories of churches. Mengha is rural farming district on the northwest coast and lies south of the Stanley. The original name of the area was “Medwin” but this was changed to Mengha in 1905. The Medwin’s were pioneering family who opened up the district of South Forest during the 1840s. A Presby
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No. 1457 - Franklin - St Mary's Catholic Church (1856-2013)

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Franklin is a small town on the Huon Highway approximately 45 kilometres south of Hobart. It was established in 1804 and was the first settlement in the Huon district. It was named after the Governor of Tasmania, Sir John Franklin. Until the 1930s Franklin was a major town in the Huon Valley with its own court house, several hotels, a public hall and four churches. St Mary’s church is one of the oldest Catholic churches in the Huon Valley and served a sizeable population of Irish Catholics in the district. Many were of convict descent and the Catholic Church saw it as its mission to bring about “moral improvement” in a desperately poor community plagued by crime and drunkenness. Catholic church historian, Fr Terry Southerwood, recounts a letter written by Jane Therry, to her priest-brother, describing the opening of St Mary’s church in November 1856: “Jane first reported that the day was not propitious when Bishop Willson, Father Hall, Father Hunter and “several other clergyman and me
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