St Mary’s Anglican Church

ST MARY’S ANGLICAN CHURCH
Architect: James Blackburn

James Blackburn was a civil engineer and surveyor who was transported to Tasmania as a sentence for forgery. From fraught beginnings, Blackburn went on to become one of the most notable architects of Tasmania’s early colonial settlement. Assigned firstly to the Roads Department, he moved to the Department of Public Works, later becoming Van Demien’s Land’s equivalent of a government architect!

Blackburn was responsible for the design of a significant number of public buildings and churches across Tasmania at the time and the picturesque towns of the Southern Midlands’ region benefited.

The St Mary’s Anglican Church was one such building, designed in the Gothic style by Blackburn. Convicts from local probation stations built the church, and the foundation stone was laid in 1839 by Lieutenant-Governor Sir John Franklin. The church was built from donations, including of the land from ex-convict Joseph Johnson, who along with many other locals donated to the building and fitting-out of the church. The church was at the heart of the community and very much the social hub of the time.

Like so many other churches of the era, societal change saw St Mary’s deconsecrated and purchased by the local community, who have retained it as a social hub.