John Beswick has been inspired by his own family ties to North-East Tasmania to chronicle stories of the area’s settlement that were previously undocumented.
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Beswick, former deputy premier for Tasmania, will officially launch his latest book Tasmania’s Forgotten Frontier this month.
Through his research, Beswick believes he has found that the first settlements in Tasmania began in the North East, some five years before the settlement at Risdon Cove.
Beswick said it began with the Sydney Cove, which wrecked at Preservation Island, off the north-east tip of the state, in 1797.
There were many mission to the wreck to collect the crew and goods that were left stranded on the island.
Aboard one of these missions was Matthew Flinders, who made many observations, including that there large colonies of seals around the islands.
Beswick said Flinders carried this information back to Sydney, and it reached a man called Charles Bishop.
“So at the same as Bass and Flinders were circumnavigating Tasmania, Charles Bishop was the first to begin hunting the seals, which was in 1798, five years before the settlement at Risdon Cove,” Beswick said.
Beswick used a combination of methods to uncover information about the growing settlements and grazing lands in the area, such as census and land ownership records.
But the best source of information, he said, were descendants of the those land owners.
“It’s information that you can’t find in those early records,” Beswick said.
“The interesting thing is that there are some really well-known names in the Tasmanian establishment, who took up land there.
“Reverend [William H.] Browne, who was at the St John Church in Launceston, had land there.
“He didn’t live there but employed an overseer to look after the land for him.”
He also found mention of prominent Tasmanian family names, which still continue in the grazing industry today.
“There was the Foster family, who were well-known graziers in the Midlands, and the first to take up land at Cape Portland, and it was owned for over 100 years by the Foster family,” Beswick said.
“There is also the Taylor family - known wool growers with Valleyfield and Winton estates – two members of that family took up land out there in the far North East, in those early days.”
However, Beswick said, he did document more recent history as well, including around the British Tobacco Company scandal of the 1960s and 70s.
The company’s ownership of land in the area, in hand with the state government of the land, led to conspiracy charges being laid (and subsequently dropped) against politicians and company heads alike.
“It’s some recent history that some people would remember,” Beswick said.
Tasmania’s Forgotten Frontier will be launched at the Scottsdale RSL on Thursday, April 27.
For more information, visit www.fortysouth.com.au
