Launceston - Culture and History

The Tamar river was discovered by Europeans when bass and Flinders, during their circumnavigation of Van Diemen's Land in 1798, entered it. They explored the river for 16 days and named it Port Dalrymple after Alexander Dalrymple, the British Admiralty's hydrographer.

The area was settled in 1804 when Governor King, fearful that the French might settle in Van Diemen's Land, sent a small expeditionary force under Lieutenant Colonel William Paterson to the district. Paterson set up camp at the present-day site of George Town. Shortly afterwards an expedition, heading southward, came to the present site of Launceston. They were so impressed that a blockhouse was built and by March, 1806 Paterson had decided to relocate to the area which was originally named Patersonia (for obvious reasons) but soon renamed Launceston, after a town in Cornwall where Governor Philip Gidley King had been born.

Like Hobart its economic importance was originally based on its function as a port. By 1824 it had become the official headquarters of the island¹s northern military command. This was against the wishes of Governor Macquarie who had favoured George Town, closer to the mouth of the Tamar River, as the main settlement. In 1826 it was surveyed and by 1827 the town had a population of 2 000 and was already shipping wool and wheat from the surrounding districts.

By the 1830s it was being used as a port of call by whalers and sealers although it was still officially a military town. In 1852 it assumed the role of Tasmania¹s second major centre and was proclaimed a municipality. Tin was found at Mount Bischoff in 1871 and a decade later Launceston opened its own stock exchange.

In 1911 electric trams were introduced into the city. A remnant, the No.16, still runs as a tourist attraction at the Penny Royal Mill complex.

The Economy
Bell Bay, located a short distance away, is home to one of the largest aluminium smelting works in the Southern Hemisphere. It is one of the few success stories for the Tasmanian Hydroelectricity Commission. Huge amounts of electricity are needed to convert bauxite into aluminium and the cheapness of Tasmanian power persuaded the multinational Comalco organisation that it was economically viable to ship bauxite from their mines in Queensland and the Northern Territory to a smelter in Tasmania. Launceston¹s industrial base also includes meat exporting, wood chip manufacture, food processing, and the manufacture of textiles.