By Lindsay Brinsdon in Hobart, Tazmania.

People of Dursley have rallied to a campaign to save a venerable Australian Anglican church from being closed and deconsecrated.

They added their plea to thousands of others, but their call has been in vain. The historic, heritage-listed Holy Trinity Church in North Hobart, Tasmania, will be closed on October 28.

The decision has been made by the Bishop of Tasmania, the Right Reverend John Harrower, who has ruled the church is too costly to restore and maintain.

The 1840s Holy Trinity is linked to Dursley via its bells, Australia's oldest and known to bell ringers around the world - and originally obtained from London for the church through the dedicated efforts of a Dursley man, William Champion.

The Gazette highlighted the Champion connection in an article last July 19, and 30 Dursley residents responded by signing a petition calling for the church's decaying sandstone exterior to be repaired and the building maintained for future generations, thus ensuring the Champion bells would continue to ring out.

Despite the Holy Trinity Support Group getting 6,500 petition signatures - one of the largest responses in Tasmanian history - the bishop said no reprieve.

Roy Lidgett, of Springfield Court, was among the Dursley people who signed. The plight of the church had special significance for him. He recalled an enjoyable 1961 visit to Hobart while serving in the Royal Navy. He said he had always remembered the Tasmanian hospitality.

When he read the original Gazette report he was only too happy to sign the petition when it was circulated by Frank Byrne, a bell ringer of Dursley Parish Church. "It is remarkable that fate led me to settle in Dursley on completion of my 22 years RN service - and almost 40 years later Hobart comes round," said Roy.

William Champion was a convict turned businessman and benefactor, a hatter transported in the 1820s for receiving stolen goods. His sentence was 14 years, but his ability as a hatter was quickly realised in the convict colony and he became a successful businessman, at first in hat manufacturing and then as a publican and brewer.

He also put to good use the bell-ringing skills he had learned in Dursley. As well as heading the push to obtain the bells, he supervised their installation and recruited and trained youths for the ringing.

What happens now to the bells is uncertain. The same goes for Holy Trinity's war memorials - it has one of the most impressive stained glass memorial windows in Australia. The congregation commissioned this to honour the 101 parishioners who died in World War One. It was a particularly high mortality toll for one parish.

The Australian Returned and Services League, through its national president, Major-General Bill Crews, has taken its concerns about the continued protection of the window (there are also several other war commemorations in the church) to the bishop. So far he has given no public indication of this, or on the bells, and there has been no decision on what might happen to the church after it's closed.

The cost of "about" $A4 million for Holy Trinity's repair was based on an estimate from the Anglican Church's architect, but the campaigners had an alternative costing from others experienced in this field, of less than half the amount with the work to be spread over 20 years.

Holy Trinity Parish has various properties, land and bequests as assets, but the bishop has said these can't be sold to fund the restoration.

(His St David's Cathedral has recently launched its own restoration campaign - cost $A4 million).

The Holy Trinity closure has drawn a strong reaction. Tasmania's Heritage Minister, Ms Paula Wriedt, criticised the decision being made without consulting her government on restoration prospects, and the Tasmanian Greens tabled a motion in State Parliament calling for the church's restoration and maintenance.

Hobart's Lord Mayor, Alderman Rob Valentine, said both State and Federal Governments should work together to provide extra funding for deteriorating buildings of national heritage. His council has also weighed in by offering to fund a conservation management plan with a view to saving the building itself, but this might be some time off and will not prevent its closure as an Anglican place of worship.

Another ray of hope is the support group has proposed establishing a charitable trust to take over Holy Trinity and its properties, with the aim of raising money for the repairs. It's waiting for a decision from the bishop.

In late August an early morning arson attempt was made on the church when large wooden doors at the side entrance were set alight. The fire extinguished itself but left the original 1840s doors badly charred.