MV Searoad Mersey II
In early days coal was an export product from Devonport. Today, imports include petroleum, bunker fuel, fertiliser and caustic soda. Cement Australia has exported cement products produced from Railton to Melbourne since 1926. Other exports via ships include tallow. A rail line still services the ports area of Devonport. Devonport once had a roundhouse and railway maintenance yards on the foreshore of the Mersey River. A park exists there today.
Searoad Road Shipping operate two roll on roll off vessel of general freight between Devonport, Melbourne and King Island. Vessels servicing these destinations which frequent thir facilities at East Devonport include MV Searoad Mersey, MV Searoad Mersey II (2016- ) and MV Searoad Tamar.
Passenger Ferry Terminal
Tasmania is linked by sea to the mainland view the car and passenger ferries Spirit of Tasmania I and II, which ply the waters of Bass Strait every night (duration: 10hrs 30 minutes), and during daylight hours in the summer months. Getting on and off with a car is an easy, painless experience; the only delay is likely to be going through the quarantine check at Devonport which is slow in peak periods. The Devonport Passenger Ferry Terminal is the southern terminus for the service.
SS Australian Trader
The first car ferry linking Tasmania and the mainland was the Taroona, of 4,286 tons, which arrived in Melbourne in March 1935 to begin the Bass Strait service. By the 1950s an increasing number of tourists were travelling to Tasmania, and many wanted to drive their own cars. The Taroona could only carry a small number, laboriously loaded on board by crane. However, in Europe the ferry business was being revolutionised by the introduction of Roll-on/Roll-off ships, into which cars could be driven directly on and off. The Federal Government agreed to built a number of such vessels to service Tasmania, to be operated by their Australian National Line. The first of these revolutionary new ships was the motor vessel Princess of Tasmania in 1959.
Princess of Tasmania
Over the years, two attempts have been made to operate a car and passenger ferry service between Sydney and Tasmania, but with limited success. The first was with the Empress of Australia, which was custom built at Sydney's Cockatoo Island Dockyards in 1962 for Australian National Line, to provide a ferry serice between Sydney (the terminal was at Morts Bay, Balmain) and Hobart via Devonport and Burnie. Empress of Australia sailed between Sydney and Hobart three times each fortnight. Trade never reached expectations, and in 1972, the vessel was transferred to the Melbourne-Devonport run.
Loading cars onto the Princess of Tasmania
Spirit of Tasmania III was introduced in January 2003, reviving the Sydney to Tasmania service, however it did not visit Hobart, instead docking at Devonport with its two sister vessels. It made the 22 hour journey between Darling Harbour, Sydney, and Devonport three times a week. Like Princess of Tasmania three decade earlier, the Sydney-Tasmania service was initially a success but rising costs, an air fare war and a general slowing down of the tourist trade resulted in the vessel running regularly at below half capacity. This led to the withdrawal of the service in August 2006.
Go There
Formby (Devonport) from Torquay (East Devonport), 1874
Originally named the Second Western River, the River Mersey was given its present named by Van Diemen's Land Company's agricultural adviser, Alexander Goldie, and surveyor Joseph Fossey in the winter of 1826. The report of the VDL Company’s exploration party of November 28th, 1826, records that Henry Hellyer, the Company’s chief architect, named the mouth of the Mersey 'Port Frederick' after his right-hand man and assistant, Richard Frederick, on Hellyer's land-based expedition through the area, a few months after Goldie's sea-based visit. This name was never officially adopted, nor was it ever recorded again.
The first roads through the district seem to have developed from the tracks along the dry ridges and around the boggy flats of the lower Mersey created by the cattle of William Field. His cattle and those of the VDL Co. supplied the early colonists and prison encampments in the area with most of the beef that was used. The men who came hunting for the cattle with lassoos and stock-whips, found tracks beaten by their hoofs right back into the unknown parts of the country. Many of the first roads around Latrobe and Devonport were formed in this way.
During the 1850s the twin settlements of Formby and Torquay were established on opposite banks at the mouth of the Mersey River. Torquay (now East Devonport) on the eastern shore was the larger community with police, post office, magistrate's court, at least three hotels, shipyards and numerous stores. A river ferry service connected the two communities. Between 1870 and 1880 the shipping industry grew and work was undertaken to deepen the mouth of the river. When the mouth of the river could support a shipping industry the first regular steamer services commenced, operating directly between the Mersey and Melbourne.
Devonport Wharf, 1902
In 1882 the Marine Board building was built and remains one of the oldest standing buildings in Devonport. Seven years later, the Bluff lighthouse was completed and by the turn of the century the coming of the railway make a significant difference to the two communities. At Formby, the railhead and port facilities were combined in the one place, a wharf was created on the west bank, close to the railway. Warehouses and other facilities were erected and Formby took over as the main centre. In 1890 a public vote united Torquay and Formby, and the settlements became the town of Devonport, as it was the main port for the County of Devon.
Tasmania had been initially divided into two counties on 24 September 1804; Buckingham in the south, and Cornwall in the north. Cornwall was governed by William Paterson, with Buckingham governed by David Collins. The township at York Town (near Beaconsfield) in the north became the capital of the bustling and industrious County of Cornwall, and the remote village of Hobart in the south became the administrative centre of Cumberland. But the population grew and spread out, and in 1836 a redistribution into 18 counties was proclaimed, and this arrangement can still be seen in many council and electoral boundaries today.
Devonport's Victoria bridge was opened in 1902 which enabled a land transport link between Devonport and East Devonport. Devonport was proclaimed a city by Prince Charles of Wales on 21 April 1981 in a ceremony conducted on the Devonport Oval.
History of Devonport
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