Launceston Suburb Overview
Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart. With a population of 106,153, Launceston is the ninth largest non-capital city in Australia.
Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia’s oldest cities and is home to many historic buildings. Like many Australian places, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom
Launceston has also been home to several firsts such as the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, the first Australian city to have underground sewers and the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity. The city has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons.
The first inhabitants of the area of Launceston were largely nomadic Tasmanian Aborigines believed to have been part of the North Midlands Tribe. Walter George Arthur who petitioned Queen Victoria in 1847 while interned with other Tasmanian Aborigines on Flinders Island. lived for several years around Launceston, Tasmania as one of numerous homeless children, before being taken into custody by George Augustus Robinson who sent him to the Boy’s Orphan School in Hobart in 1832.
The first white visitors did not arrive until 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. They originally landed in Port Dalrymple, 40 kilometres to the north-west of Launceston.
The first significant colonial settlement in the region dates from 1804, when the commandant of the British garrison Lt. Col. William Paterson, and his men set up a camp where George Town now stands. A few weeks later, the settlement was moved across the river to York Town, and a year later they eventually settled in Launceston. Initially the settlement was called Patersonia;however, 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 18 kilometres north-west of Launceston. Paterson himself also served as Lieutenant-Governor of northern Van Diemen’s Land from 1804 to 1808.
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. Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff in 1871 in north-western Tasmania, starting a minerals boom. Gold mining commenced approximately 50 kilometres 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.
Small hotels and breweries began to emerge in the 1820s, before larger, more “substantial” hotels were built in the 1830s. Sporting groups, political groups, churches and schools were often established in these hotels;however, they also hosted plays, musical soirees and readings, until theatres were built.
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” lead to the upgrade of the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground amongst 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.
Launceston is located in the Tamar Valley, Northern Tasmania. The valley was formed by volcanic and glacial forces over 10 million years ago. The city is located approximately 45 kilometres south of the Bass Strait, with its closest neighbour-city being Devonport, approximately 99 kilometres to the north west. Launceston combines steep ridges and low-lying areas. As a result, areas of Launceston are subject to landslip problems, while others 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.
During recent years the city’s air quality has improved. Studies indicate that 73% percent of air pollution in Launceston and surrounding areas during the winter period is caused by wood smoke, while about 8% is from motor vehicle pollution. During the early 1990s about 60% per cent of households used wood heaters, but now only 25
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