Launceston, Tasmania

Launceston (, often mispronounced )  is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the juncture of the North Esk, South Esk, and Tamar rivers. Launeston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart. With a population (greater urban and statistical sub division) of 103,325, Launceston is the ninth largest non-capital city in Australia.

Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia's oldest cities and is home to many historic buildings. Like many Australian places, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom — in this case, Launceston, Cornwall.

Launceston has also been home to several firsts such as the first use of anesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, the first Australian city to have underground sewers and the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity. The city has a cool temperate climate with four distinct seasons.

History
The first inhabitants of the area of Launceston were a relatively small number of largely nomadic Tasmanian Aborigines believed to have been part of the North Midlands Tribe. However, the first white visitors did not arrive until 1798, when George Bass and Matthew Flinders were sent to explore the possibility that there was a strait between Australia and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). They originally landed in Port Dalrymple (since renamed George Town), 40 km to the north-west of Launceston.

The first significant colonial settlement in the region dates from 1804, when the commandant of the British garrison Lt. Col. William Paterson, and his men set up a camp where George Town now stands. A few weeks later, the settlement was moved across the river to York Town, and a year later they eventually settled in Launceston. Initially the settlement was called Patersonia; however, Paterson later changed the name to Launceston in honour of the New South Wales Governor Captain Philip Gidley King, who was born in Launceston, Cornwall. The name still survives in the tiny hamlet of Patersonia 18 km north-west of Launceston. Paterson himself also served as Lieutenant-Governor of northern Van Diemen's Land from 1804 to 1808.

By 1827, Launceston's population had climbed to 2,000 and the town had become an export centre, mainly for the colony's northern pastoral industry. Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff in 1871 in north-western Tasmania, starting a minerals boom. Gold mining commenced approximately 50 km away in Beaconsfield in 1877. During the following two decades Launceston grew from a small town into an urban centre. In 1889, Launceston was the second town in Tasmania to be declared a city, after state capital Hobart.

Small hotels and breweries began to emerge in the 1820s, before larger more "substantial" hotels were built in the 1830s. Sporting groups, political groups, churches and schools were often established is these hotels; however, they also hosted plays, musical soirees and readings, until theatres were built.

New popular team sports such as cricket and football failed to be sustained in Launceston before the population grew substantially. The sports were initially middle class recreations, as the working class found it difficult to participate after a six day working week. Nevertheless, a "demand for facilities" lead to the upgrade of the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground (NTCA Ground) amongst other sporting facilities in the 1860s. Not long beforehand, Tasmania played Victoria in Australia's first first-class cricket match at the NTCA Ground in 1851.

Geography
Launceston is located at -41.44194°N, 147.145°W in the Tamar Valley, Northern Tasmania. The valley was formed by volcanic and glacial forces over 10 million years ago. The city is located approximately 45 km south of the Bass Strait, with its closest neighbour-city being Devonport, approximately 99 km to the north west. Launceston combines steep (originally heavily wooded) ridges and low-lying areas (originally wetlands — with parts of the suburbs of Inveresk and Invermay below high-tide level). As a result, areas of Launceston are subject to landslip problems, while others are liable to poor drainage and periodic flooding. The topography of the area is not conducive to easy dispersion of airborne pollution, due to the phenomenon of thermal inversion.

During recent years the city's air quality has improved. Studies indicate that 73% percent of air pollution in Launceston and surrounding areas during the winter period is caused by wood smoke, while about 8% is from motor vehicle pollution. During the early 1990s about 60% per cent of households used wood heaters, but now only 25–30% of households use wood heating. The 2008 winter was the first time Launceston's air quality did not exceed PM10, since air quality monitoring began in 1997.

Launceston is situated at the confluence of the Tamar River and its tributaries; the South Esk River and the North Esk River. The Tamar River is a navigable estuary, and is still used for tourist cruises. For many years, ocean going shipping used the river to obtain access to the Port of Launceston located in the city centre. The Port of Launceston is now located at Bell Bay, some 40 km by road from the city, on the east bank of the Tamar estuary, close to its mouth. The South Esk River is the longest river in Tasmania. It starts in the mountains of Fingal and flows through Avoca, Evandale, Longford, Hadspen and finally Launceston. The river is dammed at Lake Trevallyn although some water flows into the Cataract Gorge and eventually merges with the Tamar River. The North Esk River starts in the mountains in Tasmania's north-east and winds its way to Launceston.

