St Michael's

The Cornwall Chronicle newspaper on the 2nd July 1856 reported the following:

The interesting ceremony of laying the first stone of this church was very well attended by a large number of residents of Campbell Town and neighbourhood on Wednesday last.

The inscription on the foundation stone is as follows:

The corner stone of this church to be erected in the honour of the Most Blessed and Undivided Trinity, and for the Glory of Almighty God under the patronage of St. Michael the Arch-Angel and all holy Angels was laid by Robert William, first

Bishop of Hobart Town, on the 28th day of

June in the year of salvation, 1856, being the

11th year of the Pontificate of our Sovereign

Lord Pius IX. ; Victoria the first in England,

happily reigning, and Henry Edward Young,

Knight, being Governor in Tasmania.

' Architect— Henry G. Hunter.

Builder— William Hill.'

A booklet written by Brian Andrews (architectural historian, Catholic Church of Tasmania) states that the foundation stone was laid on the 25th June 1856.

The church opened on the 29th September 1857 by Bishop Willson. The church was a very handsome building and designed by Henty Hunter in the early English style with chancel, nave and sacristy. Its length was 67 feet with the width of the nave being 22 feet, the walls were 16 feet 6 inches. The total cost of the build was reported to have been £1700.

St Michael's is significant to Tasmania's history because it is the first stone church designed by the famous architect Henry Hunter.

St Michael's is listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register as follows:

A symmetrical bluestone church with buttresses, a steep pitched, corrugated iron gable roof, close eaves,

and low, plain parapet walls on the gables. The openings are pointed arch and have prominent

long-and-short stonework. The west door is in a gabled wall and has a label mould. Successively above the

door are a set of three windows, a trefoil window and a bell-cote. The Presbytery is a single storey, ashlar

bluestone building with a corrugated iron hipped roof, projecting rafters and chimneys with moulded tops.

There is a projecting wing to one side of the front elevation. The door is panelled with a rectangular transom

light above, and covered by a simple skillion awning supported by two plain posts. The sun lounge on the

side elevation is a later addition.

St. Michael's Church and Presbytery are of historic heritage significance because of its ability to demonstrate the

principal characteristics of bluestone Victorian Free Gothic ecclesiastical buildings .