The Mersey River Ferry
The Mersey River Ferry began when Devonport was known as Torquay (east) and Formby (west), in 1855 with an official licence awarded to Mr Andrews. Other unoffial services ran as well – but you would be paying all sorts of fees! By the 1860s, there was a punt rather than small boats. A flat boat […]
Ice in the Rigging: Voyage to the Antarctic
Ice in the Rigging: Voyage to the Antarctic is an exhibition touring from the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. Tasmania is a key access point to the icy world of Antarctica, the stories of exploration and survival, of ships and stations are all explored in this exhibition.
Instrumental: Navigating and Communicating on the High Seas
December 2021 — July 2022 The Bass Strait Maritime Centre’s first temporary exhibition since the COVID-19 shutdown was Instrumental: Navigating and Communicating on the High Seas. For over 120 000 years, people have set oar and sail to new homes. These great migrations began with the exploration of rivers, lakes, and oceans. Navigating these waters […]
Chinese Market Gardeners in Devonport
In the early 1900s there were a number of market gardens in Devonport, most of them worked by Chinese migrants. At least eighteen Chinese people – referred to by newspapers of the time as ‘The Celestials’ – were known to have had market gardens in both East and West Devonport. As the term Celestials was […]
The Burgess Family
The Burgess family is one of Tasmania’s best-known seafaring families. Richard Burgess, a Devonshire seafarer, came to the colonies in the early 1800s and set up trading between Tasmania and Port Jackson, NSW. They built and crewed on some 150 vessels with such evocative names as Water Lily, Waterwitch, Welcome Home, Good Intent, Morning Light […]
Bridges Across the Mersey: Victoria Bridge
On the 18th of May 1870, a public meeting was held to discuss how best to persuade the Government to erect a bridge over either the Mersey River or Port Frederick. A committee was formed of some twenty-four individuals and included names well-known in Devonport to this day: Oldaker, Rooke, Stewart, Cummings and Best, to […]
The Britomart – Victim of Foul Play?
A 243 ton barque, the Britomart was built in H.M. Dockyard in Hobart in 1808. On the 15th of December 1839 she sailed from Melbourne to Hobart with a cargo of livestock, seven passengers and twenty-three crew and was never seen again. Almost immediately rumours began to circulate that she had been the victim of […]
The Torquay Swimming Baths
On Saturday the 11th of February 1888, a special meeting was held by shareholders of the Torquay Bathing Company, a company which had been created to build public baths in Devonport. At this meeting it was decided that a tender would be called for the erection of the baths. A meeting on Tuesday the 21st […]
Mining on the West Coast: 1912 Mt Lyell Disaster
The Mount Lyell Disaster of 1912 On the 12th of October 1912, a fire broke out in North Mount Lyell mine. One hundred and seventy men entered the mine that day. Forty-two were to die there. The fire started on Saturday morning between 11:15am and 11:30 am, when the pump house on the 700ft level […]
