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Tasmania (Northern Region) |
| Smithton | |
| The centre of Circular Head municipality, Smithton was the first settlement in the Far North West and was named by Bass and Flinders in 1798. The area has rich farmland, much of which has been reclaimed from swamp, and has an economy based on dairy farming, timber and fishing. Many rivers wind through spectacular Beech forests and undulating farmlands. Bones of animals which roamed around the area more than 40 000 years ago have been found on farmland drained around Mella. They include remains of a giant wombat, a marsupial rhinoceros and a giant kangaroo. There is hotel and motel accommodation and excellent fishing and boating in the rivers and Duck Bay. | |
| The
only way to see Tasmania’s rugged northwest tip, which remains under the
control of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, is to arrange a tour from the
unattractive logging town of SMITHTON, at the mouth of the Duck
River 22km west of Stanley. Tours run to Woolnorth, the original
VDL cattle and sheep property, and take in Cape Grim where the air
is reputed to be the cleanest in the world – it’s the site of one of
only six baseline air-monitoring stations (tel 03/6452 1252;
9.30am–4.30pm; $90, including a seafood and steak lunch in the
director’s house and a visit to the Lacrum Dairy).
You can stay in Smithton at the Bridge Hotel-Motel on Montague Road, where restaurant and counter meals are available. Smithton’s one other attraction is the Lacrum Dairy (closed July–Oct), 6km north on the Mella Road, where tours of the modern milking plant (daily 3.30–5.30pm; $7.50) include afternoon tea with Tasmanian cheeses. South of Smithton there are ten forestry reserves, ranging from rainforests to blackwood swamps and giant eucalypt forests; all are accessible from a circular route, via Kanunnah Bridge and Taytea Bridge on the C218 (90km return). The Forestry Commission, at the corner of Nelson and Smith streets (tel 03/6452 1317), can provide maps and route information. The most rewarding reserves are the Julius River Forest Reserve and the Milkshakes Hills Forest Reserve. Van Diemen’s Land Company |
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| The
Van Diemen’s Land Company (VDL) was the brainchild of a group of
prominent and well-connected private individuals, who in 1824 managed to
obtain by Royal Charter 250,000 acres of the mainly thickly forested,
unexplored northwest corner of Tasmania. Their plan was to create their
own source of cheap wool in the colonies, which could be relied upon even
if Europe was subject to political upheaval; the Tranmere arrived
at Circular Head in 1826, with the personnel, livestock, supplies and
equipment to create the township of Stanley.
The first flocks were grazed at Woolnorth on Cape Grim, a plateau of tussock grass and ti trees that might have been made for the purpose but, in fact, was prime Aboriginal hunting land. When hunting parties began to take sheep, whites indiscriminately killed Aborigines in retaliation, and a vindictive cycle of killing began. The most tragic incident occurred around 1826 or 1827: a group of Aboriginal men, seeking revenge for the rape of their women, speared a shepherd and killed one hundred sheep. These deaths were ruthlessly avenged when a group of thirty unarmed Aborigines, hunting for muttonbirds near the same spot, were killed by shepherds and their bodies thrown over a cliff (now euphemistically called “Suicide Cove”). Ultimately, the Aboriginal people of the northwest were systematically hunted down, the last one being captured near the Arthur River in 1842. The Van Diemen’s Land Company was detested by free settlers because it used its influence to get the pick of convict labour, which it always used in preference to that of free men. In the 1840s the company changed its emphasis from wool production to the sale and lease of its land; it is still registered on the London Stock Exchange, and its major stockholders have probably never laid eyes on the land they own. |
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