Biography

St. John's Mission House began as a ministry to the poor and disadvantaged of late colonial Launceston. The linked article gives a more comprehensive history, but it arose at a time when social conscience was developing in Britain and the colonies. The Salvation Army, founded in Britain in 1865, interestingly with substantial sponsorship, among others, from Henry Reed, a noted Launceston Christian and philanthropist. A contingent had arrived here and began operations in 1883, but there had also been “Hope Cottage” for unmarried girls established by Reed's Christian Mission Church around 1890. While that folded through lack of support, St. John's took up the initiative, opening the Mission House in the former Queens Head hotel in Wellington St, on Palm Sunday in 1893.

Of note, the first missioner was also the first Anglican deaconess in Tasmania - Sister Charlotte Shoobridge, a remarkable woman who not only carried out her duties largely at her own expense, but mentored other women to follow on in the ministry. 

By the early 20th century, the work had outgrown the old hotel, and a new purpose-built house was built opposite the Brickfields park at 103 Canning St. 

By the 1940s, the gradual change from ministry to the poor and destitute to student accommodation seems to have been completed, and St. John’s handed over the student hostel work to the Y.W.C.A. who leased the building at that time. How long this arrangement lasted is yet to be clarified, but in 1953, the site was sold to the Department of Education. It continued to serve as a student hostel, likely until the late 1970s, after which it was sold, eventually becoming a backpacker hostel, a role which it still serves in 2026.

Source