Avoca is a small village about 80 kilometres south east of Launceston on the banks of the South Esk River. The area was first settled in the late 1820s and originally called St Paul’s Plains by the early explorers who surveyed the district in about 1833. The main surveyor was John Helder Wedge and the official establishment of the town was in 1834.

For a short while the area was also known as Camp Hill.

Avoca had a mini population explosion in the mid-1830s with the establishment of farming, coal and tin mining and, while the mines have long gone, the area continues today as a farming community. Also in the 1830s, convict probation stations were established, not only in Avoca, but also in Fingal, St Marys and Falmouth.

It was the establishment of these stations that led to the construction of roads and bridges to service them. The ready supply of cheap labour from the probation stations probably had much to do with opening up the area.

Avoca has quite a few interesting historic buildings including the historic St Thomas’ Anglican Church that was built in the “Romanesque Revival” style and attributed to James Blackburn, the same architect who built the church at Port Arthur.

The church (in Blenheim Street) was consecrated on May 8, 1842.

It’s interesting to observe that some of the pews still carry their original numbers and there is a very large pew at the rear of the church that was especially constructed for use by a very large (some would say obese) church warden!

The parish hall was finished about 1850 and the Union Hotel, in Falmouth Street, the main street of the town, in 1842.

A superb stone residence called Bona Vista still survives off Storey’s Creek Road. It was constructed in 1848 for Simeon Lord Jnr. who was a noted Tasmanian and Queensland pastoralist who founded Victoria Downs Station and fathered two members of parliament.

Bona Vista, complete with underground cells, and a sandstone terrace, is a great example of Georgian architecture and comes with some interesting historical notes.

It was held up in 1853 by two bushrangers who shot the local constable. They were later caught and executed. Tasmania’s most infamous bushranger, Martin Cash, also worked at the same property.

The road which passes through Rossarden and joins Avoca and Fingal offers superb views of the rugged Ben Lomond Range which rises to the north of the village.