Old St Marys Hotel, Todds Hall and Storey Street (1895)

The Hotel and Todds Hall were initially built with timber and both were burnt down
in 1910. They were rebuilt immediately, this time with brick.
Todds Hall was completely destroyed by fire again in November 2002

St Marys

One of the main frustrations of the early settlers to the Fingal Valley was getting their produce to market. The only access was by horse or bullock drays battling their way over rough unmade roads, and at times flooded rivers, to reach the markets at Hobart Town or Launceston.
Around 1840 James Grant of “Tulluchorum”, who from early records appeared to be the mover and shaker of the Fingal Valley, took it on himself to take up a petition and lobby the Colonial Government of the day to build a road past St. Patrick’s Head and down to the Port of Falmouth.
Grant was obviously a persistent man and not without some influence, it would appear, because in 1841 a Mr. Dawson surveyed a route on the northern side of St. Patricks Head, which led to a convict probation station being set up in 1842 at Grassy Bottoms, a grassy flat area with plenty of water, on the foothills of St. Patricks Head. Here some three hundred convicts were housed, and with another station at Falmouth housing another 150, work on the Pass commenced. Under the supervision of ex-naval Officer James Wheeler, a convict crew commenced work at either end.
Construction was a hard slog of moving dirt and breaking rock and it took some 450 convicts, working long tiresome hours six days a week, almost four years to carve a route from the head of the Break O’ Day Plains to the Port of Falmouth.
But in 1846 when the pass was opened the settlers of the Fingal Valley were rapt; they now had a reliable access to the coast where there produce could be shipped out and reach their markets much quicker and safer. The Government too was happy, they had another area, only a short distance inland, where they could settle the influx of English, Scotts, Irish and German immigrants arriving to start a new life in the Promised Land.
The building of the Pass was a feat, to be sure, in the 1840s, and proved to be a wonderful asset to the area, but the naming appears to be somewhat of a mystery with names you would think appropriate to the area overlooked for St.Marys without an apostrophe and, it seems, with an unknown origin.
Once the Pass was completed the probation station at Grassy Bottoms was abandoned.
But the Colonial Government felt, with the influx of immigrants arriving on sponsored immigration programs introduced after convict transportation ended in 1853, the need for a new town in the district was necessary. The theory was supported in 1855 when twenty German families, all of whom came out on board the ship America, arrived in the district.
In 1857 a new township was surveyed by W. A. Tully with blocks put up for sale and, with a large Irish population now living in the area, it was suggested that the Irish name theme of Avoca and Fingal continue and the name Armagh be given to the new town. But as the town developed with a police station and pound, Geo Mitchell’s blacksmith and wheelwright business and a hotel was built beside the rivulet, the common saying was “Near St.Marys Pass”. Consequently, the name St.Marys eventually took over and in 1867 the newly opened hotel became known as “St.Marys Hotel”.
The township continued to grow and soon took over from Cullenswood as the main service centre for the Break O’ day Plains and with the Elephant Pass being blazed in 1878 another route to the coast was established. This led to more areas like Grey, Irishtown, Germantown and Dublintown opening up and some fifty small farms were established, which led to the opening of a creamery oppersite the Railway Station in 1894.
But it was June 1886 that saw, perhaps, the most significant event take place in the history of St.Marys when the first steam train entered the town on the newly constructed Fingal Railway. The transport problem that had been a bug bear for the district for so long was now solved; farm produce, timber and the abundance of coal that had been found in the Mt. Nicholas Range could now be carried more cheaply and safer to market creating a whole new way of life for St.Marys and its people.
From the humble beginning of the Nineteenth Century, St.Marys grew and continued to be the main service center for the eastern end of the Fingal Valley. In the mid Twentieth Century with the farmers enjoying good wool, beef and fat lamb prices, plus a thriving dairy industry, coupled with some 270 employed in the coalmines and several sawmills the population reached 836. However, with the demise of the dairy industry, closure of sawmills and a downturn in coalmining employment due to mechanization, the town population has now dropped to around 600 where it appears to have stabilized.
Today St.Marys has evolved into a quiet country town with a diverse population of timber workers, coalminers, service personnel, business people, alternative lifestylers and retirees, all of whom make up a strong well structured community with a fighting spirit that has a proven record over decades of standing up for the rights of the town and its people.

Jim Haas

St Marys 1903
By David Clement

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