Anglican Church of Australia

The Anglican Church of Australia, a member church of the Anglican Communion, was previously officially known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania (renamed in 1881). It is the second largest church in Australia, behind the Roman Catholic Church in Australia.

When the First Fleet was sent to New South Wales in 1787, the Reverend Richard Johnson was licensed as chaplain to the Fleet and the settlement. In 1825 the Revd Thomas Scott was appointed Archdeacon of Australia under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Calcutta. The Revd William Grant Broughton, who succeeded Scott in 1829, was consecrated the first (and only) Bishop of Australia in 1836. In 1842 the Diocese of Tasmania was also created. In 1847 the rest of the Diocese of Australia was divided into the four separate dioceses of Sydney, Adelaide, Newcastle and Melbourne. Over the following eighty years the number of dioceses increased to twenty-five.

Since January 1, 1962 the Australian church has been autocephalous and headed by its own primate. The current primate is the Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend Phillip Aspinall.

The Australian church consists of twenty-three dioceses arranged into five provinces (except for Tasmania) with the metropolitical sees in the states' capital cities.