10 RICKY PONTING announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in October as Australia's all-time leading run-scorer and launched his autobiography At The Close of Play in Launceston in November to a sellout audience at Country Club Tasmania.
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9 MICHAEL POLLEY decided to call it quits after 41 years as a member of the Tasmanian Parliament. He was just 22 when first elected for the ALP in 1972 and for the past 15 years has been Speaker of the House of Assembly.
8 ERROL STEWART refused to give up on his vision for a major new development for Launceston and presented his plans for the transformation of the Kings Wharf wheat silos into hotel accommodation in a newly created North Bank.
7 DARRYL GERRITY's passing in October saw a flood of tributes for the popular mayor of the West Coast. In November his wife ROBYN GERRITY became the first female mayor of the municipality and the first Tasmanian councillor to follow her husband into the top job.
6 ANDREW NIKOLIC along with ERIC HUTCHISON and BRETT WHITELEY formed the three Tasmanian Liberal amigos in Canberra after defeating the Labor incumbents at the September federal election.
5 JOHN GAY applied to the Supreme Court to be allowed to manage two family-owned companies just four months into a five-year ban for insider trading and a $50,000 fine. He'll know in March if it's OK.
4 RICHIE PORTE had an outstanding European cycling season capped by victory in the Paris-Nice stage race and then assisting Sky teammate Chris Froome to victory in the Tour de France.
3 LARA GIDDINGS came very close to matching Paul Lennon's premiership- ending popularity rating of 17 per cent during the year but started rolling out the sweeteners for next year's state election as the year drew to a close.
2 JOE CHROMY enjoyed a year of honours being inducted into the Launceston Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame and seeing the Josef Chromy Winery 2011 Chardonnay declared the best at the Decanter World Wine Awards in London.
1 GEORGE BAILEY made his Test cricket debut at the age of 31 in Brisbane in November after captaining the Tasmanian team to a second Sheffield Shield and leading the Australian one-day side in India. His world record- equalling 28 runs off English bowler James Anderson's over in the third Ashes Test in Perth will long be remembered.
