St Martin's Mission Hall (White Hut)

White Hut was built by Mr. James Claridge in 1842 to replace a small timber building used as a Government School, gaol and watch-watch house by the military and police. Attacks on settlers were frequent during this period. It's location at Little Swanport meant that it was halfway between Swansea and Triabunna.

On 1st October 1846, following a petition submitted by local inhabitants, Fitzherbert Adams Marriott—then Clerk of the Arts, Vicar General, and Commissary of Tasmania—formally granted a license authorizing the building’s use for Divine Service and the administration of the Holy Sacraments.

Minutes of the Spring Bay Council in July 1897 record a letter received by the Public Works Department from the residents of Little Swanport requesting the use of White Hut for a place of worship.

The request was duly passed and local residents including the Mitchelmore family from Muirland set to work raising funds to repair and whitewash the building and provide furniture and fittings. The building has no windows or rear door. It then became known as St Martin's Mission Hall with the Rev. Thomas Pitt taking services.

A letter found in the Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society's collection states 10 seats and 12 chairs at the price of 4 pounds 19 shillings were shipped from St Stephens Church, in Sandy Bay March 1907 (see below). It is not known what happened to these when the church closed. Possibly Mr. Mitchelmore took them.

By the 1930s the building was in a rundown state and no longer being used. Around 1942 Thomas Lane purchased the land on which the building stood, he pulled down the hut and built a holiday house on the site. Today two houses stand side by side, the northern house is where 'White Hut' stood. Residents recall some of the stone being used in the White Hut bridge nearby.