| Campbell Town Tasmania | |
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 Main road in centre of Campbell Town, opposite rest area | |
  Campbell Town | |
| Coordinates | 41°55′43″S147°29′37″E / 41.928741°S 147.493616°E |
| Population | 823 (2021 census) [1] |
| Established | 1821 |
| Postcode(s) | 7210 |
| Location | |
| LGA(s) | Northern Midlands Council |
| State electorate(s) | Lyons |
| Federal division(s) | Lyons |
Campbell Town is a town in Tasmania, Australia, on the Midland Highway. At the 2021 census, the town had a population of 823. [1]
The traditional custodians of the Campbell Town area were the Tyerrernotepanner (chera-noti-pahner) Clan of the North Midlands Nation. [3] [4] The Tyerrernotepanner were a nomadic people who traversed country from the Central Plateau to the Eastern Tiers but were recorded as inhabiting "resorts" around present day Campbell Town, lagoons near present-day Cleveland and Conara and the southern banks of the South Esk River. [5] The colonial name for this clan was the Stony Creek Tribe, named after a small southern tributary of the South Esk at Llewellyn.
The Tyerrernotepanner called the Campbell Town area norerytymonerler or parndokenne. [6] Their name for the hills above Campbell Town ( the Campbell Town Tier) was Lukargener Purntobebenner and the Elizabeth River was parndokennerlyerpinder. [6]
The Tyerrernotepanner were severely depleted as a clan during the first decades of the 1800s, as colonial settlers claimed land up the South Esk and across the fertile plains of the Midlands. Clan hunting and migration was hindered by settler activity, hunting and, finally, armed aggression that culminated in massacres in the uplands and valleys around Campbell Town. [7]
The Tyerrernotepanner were formidable opponents of settler colonisation and aggression during the Black War and were recorded as attacking settlers from the Lake River to The South Esk and Tamar River Valleys during the final phase of Aboriginal resistance in the 1820s and 1830s. The Tyerrernotepanner were led by elders such as Memerlannerlargenna and Eumarrah [8] subjects of fearful reminiscence by settlers after the Black War. [9]
The last members of the Tyerrernotepanner were "conciliated" by George Augustus Robinson and, under orders from Governor Arthur, were exiled from their country to die in the squalor of Wybalenna or Oyster Cove.
The area of modern Campbell Town would have been known to colonials in Launceston (then Port Dalrymple), as the name of the river passing through was already known as Relief Creek. Lachlan Macquarie renamed it after his wife Elizabeth when passing through in 1811. [10] The site of modern Campbell Town was named by Macquarie in 1821 on his second tour of Van Diemen's Land and, continuing his habit of renaming Tasmanian landforms after his family and friends, is named for his wife's maiden name. [11] The first settler at the site of modern Campbell town was Thomas Kenton, a constable, who erected a cottage here at some time around 1821 and by 1823 a causeway was erected over the river and an inn opened in 1824. [12]
Campbell Town was established as a town in 1826 and was originally one of the four garrison towns linking Hobart and Launceston. Campbell Town had 2–3 soldiers permanently stationed – with the main headquarters at Ross. As the threat from the Aboriginal clans decreased the soldiers were replaced by convict police, who established stations in the town and in the surrounding tiers and rivers; primarily as a means of controlling or capturing escaped convicts.
The establishment and growth of Campbell Town as a police district headquarters and commercial centre paralleled the change in Van Diemen's Land agricultural economy from a peasant farming base to a more capital intensive land grant system. [13]
By 1836, a decade after its establishment, the Campbell Town district had already established its major landholders, free settlers who had displaced both indigenous people and any smaller colonial landholders, and had established cropping and pastoral holdings with a sheep population of 180,000. By the mid 1830s Campbell Town was a garrison town with a court house, gaol, Police magistrates' house, two hotels, two inns and emancipated men running stores and mechanics' shops. [14] The growth of agriculture, housing and infrastructure was facilitated by the labour of assigned men and household labour was facilitated by both male and female convict labourers. The obverse to this "free" convict labour was the enormous paramilitary and penal infrastructure required to maintain the convict system. Gentleman farmers and retired military officers were appointed by governor Arthur as magistrates to prosecute the law on this frontier. [14]
Campbell Town Post Office opened on 1 June 1832. [15]
Today, it acts as the only major rest area on the Midland Highway, with toilets, a park, a large car park and a range of food outlets. Campbell Town is also the retail centre for much of the southern part of the Municipality Midlands area.
One of Campbell Town's features is the convict-built Red Bridge, the oldest surviving brick arch bridge in Australia, [16] as well as the oldest bridge anywhere on the National Highway. [17] The bridge and causeway were built as a part of the original main road; it was to be a part of Bell's line of Road, but this road never got past Oatlands. Construction was commenced in 1836 and completed in 1838. [16] It consists of drystone abutments and timber top, although the top has been replaced, the stone abutments are original, making this a rare example of early Australian stone work.
