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
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
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
In 1883, the first pegging of the Mount Lyell fields took place when three gold diggers staked a 50-acre claim in what is now known
William Aikenhead was born in Launceston in 1842. As a young man he worked for an insurance company, before joining the Examiner newspaper where his
John Drake was a Scottish ship’s carpenter who left his ship in Melbourne and prospected in the Victorian goldfields in the 1850s, before being brought
While the building of a band rotunda was initially suggested in 1907, it wasn’t until 1913 that the idea came to fruition. In order to
Lorinna was built at Grangemouth Dockyard, Grangemouth in Scotland in 1937 for the Holyman Line. Before she was built a model of the ship was
The Naracoopa, built by E.A. Jack in Launceston in 1940, was a 297 ton auxiliary ketch: that is, she combined both sail and engine. This
Built in Auckland in 1879, the Annie, as she was then known, was a 41 ton ketch with a chequered career. In 1895 the Annie
Our mission is to be a source of knowledge, ideas, stories and memories. The Bass Strait Maritime Centre’s collection is a repository developed as a resource to inspire and educate the community and visitors. A key focus of the collection is to contribute to the interpretation and preservation of the history and maritime heritage of the Devonport region and its connection with the Bass Strait.
The Bass Strait Maritime Centre acknowledge and pay respect to the Tasmanian Aboriginal community and the punniler-panner as the traditional and original owners and continuing custodians of this land.
We pay our respects to Elders past, present, and emerging.
Devonport City Council websites
Sign up for the BSMC e-news