Celebrating Hobart's Bicentenary

St. David's Cathedral has close links with Hobart's early history and our project has received significant assistance from both the Hobart City Council and the Tasmanian Government.

[Official Bicentenary Programmes]
[History] [Bells on Display] [Robert Knopwood]
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Official Bicentenary Programmes

The 2004 Bicentenary was commemorated officially by both the Tasmanian Government and the Hobart City Council.

This project was assisted by the Hobart City Council through the Bicentenary Community Grants Programme with a grant of $10,000.

This project was assisted by the State Government through the Tasmanian Bicentenary Grant Programme with a grant of $5,000.

History

The town of Hobart was founded on 20th February, 1804 when a party led by Lieutenant Governor David Collins, and including the Reverend Robert Knopwood, established a camp in Sullivan's Cove. Although Hobart had a burial ground marked out (by Collins and Knopwood) within two months of settlement, it was a further fifteen years before a proper church existed. Knopwood conducted the first service in the church on 25th April 1819. When the church was finally completed in 1820, a notice appeared in the Hobart Town Gazette proclaiming the intention to name it in honour of Hobart's founder:

Hobart was proclaimed a city by Queen Victoria in 1842 when she appointed Francis Russell Nixon as the first Bishop of Tasmania (with a diocese that included Macquarie Island!). Her Letters Patent making the announcement proclaimed that, as a bishop had been appointed, Hobart was henchforth not a town but a city.

Building of St. David's Cathedral started in January 1868 and the nave was completed in February 1874. The two churches then stood together for six months before the old church was demolished. The Cathedral's cloisters and tower, built on the site of the old church, were not completed until 1936.

Bells on Public Display

Our project required all the bells to be lowered from the tower for the first time since they were installed in 1936. This created a unique opportunity to stage a public display in the autumn of 2005.

The cathedral's twelve bells on display in April 2005

The Reverend Robert Knopwood

Robert Knopwood, Hobart's first minister, arrived with Lt. Collins in 1804. He worked hard during his life in the Hobart area, spending much time with the indigenous people of the area who were slowly being pushed from their own land. He lived for many years in a cottage by the waterfront near to the present Salamanca Place and "Knopwood's Retreat" pub.

Knopwood's sea chest, carrying his personal belongings from England on his voyage to Australia, is kept on the ground floor of the Cathedral's tower.

The largest of the original eight bells, now the ninth of the ring of ten, has been named Robert to commemorate Robert Knopwood.

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