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.
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.
These ferries
connect Devonport with Melbourne, offering daily sailings.
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