New Norfolk, Tasmania

New Norfolk is a town on the Derwent River in southeastern Tasmania in Australia. It is located 35 km north -west of Hobart on the Lyell Highway.

The pioneers who settled in the city, came in 1808 from the Norfolk Island. They worked the agriculturally productive area around this city and in 1860 planted to hops, which could be soon harvested in a considerable amount.

The first road connecting Hobart to New Norfolk, was built in 1818. The first railroad reached the city in 1887. 1827 the New Norfolk Insane Asylum was built, later Royal Derwent Hospital, which was the largest institution for the mentally handicapped in Tasmania for the next 173 years. For some years after 1848, New Norfolk was the exile of the leader of the Irish nation Terence MacManus, who was at the cottage " The Grange ", which still stands today. Later MacManus joined with the Irish rebels William Smith O'Brien.

During the 1940s, a mill for the manufacture of newsprint at Boyer was built that drove the industrial development of the region. The railway was operated from the time of the Derwent Valley Railway.

Sons and daughters of the city

• Ossie Nicholson ( 1906 - ~ 1965), cyclist and driver record

Weblink

• Information page of New Norfolk