Launceston ( )Macquarie Dictionary, Fourth Edition (2005). Melbourne, The Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the River Tamar (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launceston urban area has a population of 90,953. Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Launceston is the second most populous city in Tasmania after the state capital, Hobart. As of 2020, Launceston is the 18th largest city in Australia. Launceston is the fifth-largest inland city and the ninth-largest non-capital city in Australia. Launceston is regarded as the most livable regional city, and was one of the most popular regional cities to move to in Australia from 2020 to 2021. Launceston was named Australian Town of the Year in 2022.
Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia's oldest cities and it has many historic buildings. Like many places in Australia, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom – in this case, Launceston, Cornwall. Launceston also had the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, it was the first Australian city to have underground sewers, and it was the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity. The city has a maritime climate with four distinct seasons and is appreciably warmer than the south of the island during summer. Local government is split between the City of Launceston, Meander Valley and West Tamar Councils.
History
The first inhabitants of the area of Launceston were largely nomadic Aboriginal Tasmanians believed to have been part of the Northern Midlands Nations. Three Nations made up the area around so called Launceston, the Stoney Creek Nation, Tyerenotepanner; Panninher and Lettermairrener.
The first White explorers arrived in 1798, when George Bass and Matthew Flinders were sent to explore the possibility that there was a strait between Australia and Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania. They originally landed in Port Dalrymple at the mouth of the Tamar River, to the north-west of Launceston.
The first significant colonial settlement in the region dates from 1804, when the commandant of the colonial garrison. Lt. Col. William Paterson, and his men set up a camp on the current site of George Town. A few weeks later, the settlement was moved across the river to York Town. In 1805, they moved to where Launceston stands.
Initially, the settlement was called Patersonia. Paterson later changed the name to Launceston in honour of the New South Wales Governor Captain Philip Gidley King, who was born in Launceston, Cornwall. The name still survives in the tiny hamlet of Patersonia north-east of Launceston. Paterson himself also served as Lieutenant-Governor of northern Van Diemen's Land from 1804 to 1808.
The geographical area in which Launceston is now located was previously occupied by the Aboriginal Tasmanian Letteremairrener people. The Letteremairrener country encompasses most of the Tamar Valley region. In 1804, reports from early European voyagers describe a number of Letteremairrener camps, consisting of up to ten bark huts located on either side of the Tamar River.Shayne Breen, Aboriginal Connections with Launceston Places (Launceston: Launceston City Council 2006), 22. Extensive archeological evidence suggests that occupation and usage of the Tamar basin can be dated from at least 7,000 years ago, although it was likely used as long as 35,000 years ago.Sue Kee, Midlands Aboriginal Archeological Site Survey (Hobart: Department of Parks, Wildlife and Heritage), 31
The Letteremairrener, as seasonal hunter-gatherers, spent the winter months near George Town and the summer months residing on Ben Lomond, before returning to the banks of the Tamar River for the mutton-bird season.Breen, Aboriginal Connections with Launceston Places, 22. Campbell Macknight characterizes early colonial contact with the Letteremairrener people as a mixture of fear, curiosity and aggression.Campbell Macknight, Low Head to Launceston (Launceston: Historical Society of Northern Tasmania, 1998), 31.
After several aggressive encounters prompted by bands of Letteremairrener in 1806, most likely as revenge for the colonists trespassing and hunting on their land without permission, Colonel William Patterson, in charge of the new settlement in Launceston, led a series of putative skirmishes that were ostensibly continued by colonists until 1831.Breen, Aboriginal Connections with Launceston Places, 26. These conflicts intensified from 1827 until 1831 during the period of the Black War, with genocidal expeditions occurring within the Letteremairrener country and neighbouring areas.Breen, Aboriginal Connections with Launceston Places, 27.
By 1827, Launceston's population had climbed to 2,000 and the town had become an export centre, mainly for the colony's northern pastoral industry. Small hotels and breweries began to emerge in the 1820s before larger, more "substantial" hotels were built in the 1830s.
Ships from Launceston carried parties of sealers to the islands of Bass Strait early in the 19th century. They also took whalers to the coast of Victoria in the 1820s and 1830s where they established temporary bay whaling stations. Some of these temporary communities, such as the ones at Portland Bay and Port Fairy, were the forerunner of permanent settlement of those places. Expeditions from Launceston were involved in the Foundation of Melbourne.
