In the northwest, settlement expanded in the 1850s as rich resources of timber and farming land were opened up, although at Emu Bay and at Stanley the Van Diemen's Land Company acquired land which for many years impeded the development of the later port of Burnie. Development of their port outlets depended on the stimulation of significant land settlement and, later, industrial development. Large areas of Tasmania were still either unexplored or inaccessible by land transport. In the 1850s Launceston trade was well established, exporting wool and cereals to the mainland colonies. The importance of settlements in the north of the colony, first at George Town, then at Launceston at the head of the Tamar, was sufficient to outweigh the muddy and treacherous stretches of the river, constantly needing leadsmen and dredges. An important wooden shipbuilding industry reached its height by 1853, aided by the rush to send vessels to the goldfields.īut the relentless logic of geographical location impinged on southern trade. The export of oil to Britain underpinned the colony's economy, while it also supplied wheat, timber, sheep and produce to the burgeoning settlements of Port Phillip and South Australia. Merchant captains brought convicts and cargo, and then went whaling and trading. Second only in importance to Sydney, Hobart became a pre-eminent whaling port in the southern seas. In the early days of European settlement, Hobart was on the favoured route to Sydney and ships could sail down on the westerlies. They have achieved an importance far greater than that of their mainland counterparts where one port is unassailably dominant, and Tasmanian ports are historically in rivalry with one another. The south, with its splendid deepwater harbour and safe approaches from the open sea, has suffered from its distance from Bass Strait and hence from the Australian mainland.Īnother feature of Tasmania which has distinguished it from mainland patterns, has been the relative strength of its minor ports in relation to the capital port of Hobart. Geography has also affected the island's intrastate organisation of shipping services. Tasmania's smaller islands such as King and Flinders are dependent in turn. Isolated from the mainland, its dependence on interstate shipping is two and a half times greater than that of any other Australian state. DetailsĪs a great island continent, Australia is heavily dependent on overseas shipping, but Tasmania has additional disadvantages. Shipping difficulties, however, have been described as Tasmania's Achilles heel.
![send companion to different settlement send companion to different settlement](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/aiskinshine.jpg)
Barques and brigantines, whaling, Antarctic exploration and memories of the many trading ketches, small craft and steamers which sailed in and out of the harbours and coves, and of a vigorous interstate passenger trade live in the romantic imagination.
![send companion to different settlement send companion to different settlement](https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/idc-smartphones-q1-2019.png)
As islanders, Tasmanians identify strongly with their maritime heritage.