Manganna's Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church
Built 1912

St Thomas Anglican Church at Avoca
Concentrated in 1842

This building at "Harefield" near St Marys was the cottage built by
Dr Alexander Thomson in the
early 1830s.
It is believed to be the oldest building still standing in the Fingal valley

Cullenswood Anglican Church
built by convict labour in 1834 for
Robert Vincent Legge the original owner of "Cullenswood"

Golden Gate Gold Mine at Mathinna.
Towards the Nineteenth Century Mathinna was the third largest town in Tasmania after Hobart and Launceton.

History

The history of our unique piece of Tasmania can be traced back some 30,000 years to a time when it was an important hunting ground for the Tasmanian Aborigines. It was home to the Ben Lomond Tribe (Plangermaireener) and frequently visited by bands from the Oyster Bay Tribe (Paredarerme), who travelled up from their East Coast territory via a route past St Patricks Head.

Although named by Tobias Furneaux on St Patricks Day, 1773 St Patrick’s Head was known to the Aborigines as Lumera Genena Wuggelina, which means ‘a great molar tooth’. The peaked mountain at the eastern end of the Fingal Valley was an essential land mark for Aboriginal people as well as holding significant spiritual values.

In 1820 Lieutenant Governor William Sorell commissioned explorer Henry Rice to explore the East Coast of Van Diemens Land in search of more farm land for the influx of new settlers coming to the colony from Europe. Rice left the coast at Falmouth and scrub-bashed his way past St Patricks Head and into what he described as a fine, fertile, flat valley with an abundance of water. He followed the Break O’ Day, South Esk and St Pauls Rivers, eventually ending up in Launceston.

As a result of Rice’s report land grants were issued, which were soon taken up by James Gilligan at “Clifton Lodge”, near Avoca and James Grant at “Tullochgorum” , a few miles further east on the banks of the South Esk River.

By the 1830’s a dozen or more settlers had taken up grants in the area and with the help of convict labour supplied by the government, farms were established, homes were constructed, towns were mapped out and thriving communities were being built.

Despite the primitiveness of the times, harassment by bushrangers and disputes with Aboriginals, the valley continued to develop. So much so that in 1842 the Government moved some 450 convicts into the area to construct the St Marys Pass. With its completion in 1846 the settlers now had easy access to the port at Falmouth where their produce could be shipped to markets more quickly and safely.

A most significant event in the economic development of the region was the opening of the railway line in June, 1886. This not only provided viable transport for the farm produce, such as the lucrative cheese industry established by German immigrants who arrived in 1855, but made way for the development of the coal and timber industries, both of which have remained the life blood of the communities to this day.

Whilst the geographic area of the Society’s charter has transformed over the years and has some of the most modern infrastructure and facilities, its heritage is far from lost. There are many examples of convict built architecture evident in homesteads, churches and graveyards. Relics from the early days of gold, coal, tin and wolfram mining can be found on the slopes of almost every mountain.

The old railway stations have been restored reminding us of a time long gone when steam trains huffed and puffed pulling their loads through the length of the valley. Every town now has a place where you can view, hear and learn of its rich history which will leave history lovers completely rewarded for their time.

Jim Haas

South Esk River at Fingal

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