Tasmania, the Island State
The first Tasmanian Carmel in Longford.
On June 15th 1948 the Carmelite Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded in Tasmania from the Carmelite Monastery of Glen Osmond, South Australia.
On August 22nd 1948 which was then the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the chosen titular of the new Carmel, Longford Hall, a large colonial homestead set in 130 acres of land was inspected and then purchased. The nuns were able to move into it on November 1st 1948, turning the main reception -room into their Chapel. Many alterations and additions were made immediately and over the following years to adapt this old home to its new use as a monastery. 10 acres of the land were enclosed with a wooden fence for the sisters' use and the remainder was leased out to a farmer. The enclosure was established canonically by Archbishop Tweedy on February 13th 1949.
The Longford Carmel in the 1960s, shortly before it closed.
In the 1960s the parish of Longford was closed down and it was suggested that the community move to Launceston to be nearer the priests and people. It was on the eve of the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 21st 1971, the last day of a special novena the nuns were making for this intention that the land was found in Cambridge Street where the new Carmel now stands.
Four acres of land were bought in June 1972. Longford Hall was sold a year later in June 1973, and then planning for the new Carmel could begin in earnest. The community moved into one wing of the new monastery on April 8th 1975. On April 21st that same year Archbishop Guilford Young presided at a liturgy in the burial vault of the new Carmel, when the remains of the 4 nuns buried in the cemetery at Longford were transferred and reinterred.
On June 7th 1975 the Solemnity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the revised calendar, the new monastery and its chapel were blessed and opened by Archbishop Young, and the enclosure once more canonically established.
In 1987 the sanctuary was redesigned and a beautiful new spire added to the Chapel roof. The Chapel was formally consecrated by Archbishop Eric D’Arcy on 14th December 1991, the 4th Centenary of the death of St John of the Cross.
