Category Bicentenary Snippets

These snippets were originally assembled and published as part of our 200th Anniversary year in 2025, and may be added to with other interesting odds and ends as we discover them.

07. Charlotte Balfour – First Burial

Launceston residents will be familiar with Balfour Street, named after Lieutenant-Colonel William Balfour, who was appointed civil and military commandant of the Port Dalrymple settlement in 1825, and came to Launceston with his wife Charlotte and children in April that…

06. George Hopkins – Organ Builder

Born in 1872 in Rochester, England, to a family with strong musical traditions, organist and organ builder George Hopkins arrived at St. John’s in 1912, to find the 1862 organ, formerly in the west gallery of old St. John’s, had…

05. John Cameron Memorial Window

Arriving in Van Diemen’s Land in 1837, John Cameron was a successful businessman and landowner. He was a strong supporter of St. John’s Church, and commissioned Ferguson and Urie of Melbourne to create the beautiful Ascension window, likely Launceston’s most…

03. John Youl’s Chalice

John Youl arrived at George Town in 1819 as the first appointed chaplain for the young Port Dalrymple settlement, and St. John’s Church was built during his time, but died less than 2 years after its opening, and before it…