The Archdiocese of Hobart
The Archdiocese of Hobart includes the whole island of Tasmania, with some small islands, such as King, Flinders and Bruny. The total area is 67,914.3 square kilometres. Territorially it corresponds completely with the civil State of Tasmania.
Tasmania is one of six self-governing States which in 1901 federated to form the Commonwealth of Australia. Its State Parliament consists of two Houses, members being elected by universal suffrage in a system of preferential voting.
The chief towns are: Hobart, Launceston, Burnie and Devonport.
According to the latest statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the total population of Tasmania is 482,236 of whom approximately 88,000, or around 18 per cent, comprise the Catholic community.
Most of the people are native-born, ethnically of English, Irish or Scottish origin: “Anglo-Celtic”. In the decades following World War II, some thousands of migrants from Continental Europe became Australian citizens in Tasmania: but in much lower proportions than in Victoria and New South Wales. These were mainly Italian, Dutch, German, Greek, and Polish. Since 1981, a number of South East Asian refugees have been settled in Tasmania. More recently refugees from South America and Africa have migrated to Tasmania.
Tasmania, formerly known as Van Diemen's Land, was discovered by Dutch navigators in the year 1642. The first Europeans to occupy the Island were the British, who landed in 1803 and 1804, and made a settlement on the site of the present city of Hobart.
Until 1853, the British Government used the Colony as a place for persons convicted of offences against the law in Great Britain and Ireland. Free immigrants also came in great numbers, particularly after 1853. Until 1821, the Catholic residents of the colony - convicts and free settlers - had no priest.
In that year Father Philip Connolly arrived. His flock, scattered over a wide area, must then have numbered about 1,000 people. Until 1835, the Father Connolly laboured alone. In that year, the Most Rev John Bede Polding arrived at Hobart on his way to Sydney to take up his appointment as Bishop. The Holy See had appointed him Vicar-Apostolic of all Australia. Tasmania remained part of his Vicariate until the coming of the first Bishop of Hobart, the Most Rev Robert William Willson, who landed in May 1844.
The new Bishop had to provide pastoral clergy to serve the free people and, for the first ten years of his administration, Chaplains for several Penal Stations. When he retired in 1865, because of illness, the Diocese embraced 12 Parochial districts with resident Pastors. The diocesan priests numbered 19, and the Catholic population about 23,000.
Bishop Willson's successor in the See of Hobart was the Most Rev Daniel Murphy. In 1888, when he celebrated the 50th Anniversary of his Priesthood, the Holy See named him Archbishop. Since Archbishop Murphy's death in 1907, eight Archbishops, including the present Prelate, have governed the See of Hobart.
On 10 November 1997, Pope John Paul II nominated the Vicar General, Father Adrian Leo Doyle to be the Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart. He was the first Tasmanian-born priest to be appointed a Bishop. On 26 July 1999 Coadjutor Archbishop Doyle was appointed as Archbishop of Hobart, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Eric D’Arcy.
