Swansea, Tasmania

Swansea is a town in the eastern part of the Australian state of Tasmania. The city on the east coast is in the northwest of Great Oyster Bay, opposite the Freycinet National Park. Swansea was the first urban settlement that emerged in Australia after the foundation of Sydney and Hobart. At the 2006 census, the population was found to be 557. The Tasman Highway ( A3) passes through the town.

History

The first European to explore the area around present-day Swansea, was the Captain John Henry Cox (1750-1791), when he sailed from England to Sydney. He ran his ship, the Mercury up the Tasmanian east coast. On 3 July 1789 he sailed, he had heard of large seal colonies in the area, on the west coast of Iceland Maria along in a sea area, which he called Oyster Bay.

Swansea was inhabited until 1821, when George Meredith arrived with his family and some workers from Pembrokeshire in Wales. Meredith received a land grant from Governor William Sorell to build a farm at Oyster Bay. He cultivated the land, planted crops and livestock could graze. At the Meredith River, a tannery and a flour mill developed. In addition, whaling stations were set up on nearby islands, so that they could export whale oil. Swansea was originally called Great Swanport and Meredith there built the house for his family, Cambria, which is still privately owned. But there are also other important historic buildings in the city, such as Morris ' General Store, which was over 100 years operated by the Morris family. The Lohmühle in Swansea, the processed Gerberlohe, is now a museum. The Schouten House is a beautiful house from the colonial era in the Victorian style, which was created in 1844 and now serves as a hotel.

Fauna

In Swansea can be found colonies of short-tailed shearwaters and little penguins. In the nearby Freycinet National Park, there are Quoll, wallabies and Tasmanian devils. Off the coast you meet dolphins, whales and seals.

Climate

Demography

In the 1996 census, a population of 495 was determined. Of these, 25.1% were over 65 years old. This is the highest percentage of old people in the whole of Tasmania.