Summerhill or Summerdale? The Tasmanian suburb with two names

But visitors to the outer-Launceston suburb must surely ask the question - why is the half the town centre called Summerdale?

In the space of a few hundred metres, motorists can drive past Summerhill Baptist Church, Summerdale Community Centre, Summerdale Primary School, Summerdale Medical Centre and Summerhill Pharmacy.

Further up the hill you'll stumble onto Summerdale Grove.

So how did this all happen?

The area has been colloquially known for Summerhill for a long time - as far back as the mid-1800s - but the Summerdale name came about much later on.

In 1957, postal authorities wrote to Westbury Council asking for name suggestions for a new post office near Prospect.

The council suggested Summer Leas, Summer Brae and Summer Dale, of which the latter was ultimately chosen.

But not everyone was happy.

Over the next few years, Launceston City Council and Summerdale Primary School - which had previously been known as Prospect State School - both requested the post office be renamed Summerhill.

The post department initially refused, as it clashed with an identically-named post office in New South Wales, but by 1968, the request had been granted.

But the Summerdale name was never lost to history.

Adam Eastley has been principal of Summerdale Primary School for four years.

The school is the North's second-biggest primary school and has almost 550 students, so you could imagine he's always being asked about why the school is called Summerdale and not Summerhill.

Except he isn't.

"I've never had that question asked ever," he said.

'What I like about the name is ... a lot of our kids come from Prospect Vale and Blackstone Heights, and we have kids who come out of town, so Summerhill is a very small part of our community.

"Summerdale I guess is a bigger identity for our whole community - that's how I think about it."

A medical precinct lives on the opposite side of the suburb's main roundabout.

Summerdale Medical and Summerhill Pharmacy both started up shop in 1982, although the medical centre first opened in Hardwicke Street in 1975.

Pharmacist Todd Medwin said the two businesses co-existed very happily despite having different names.

"We've obviously been named after the actual suburb that we're in," he said.

"We often get called Summerdale Pharmacy, and certainly mail and delivery do come to here instead of the doctor's surgery and vice versa, [but] that's probably the only sort of confusion and questions we get."

The Summerdale name is not the only head-scratcher Summerhill has to offer.

The suburb of 3000-plus also boasts the unusual distinction of not fitting neatly into one local government area, or even one electorate.

Ninety-six per cent of the suburb lies in Launceston LGA and the Bass electorate, while the rest is part of Meander Valley and Lyons.

There have previously been pushes for Launceston LGA to take in all of Summerhill, although the issue hasn't been raised in recent times.

Meander Valley mayor Wayne Johnston doesn't expect it will be, either.

"I'd imagine the residents in Summerhill are getting cheaper rates by being in Meander Valley than they would by being in Launceston," he said.

Few know the suburb's quirky boundaries better than Margaret Bullock.

Mrs Bullock, who first settled in Summerhill in 1964, worked in the area's polling booths for 34 years and is well-acquainted with the Peel Street West divide.

"People didn't know if they were Bass or Wilmot - it's now called Lyons - and you'd have to say 'where do you live?' because one side of the street was one, and one was the other.

"[Sometimes] I'd see the bins out on Tuesdays just around the corner, but our bins would be out Friday.

"That's what a line on a map does. I suppose it happens in many other cities too - you've got to have a line somewhere."

Summerhill has changed significantly over the years.

The pharmacy and medical centre site was once a quarry and a swamp, but the land was later reclaimed.

The nearby Deviation Crescent was initially part of the main road, and home to the Harvey family, but now leads to a hairdressing salon.

Until about the 1960s, the Cole family owned the land that has since become Prospect Vale Market Place.

Mrs Bullock said although many of the original Summerhill families were gone, the area had continued growing and developing.

"One of the big selling points of the areas for families is you've got probably the three biggest schools in the area all within walking distance - Summerdale, St Pats and Prospect High School," she said.

"We've got a good bus service - it's a well serviced area - but also I feel very safe here now, probably safer than I did 20 or 40 years ago.

"There's not a lot of traffic - not on my street, and I live on one of the major streets. It's a comfortable area."

Mr Eastley agreed.

"I really like the sense of community we have here," he said.

"If you walk through our school you'll see lots of happy people being respectful, having a great time.

"It's just a wonderful place."