DEVONPORT Tasmania accommodation, restaurants, things to do, history

DEVONPORT

The area around Devonport was first settled in the 1840s as a farming area and one of the earliest farmers was enthusiastic enough about the ‘old country’ to plant just 6 blackberry cuttings he imported from England – an action regretted by many Tasmanians from one end of the State to the other as they are a very hardy thorny plant and almost impossible to eradicate!

The area was first surveyed by Captain Charles Hardwicke in 1823. The area was originally known as Port Frederick, in honour of Governor Arthur’s son, then Mersey River, the name of the river flowing through the town.

The township of Devonport was founded in 1890 by a merger of Formby on the west bank of the Mersey River with Torquay on the east bank and was then named after Devonport in England.

In 1901 the two parts of the town were joined when the first Victoria Bridge was opened and, just two years later, electricity came to Devonport via a steam driven street lighting plant.

Twenty-three years after it was opened, the first Victoria Bridge collapsed due to the insatiable appetite of boring toledo worms! (Boring because they bored through the wood – not boring because they were dull and uninspiring!) No one was injured and the bridge was quickly replaced.

The Devonport airport was opened in 1952 and regularly scheduled air services were established between Devonport and Melbourne.

Hon. Joseph Lyons Dame Enid Lyons, Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, resided in Devonport for many years and is buried near her husband, Joseph, the only ever Tasmanian Prime Minister of Australia, at the Mersey Vale lawn cemetery.

Devonport was declared a city in 1981 by Prince Charles on April 21st.

The city has a population of 26000, and with the surrounding areas about 60,000, and is circled by rich, fertile soil that produces more than 40 per cent of Tasmania’s vegetable crops (beans, onions, peas, potatoes etc.) and very significant crop values of cereals, oil poppies, pyrethrum and other crops.

The district also produces pulp and paper and other forest products and cement of which large tonnages are exported through the port.

The Don River Railway has an impressive collection of locomotives, including a steam train that travels to Coles Beach.

Devonport is the major sea gateway to Tasmania and its thriving port is the home for the two luxury passenger and vehicle ferries, Spirit of Tasmania I & II.