St Marys - Culture and History

The first European contact with the district occurred when Captain Tobias Furneaux sighted and named the 694 metre St Patrick's Head in 1773. The early settlement of Van Diemen's Land, which mostly occurred between Hobart and George Town, took little interest in the St Marys area. It wasn't until the 1840s that a probation station, housing 300 convicts, was built at Grassy Bottom between the town and St Mary's Pass. They were assigned to build the road across the mountains to the east coast. This was done between 1843 and 1846. The arrival of the railway in 1866 led to town's increasing importance as a service centre. The Elephant Pass route was completed in 1888 and this resulted in goods moving across the mountains to the east coast settlements of Bicheno and Chain of Lagoons. In turn this resulted in a small increase in population as the town became a service centre for the surrounding dairy farms. The railway line which was once so vital to the health of the town is now closed although the railway station still stands.

It is a sad comment on the changing nature of rural industry that, at its peak, St Marys was surrounded 50 dairy farms and there were two cheese factories in the town. Today the area has been totally given over to wool and meat and there are no remaining dairy farms. The town has few attractions and its centre point is very clearly the large and gracious St Marys Hotel which stands at the crossroads. It was built in 1916.