Campbell Town is also home to the Foxhunters Return, a colonial Georgian coaching inn which retains all its original outbuildings. Built by convicts around 1833, with the main building constructed under the direction of stonemason Hugh Keane, Foxhunters Return is described by the National Trust as "the finest and most substantial hotel building of the late colonial period in Australia." During the construction of the Red Bridge, convicts were reputed to be housed overnight in the extensive cellars beneath Foxhunters Return, which is situated on the banks of the Elizabeth River and adjacent to the Red Bridge.
Given the history of Campbell Town, there are an abundance of colonial buildings that have been well preserved. The town offers tourists a heritage walk, showcasing notable structures like the Red Bridge, Campbell Town Convict Brick Trail [18] and Lake Leake. The town is also noted for the Transit of Venus, which was first observed by the US Navy in 1874.
Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It is located 240 kilometres (150 miles) to the south of the Australian mainland, separated from it by the Bass Strait, with the archipelago containing the southernmost point of the country. The state encompasses the main island of Tasmania, the 26th-largest island in the world, and the surrounding 1000 islands. It is Australia's least populous state, with 569,825 residents as of December 2021. The state capital and largest city is Hobart, with around 40 percent of the population living in the Greater Hobart area.
The Aboriginal Tasmanians are the Aboriginal people of the Australian island of Tasmania, located south of the mainland. For much of the 20th century, the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were widely, and erroneously, thought of as being an extinct cultural and ethnic group that had been intentionally exterminated by white settlers. Contemporary figures (2016) for the number of people of Tasmanian Aboriginal descent vary according to the criteria used to determine this identity, ranging from 6,000 to over 23,000.
Major General Lachlan Macquarie, CB was a British Army officer and colonial administrator from Scotland. Macquarie served as the fifth Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, and had a leading role in the social, economic, and architectural development of the colony. He is considered by historians to have had a crucial influence on the transition of New South Wales from a penal colony to a free settlement and therefore to have played a major role in the shaping of Australian society in the early nineteenth century.
The Black War was a period of violent conflict between British colonists and Aboriginal Tasmanians in Tasmania from the mid-1820s to 1832. The conflict, fought largely as a guerrilla war by both sides, claimed the lives of 600 to 900 Aboriginal people and more than 200 British colonists. The near-destruction of the Aboriginal Tasmanians and the frequent incidence of mass killings have sparked debate among historians over whether the Black War should be defined as an act of genocide.
The history of Tasmania begins at the end of the most recent ice age when it is believed that the island was joined to the Australian mainland. Little is known of the human history of the island until the British colonisation in the 19th century.
George Town is a large town in north-east Tasmania, on the eastern bank of the mouth of the Tamar River. The Australian Bureau of Statistics records the George Town Municipal Area had a population of 6,764 as of 30 June 2016.
Longford is a town in the northern midlands of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 145 m above sea level at the convergence of the Macquarie River and the South Esk River, 21 km south of Launceston and a 15-minute drive from the airport. It is just south of the Illawarra Road, a road connecting the Bass and Midland Highways. It has a population of 3,863 and is part of the Northern Midlands Council area. The region is predominantly agricultural, noted for wool, dairy produce and stock breeding.
Frenchmans Cap is a mountain in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated in the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.
Ben Lomond is a mountain in the north-east of Tasmania, Australia.
Deddington is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Northern Midlands in the Central LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about 34 kilometres (21 mi) east of the town of Longford. The 2016 census has a population of 121 for the state suburb of Deddington. The town is situated on the Nile River and lies in the foothills of Ben Lomond.
The South Esk River, the longest river in Tasmania, is a major perennial river located in the northern region of Tasmania, Australia.
The North Esk River is a major perennial river located in the northern region of Tasmania, Australia.
Evandale is an historic town in northern Tasmania, Australia. It sits on the banks of the South Esk River, 18 km south of Launceston. Named after early colonial explorer and Surveyor-General George Evans, the town is famous for its late-Georgian and early-Victorian buildings with relatively untouched streetscape, a popular Sunday market and as a host to the annual World Penny Farthing bicycle Championships. At the 2016 census, Evandale had a population of 1,345.
John Helder Wedge was a surveyor, explorer and politician in Van Diemen's Land.
Ross is a village in the Midlands of the state of Tasmania in Australia. On the Macquarie River, Ross is located 78 km south of Launceston and 117 km north of Hobart. The town is listed on the Register of the National Estate and is noted for its historic bridge, original sandstone buildings and convict history.
The Macquarie River is a major perennial river located in the Midlands region of Tasmania, Australia.
The Stacks Bluff is a peak in northeast Tasmania, Australia. The mountain is situated on the Ben Lomond plateau.
Lake Leake is the name of both a man-made water storage reservoir and a small township in the eastern midlands of Tasmania. The locality is split between two local authorities, as follows:
The Roving Party is a 2011 novel written by Tasmanian author Rohan Wilson. Wilson's first book, it is published by Allen & Unwin. The Roving Party won the 2011 Vogel Award. The novel was also shortlisted for the 2011 Victorian Premier's Literary Awards Vance Palmer Prize for Fiction.
The Elizabeth River is a minor perennial river located in the Somerset Land District, in the Midlands region of Tasmania, Australia.
Campbell Town (Tasmania) travel guide from Wikivoyage| International | |
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