The Van Diemen’s Land Company

The settlement of the NW corner of Tasmania was due in large measure to the creation of the Van Diemen’s Land Company Limited in the 1820s. It’s task was to select land in Tasmania to supply the textile factories of England. The authority to do this came by royal charter. The colonial government insisted on the selection being made in as-yet unexplored territory.

The company setup base near what was to become Stanley and selected various parcels of land across the north west. The vast majority of the selection was made inland on high country but unfortunately it was too cold and over winter thousands of prime merino would perish. The venture never really recovered from such a financial loss and although the entity would continue down the years, it would gradually be broken up, sold on and change focus, but the grand vision that was the company has few recognisable remains today.

However, the frontier had been broached. While perhaps unsuited to sheep, cropping, beef, timber and mining  would become later success stories which would lead to the development across the top end. Stanley, as the original home of VDL Co Ltd continues on. Smithton is now the centre of agriculture and Burnie has a more industrial focus.

The wind did continue through the night, and before 5am I was awoken by flashes followed somewhat later by low rumbles. Packing up in the wind was always going to be a challenge, but adding a storm into the mix was not worth contemplating. However, the radar indicated the storms were well offshore and didn’t seem to be coming in, so I maintained a watching brief. Once the sun was up though, it seemed prudent to get straight on our way.

We knew it wasn’t possible to get to the top corner, but I thought we’d head up for a look anyway. The historic VDL co remains still occupies this corner, although tassie Hydro now owns it to operate wind farms in the area. Indeed, about 4km from the end you are turned back. You would get a view of the windfarms there, but for us the weather was down low so there wasn’t much to see. An information board is setup at the collection point for the tours, but waiting guests told us it was $80 a head and they suggested they had been waiting beyond the designated time, so we didn’t hang around.

Stanley is still much the same as I remember it. Neat and proud, nestled underneath the Nut, or Circular Head as it is officially known. However, as for last time, there is little open, although evidence of occupation isn’t far away. The fish shop had almost no stock. The bakery was empty of goods, but attended. The timber workshop was closed. All of the accommodation houses showed vacancies, but no signs of occupation. If we could have found something interesting to do for the afternoon we may have gone to the ranger talk and seen some muttonbirds tonight, but with the weather alternately cloudy of hazy, even a chairlift to the top of the Nut was uninviting. After taking in the birthplace of Jo Lyons, Tassie’s first Australian Prime Minister, there was little else to do.

Further along the coast are a series of beaches, bays and headlands each either picturesque or famous in their own ways. Rocky Cape has shacks and a lighthouse. Boat Harbour Beach is the local surf spot, although too cold for us to be interested. Table Cape has an historic lighthouse but is famous mostly these days for its tulip farm.  Alas, for us, tulip flowing is over. From there it was a short drop down into Wynyard, where we have a comfortable, if somewhat expensive caravan park on the beach.

Fruit has been so hard to come by the kids are even asking for it, so tomorrow, we have found out that Burnie has a farmer’s market, so off to there in the morning. Fortunately with 44 in Melbourne, and 37 in Hobart, for some reason it only cracked 22 here today, which was good, except that a surf might have been nice if it was warmer. Perhaps we will continue to be lucky tomorrow.