Flooding and Levee system
Since the 1960s, parts of Launceston have been protected by a series of flood levees that reach up to 4 m in height. The reason for this is because large portions of Invermay and Newstead sit within a flood plain. The last major flood occurred in 1929, when Invermay was completely devastated. More than 4,000 people were left homeless after just one night of flooding. Since then, there have been minor floods but nothing as severe. Work is underway on a $59 million flood levee upgrade, that is expected to take five to six years to construct. The council has acquired land used by eighteen businesses on the south side of Lindsay Street in Invermay, with businesses having until July 2009 to leave.

Climate
Launceston has a cool, temperate climate, with four distinct seasons. The city is located in the Tamar Valley and is surrounded by many large hills and mountains. With this type of topography, Launceston's weather patterns can change considerably in a short period of time. The warmest months are in January and February with an average air temperature range of 12.2 °C to 24.4 °C. Throughout the year there is an average of 4.3 days a year over 30 °C. The maximum recorded temperature was 39 °C on 30 January 2009, with Launceston Airport reaching 40.4 °C on that same day, during the 2009 Southeastern Australia heat wave. Winters are cool with minimum temperatures dropping below 2 °C an average of 61 days a year. The coldest month is July, with an average temperature range of 2.2 °C to 12.5 °C. The lowest recorded minimum at Launceston's current weather station, Ti Tree Bend was -5.2 C. Launceston rarely receives snowfall.

Winter, for Launceston, is also the season with the least amount of wind. Because of this and the topographical affect of the Tamar Valley, Launceston winters are renowned for foggy mornings, with Launceston Airport the most fog-bound commercial airport in Australia. The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 665 mm, falling on an average of 88.4 days a year. The most rain Launceston received in a year was 829.6 mm in 1992, with 2006 being the driest year when just 394.8 mm fell.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported that 2007 was the warmest year ever recorded in Launceston since temperatures were first recorded in 1884. Temperatures ranged from a minimum of 8.1 C to a maximum of 19.2 C. During 2006 and 2007, Launceston had the warmest maximums throughout the state. In 2008, Launceston had the highest average maximum temperature out of all Tasmanian cities with 18.6 C.

Urban structure and architecture
The urban areas of Launceston are organised into local suburbs, industrial areas and villages. A large portion of the city is part of the City of Launceston Local Government Area. Some outer suburbs are part of adjacent council districts, for instance Riverside and Legana are part of the West Tamar Council; Prospect Vale and Blackstone Heights are included in the Meander Valley Council.

Many of the buildings in the City's central business district (CBD) were constructed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Launceston's many well preserved Victorian and Georgian buildings, including the Launceston synagogue, a rare example of architecture in Egyptian Revival style, together with its diverse collection of art-deco architecture, such as Holyman House and Lucks Corner in the CBD, the former Star Theatre in Invermay and the former Launceston General Hospital, give the city an unusual period ambience, and such examples of Brutalist architecture as the Government offices of Henty House in Charles Street, the Police Station Building and the ANZ Building on the corner of Brisbane & George Street remain relatively isolated exceptions. Concerns that high rise development might compromise the essential character of the city centre led to strictly enforced building regulations that restrict the height of new structures in the city, and most buildings in the CBD have fewer than five storeys.

Governance
Launceston City Council meetings are held in the Launceston Town Hall. In 2002, Janie Dickenson became the youngest female elected mayor in Australia. The current mayor, Albert Van Zetten, who was initially elected in 2007, before being re-elected in 2009, became Launceston's 91st mayor. State Upper House seats that incorporate parts of Launceston are the Electoral Divisions of Paterson, Windermere and Rosevears. For federal elections, Launceston falls within the Division of Bass, with the sitting member being Jodie Campbell for the Australian Labor Party. The state Lower House seat is also called the Division of Bass, and is one of the five electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. Both federal and state seats share common boundaries.

Flag
The Launceston flag design is based on the city's Coat of Arms granted by the College of Arms, London on 11 June 1957. The Brisbane Street Mall, atop the Council Chambers and on top of the Albert Hall are places in the city where the flag is regularly flown. The three intersecting lines in the flag represent the city's three rivers (North Esk, South Esk and Tamar) and the two rectangles in the lines represent tin ingots. The strip across the top with the jagged edge is green to represent the city's parks, gardens and surrounding countryside. Waratah flowers at the top symbolise all flowers and similar beauties of nature. The ingots are included because Launceston used to be a large tin smelting centre. The little circle at the river junction is Launceston.

Economy
Along with being a major retail centre with an average of 75% of market share in surrounding local councils, Launceston is a major service centre for the north of Tasmania. The city is home to a campus of the University of Tasmania including the Australian Maritime College; and has a minor minerals and manufacturing base.

