Map - St Helens, Tasmania (St Helens)

St Helens (St Helens)
St Helens is the largest town on the north-east coast of Tasmania, Australia, on Georges Bay. It is known as the game fishing capital of Tasmania and is also renowned for its oysters (as are some other areas of Tasmania). It is located on the Tasman Highway, about 160 km east of Tasmania's second largest city, Launceston. In the early 2000s, the town was one of the fastest growing areas of Tasmania, and reached a population of 2049 at the 2006 census. By the time of the, it had a population of 2,206.

St Helens is part of the Break O'Day Council, a council that includes the nearby town of Binalong Bay. St Helens also has its own radio station named Star FM a community station on 93.7 MHz in the town, 100.3 MHz in St Marys and 98.5 MHz in Bicheno. A number of shops can be found in the town along Cecilia Street, such as a Supa IGA and Gallery Parnella.

St Helens was first used as a whaling base in the early 19th century. When tin was discovered in the surrounding area in the 1870s, St Helens became the shipping port for the mines. This was the first time a coach service had been introduced to the town; previous access had only been by sea. The town was named after St Helens, Isle of Wight. Today the town is a popular resort for fishing, swimming and other aquatic activities. Its economy is based largely on tourism, fishing and timber. Georges Bay Post Office opened on 1 April 1869 and was renamed "St Helen's" in 1882.

The first European to explore the St Helens area was Captain Tobias Furneaux who sailed up the coast in 1773. He named the southern point of Georges Bay, St Helens Point.

By the 1830s Georges Bay was being used by whalers and sealers. Not surprisingly the settlement which grew up on the shore became known as Georges Bay and the local Aboriginal people became known as the Georges Bay tribe.

The first official land grant was provided in 1830 and in 1835 the small village was renamed St Helens. It would have continued to be an inconsequential port had not tin been discovered at Blue Tier in 1874. Suddenly the port, and the routes to the tin mines, were awash with miners. Over 1000 Chinese moved through the port. From 1874 until the turn of the century the tin mines prospered.

When the mines closed the miners moved to the coast and many of them settled in St Helens. Slowly the port changed so that today it has a major fishing fleet which is supported by boat building, ships chandlery and other ancillary activities. In recent times tourism, driven by fishing and the town's mild climate, has become important.

In 2018, St Helens hosted Triple J's annual One Night Stand concert. It featured Vance Joy, Peking Duk, Middle Kids, Alex the Astronaut and The Sleepyheads.

Notable residents of St. Helens include Lee Hartney from The Smith Street Band & Tom Busby from Luca Brasi.

 
Map - St Helens (St Helens)
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Country - Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of 7617930 km2, Australia is the largest country by area in Oceania and the world's sixth-largest country. Australia is the oldest, flattest, and driest inhabited continent, with the least fertile soils. It is a megadiverse country, and its size gives it a wide variety of landscapes and climates, with deserts in the centre, tropical rainforests in the north-east, and mountain ranges in the south-east.

The ancestors of Aboriginal Australians began arriving from south east Asia approximately 65,000 years ago, during the last ice age. Arriving by sea, they settled the continent and had formed approximately 250 distinct language groups by the time of European settlement, maintaining some of the longest known continuing artistic and religious traditions in the world. Australia's written history commenced with the European maritime exploration of Australia. The Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon was the first known European to reach Australia, in 1606. In 1770, the British explorer James Cook mapped and claimed the east coast of Australia for Great Britain, and the First Fleet of British ships arrived at Sydney in 1788 to establish the penal colony of New South Wales. The European population grew in subsequent decades, and by the end of the 1850s gold rush, most of the continent had been explored by European settlers and an additional five self-governing British colonies established. Democratic parliaments were gradually established through the 19th century, culminating with a vote for the federation of the six colonies and foundation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. Australia has since maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and wealthy market economy.
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