Old farm sheds, restaurants, houses; these are the new lives of some of the region's most historically significant buildings, but you might not even know they are there.
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Churches were a pillar of past society and historian Duncan Grant is making sure their contribution is never forgotten, in a personal project to catalogue all of Tasmania's old and modern church buildings.
Mr Grant is using historical records, such as old newspapers, to research the history of the buildings and has been working on the project for about 18 months, in a passion that was born from a love of history.
"It really started with photographs, I started taking photographs of all the churches," he said.
Now, more than 400 churches later, Mr Grant has started a public blog that has fans following from all over the world, which he uses to update the latest findings in his research.
Mr Grant will present a lecture on the small churches of Northern Tasmania to the Launceston Historical Society later this month.
"You can't understand the history of Tasmania without understanding the role of churches in it," he said.
"When people settled, churches were one of three buildings that were erected first, they were hugely important to society."
Mr Grant said his research had unearthed a number of quirky characters, whose lives revolved around the church buildings they were attached to.
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"It [the project] is not so much about religion, but it's about the people in those churches," he said.
There is the story about the wacky priest at Latrobe who was convicted and tried for treason in the United Kingdom, or the story of the many births, deaths and marriages connected to the institutions.
"Women were very actively powerful through churches and the wealthy were great benefactors of religion," Mr Grant said.
"These are powerful figures who were the elite in society as well as the underclass were involved."
However, he said religion and Christianity had begun to play a lesser role in people's lives and, as such, many of the churches were sold and faded into antiquity or were re-imagined.
Mr Grant said he found many as old farm sheds but they were instantly recognisable.
"They all have the traditional church windows," he said.
Others had been sold and renovated into homes or businesses, like one located in York Street in Launceston, which would be one of the oldest examples, Mr Grant said.
The former church now houses a takeaway restaurant, but the traditional church windows are still visible on one side and at the back.
Mr Grant said Launceston would have had about 60 churches over the years, but many were now used for different purposes.
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"People don't often know, but many of these churches were sold, but they have also moved around; the timber structures. They would dismantle them and move them around like flat packs," he said.
He said many were found on farms, being used as sheds to store machinery and equipment.
Mr Grant said he will work to catalogue all the churches in Tasmania, of which he believes there are 1300.
- Duncan Grant will present his talk Small Churches of Northern Tasmania to the Launceston Historical Society at QVMAG on July 21 at 2pm.