Launceston is a major hub for the regional agricultural and pastoral activities. Historically, this has been connected with the growing of apples — in recent years the stress has moved to viticulture. Superfine wool remains an important part of the rural economy of north-east Tasmania and wool sales in Launceston attract many international buyers.

Tourism
Launceston serves as the commercial hub for the north of Tasmania, and like many parts of the state, is becoming a major tourist centre. Visitors to the city have grown over the past few years, during 2004 Launceston attracted 412,800 visitors, up 51% from 2001. The United Kingdom is the origin of 25% of all international visitors to the city and 17% originate from the USA. The Cataract Gorge is Launceston's largest tourist attraction and is in close proximity to the city. It is home to the longest single span chairlift in the world, stretching 308 m across the gorge. Launceston has many parks throughout the city including City Park, located next to the city centre. City Park is home to Albert Hall. The park also has a large enclosure for Japanese Macaque monkeys, a gift from sister city Ikeda, Japan. The Launceston General Post Office dates back to the 1880s, with a clock tower added in the early twentieth century. The GPO clock chime chimes every quarter hour. Tasmania Zoo, which is known for its wildlife conservation work, including a breeding program for Tasmanian Devils, is located near the city.

Arts and entertainment
Launceston is home to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, which was established in 1891. Now the largest museum located outside a capital city in Australia, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is located at two sites across the city: the original purpose built building at Royal Park and another at the Inveresk Cultural Precinct, on the grounds of the former railway station and rail yards in buildings largely converted from the former Railway Workshops. The precinct also includes the Launceston Tramway Museum, which houses the No. 29 tram, the 'Mary St' shelter shed and a host of other memorabilia. The state's largest preservation railway, the Don River Railway, also has a carriage rebuilding workshop on the site. While, Australia's oldest bookshop, A.W. Birchall & Sons (Birchalls), formed in November 1844, is still located at its current site in the Brisbane Street Mall, despite being formed in November 1844.

Located in the Southern Launceston suburb of Prospect, the Country Club Casino is a hotel, casino and golf course complex. It was the second casino to be built in Tasmania and one of the first in Australia. Launceston Aquatic, a $26.3 million regional aquatic centre was completed in July 2009. The site, just outside the central business district spans approximately 6450 m2.

From 1999 to 2003, Launceston was the home of three of the four Gone South music festivals. Since 2006, it has hosted the MS Fest, a music festival held at the Inveresk Show grounds each summer to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research.



Sport
Sport is a popular recreational and spectator activity in Launceston and like most of the state cricket and Australian rules football are popular sports. The city has been the birthplace of two prominent Australian cricketers; the current Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting and the retired cricketer and Australian selector David Boon. The first first-class cricket match played in Australia was at the Northern Tasmania Cricket Association Ground between the Melbourne Cricket Club and the Launceston Cricket Club in 1851.

Australian rules football (commonly known locally as "football" or "footy") is very popular in Launceston, and is often played at York Park (Aurora Stadium). Holding 20,000 people—more than any other stadium in Tasmania—York Park was swampland before becoming Launceston's showgrounds in 1873. Hawthorn has played between two and five AFL matches each season since 2001, and the St Kilda Football Club played two games a year between 2003 and 2006. In 2007, the Tasmanian Government signed a AU$16.4 million, five-year sponsorship deal with Hawthorn, under which the club will play four regular season games and one National Australia Bank Cup pre-season match at the venue each year. Throughout its history, York Park has hosted major pop concerts and other entertainments. Since 2001 it has been a venue for international sports events, and in 2005 was redeveloped at a cost of $23.6 million. Association football (commonly known in Launceston as "soccer") is also played and watched in Launceston [York Park]—the only place in Tasmania to have hosted national league soccer matches. A National Soccer League game was held at Aurora Stadium in 2002 between Perth Glory and Melbourne Knights. A-League's Melbourne Victory have held a pre-season cup game at the venue each year since 2006. The record crowd is 8,061.

Since 2004, the V8 Supercars (Tasmanian Challenge) has been annually held at the recently re-developed Symmons Plains Raceway. A number of other sports have notable presence in Launceston, including basketball (men's, women's and indoor) and hockey. In 2009 Launceston redeveloped the cities swimming facilities which now include a modern indoor multi-million dollar swimming centre at windmill hill, now named Launceston Aquatic.

