Wynyard - North Coast, Tasmania.
If you stand atop Table Cape today and look back across the Inglis River to Wynyard it’s difficult to imagine that the entire area was once heavily wooded and supported countless wood-cutters, a timber mill and a timber export trade.
The Cape was named by Bass and Flinders during their circumnavigation of Van Diemen’s Land in 1798 and the Inglis river was named by another explorer, Captain Henry Hellyer who passed this way in 1827, but it was 1841 before John King identified the regions potential and settled on land near the river mouth.
The first township in the area was established at a place called Alexandria, beneath Table Cape, but this failed and by the 1850’s a settlement had been established on the banks of the Inglis River by timber-cutters and named Wynyard after Edward Buckle Wynard, a senior officer in the New South Wales Corps.
The demand for timber generated by the Victorian gold-rush ensured Wynyard’s rapid development and a general-store, wharf, timber-mill, blacksmith shop and timber tramway were all completed in quick succession.
Wynyard was the most important centre on the north-west coast for the next fifty years and as the timber was cleared the tree-fellers were followed by farmers quick to exploit the rich soils.
Surrounded by a patch-work quilt of farmland the town is dominated by Table Cape and its 122 year old lighthouse. Completed in 1888 the light was originally an oil fired wick, subsequently replaced by acetylene and finally mains electric power in 1979.
Located 60 kilometres west of Devonport, Wynyard is home to Burnie Airport with direct passenger services to the mainland.
This Tassie Local snapshot was produced by Footloose Photographic & Media Solutions
Things to see around - Wynyard
Wynyard - North Coast, Tasmania