Walter George Arthur, who petitioned Queen Victoria in 1847 while interned with other Aboriginal Tasmanians on Flinders Island,Henry Reynolds (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin Books, Australia, p.159 ff lived for several years in Launceston as one of numerous homeless children, before being taken into custody by George Augustus Robinson who sent him to the Boys' Orphan School in Hobart in 1832.Henry Reynolds (1995) Fate of a Free People: A Radical Re-examination of the Tasmanian Wars, Penguin Books, Australia, p.16
Newer popular team sports such as cricket and football failed to be sustained in Launceston before the population grew substantially. The sports were initially middle class recreations, as the working class found it difficult to participate after a six-day working week. Nevertheless, a "demand for facilities" led to the upgrade of the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground (NTCA Ground) among other sporting facilities in the 1860s. Not long beforehand, Tasmania played Victoria in Australia's first first-class cricket match at the NTCA Ground in 1851.Green (2006), p. 8–13.
Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff in 1871 in north-western Tasmania, starting a minerals boom. Gold mining commenced about away in Beaconsfield in 1877. During the following two decades Launceston grew from a small town into an urban centre. In 1889, Launceston was the second town in Tasmania to be declared a city, after state capital Hobart. During the late 1880s, a small periodical called Launceston Literary contained stories as well as memoirs of the pioneering days of the region. The publication was distributed from a store in the northern end of the town, and while largely forgotten today, was at the time considered relatively popular, if at times controversial.
Demographics In the 2021 census the population of Launceston was 76,849. Launceston is the 21st most populous city in Australia.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.5% of the population. 79.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were United Kingdom 2.9%, Nepal 1.6%, India 1.5%, China 0.9% and New Zealand 0.8%. 85.1% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Nepali 2.3%, Mandarin 1.2%, Punjabi 0.5%, Urdu 0.4% and Vietnamese 0.3%. The most common responses for religion were No Religion 47.9%, Anglican 13.8% and Catholic 12.1%.
City of Gastronomy Launceston's designation as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2021 signifies global acknowledgment of this gastronomic paradise.
Geography
Launceston is at in the Tamar Valley, Northern Tasmania. The valley was formed by volcanic and glacial forces over 10 million years ago.Wooley and Tatlow, p. 1. The city is about south of the Bass Strait, with its closest neighbour-city being Devonport, about to the north west. Launceston combines steep, originally heavily wooded ridges, and low-lying areas, originally wetlands – with parts of the suburbs of Inveresk and Invermay below high-tide level. As a result, areas of Launceston are subject to landslip problems. Others areas are liable to poor drainage and periodic flooding. The topography of the area is not conducive to easy dispersion of airborne pollution, due to the phenomenon of thermal inversion.
Since the 1990s, Launceston's air quality has improved. A 2007 study indicated that 73% percent of air pollution in Launceston and surrounding areas during the winter period was caused by wood smoke, while about 8% was from motor vehicle pollution. During the early 1990s about 60% of households used wood heaters, but since the mid-2000s only 25–30% of households use wood heating. In the 2011 Tasmanian Air Monitoring report, particulate matter met the Air NEPM goals starting in 2006, and did not exceed the PM10 standard in the years 2009–2011.
Launceston is situated at the confluence of the South Esk River and the North Esk River, forming the Tamar River estuary. It is used for commercial and recreational shipping and boating. In earlier years, oceangoing shipping used the river to obtain access to the Port of Launceston wharves located in the city centre and Invermay. The Port for Launceston is now located at the George Town suburb of Bell Bay, some downstream on the east bank of the Tamar estuary, close to the river mouth.
The South Esk River is the longest river in Tasmania. It starts in the North East Mountains near Roses Tier and flows through the Fingal Valley where it passes through the towns of Fingal and Avoca before flowing into the Northern Midlands where it flows through the towns of Evandale, Perth, Longford and Hadspen before reaching Launceston via the Cataract Gorge.
The river is dammed at Lake Trevallyn on the upper reaches of the Cataract Gorge, with water being diverted into the Trevallyn Power Station with runoff flowing into the remainder of the Cataract Gorge and eventually merging with the Tamar River. The North Esk River starts in the Northallerton Valley in Tasmania's north-east mountains and winds its way to Launceston via the Corra Linn Gorge at White Hills. The St Patrick's River, the largest tributary of the North Esk, is dammed at Nunamara to provide the majority of Launceston's town water since the mid-1800s.
Flooding and levee system
Since the 1960s, parts of Launceston have been protected by a series of flood levees that reach up to in height as large portions of the suburbs Invermay and Newstead sit within a flood plain. The last major flood occurred in 1929 when Invermay was completely devastated. More than 4,000 people were left homeless after just one night of flooding. Since then, there have only been minor floods.Flood Warning Markers, Launceston City Council Brochure Work was under way in 2011 on a $59 million flood levee upgrade that should protect the city from 1-in-200-year events, that was then expected to take five to six years to construct.
The council acquired land used by eighteen businesses on the south side of Lindsay Street in Invermay, with businesses having until July 2009 to leave. In 2016 the Tamar River flooded resulting in the widespread flooding of low lying suburbs. The St Leonards and West Tamar Highways were temporarily closed as water levels rose, causing significant disruption to the city and loss of livestock.
Climate