Media
Launceston has a major local newspaper The Examiner which was founded by James Aikenhead in 1842, and has been continually published ever since. The newspaper is currently owned by Fairfax media. Along with the rest of the state, the city has four free-to-air analogue television stations, including two government funded (ABC and SBS) and two commercial stations; (Southern Cross Tasmania & WIN) These services are also available in digital format as well as five digital only stations, one carrying Network Ten programming (Tasmanian Digital Television), and nationwide digital-only stations ABC2, SBS Two, Go! and One HD (in high definition only). Subscription (pay) television services are available from Austar and Select TV via satellite. Radio stations aired around Launceston are: 7LA — Grant Broadcasters, TOTE Sport Radio (7EX) — Racing Radio, Triple J — ABC, ABC Northern Tasmania — (ABC), ABC NewsRadio — (ABC), ABC Classic FM — (ABC), Radio National — (ABC), City Park Radio — Community Radio, SBS Radio — (SBS), Way FM — Christian Radio and 7RPH which is a relay of 864 AM from Hobart.

Health
Launceston General Hospital is Launceston's 300-bed public hospital, located just south of the city centre. Every year, LGH treats over 24,000 inpatients and over 225,000 outpatients. St Lukes Private Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital are the major private facilities. Launceston was also the location of the first use of anaesthesia in the Southern Hemisphere. Launceston is also the hub for the state's medical retrieval service. The Royal Flying Doctor Service is serviced by the state's ambulance service and doctors from the Launceston General Hospital.

Transport
The car is by far the most dominant form of transport in Launceston, with the city having 721 km of urban and rural roads, even though much of the CBD has narrow one-way streets. Since February 1998, Launceston has been serviced by the Tasmanian government-owned and operated public bus service Metro Tasmania. In addition, Redline offers school services and travels to many destinations across Tasmania. Because of its central location, Launceston is the hub of five of the state's major highways. The Midland Highway is the primary route to Hobart. The Bass Highway is the primary route to Devonport and Burnie. The Tasman Highway is an alternate scenic route to Hobart via Scottsdale, the East Coast, the West Tamar Highway and East Tamar Highway. The city is served by the small curfew-free Launceston Airport, 15 km south-east of the city. The airport serves over one million passengers annually. Jetstar, Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways, Airlines of Tasmania, Australian air Express and QantasLink all operate scheduled services at the airport. There are currently direct flights to and from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

There is a freight rail system in operation which links Launceston to Burnie and Hobart.

Tram and rail network
Launceston operated a suburban tramway system between 1911 and 1952, which consisted of 29 trams. It was first conceived in 1909, after observations of efficiently working systems in Melbourne and Adelaide. A decade before the tram system was abandoned, Launceston had begun converting to trolleybuses, especially for the hilly routes. It was one of the most extensive trolleybus networks in Australia. The network was finally removed in 1952 to make way for cars and buses. A tramway museum in Inveresk is all that remains of Launceston's trams. Launceston's streets, most of which were planned in the early nineteenth century, were probably always too narrow for trams to be fully successful, in many cases little of the roadway remained for other forms of transport.

A regional passenger rail system operated in Tasmania, of which Launceston was a major hub; however, it was closed some years ago.


 * Former passenger railway lines servicing Launceston
 * Launceston and Western Railway (1871–1873)
 * Launceston–Deloraine (1875-?)
 * Launceston–Hobart (via Evandale) (1876-?)
 * Launceston–Devonport (1885-?)
 * Launceston–Burnie (1901-?)

Utilities
Launceston's electricity is primarily generated by renewable hydro electric powerplants including the Trevallyn Dam. The major retailer is Aurora Energy.

Historically, Launceston was powered by gas from the Launceston Gas Company (later Gas Corporation of Tasmania). The first gas plant was built in 1860 as a horizontal retort Gas Works house. The Duck Reach power station replaced gas for street lighting in when it was completed in 1895. Both Gas Works and Hydro facilities have been preserved as museums.

Launceston's water comes from the Launceston Water Catchment. The majority is sourced from St Patricks River, a tributary of the North Esk River which flows through Launceston. The main retailer is Ben Lomond Water. The first reticulated water supply constructed in 1857 still serves the CBD. There were fears that the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill might adversely affect Launceston's water supply.

Like many Australian cities, several major companies provide mobile telecommunications services and wireless internet services to Launceston. Launceston's communication infrastructure was upgraded in 1997 through the federal "Networking the Nation" program. There are plans to upgrade further to a fibre optic network.

Sister cities
Launceston has three sister cities.
 * 🇯🇵 Ikeda, Japan, since 1 November 1965
 * 🇺🇸 Napa, United States, since 6 June 1988
 * 🇨🇳 Taiyuan, China, since 28 November 1995