Devonport

• Summary
• Weather for Devonport

Located at the centre of the north coast at the mouth of the Mersey River. It was founded as two towns, Formby and Torquay. They merged in 1890 to become the city of Devonport. The terminal for the Bass Strait ferry service The Spirit of Tasmania car and passenger ships are almost landmarks in this city. As they negotiate a U-turn in the Mersey River, they seem to be sailing right up the main street.

There are interesting features such as the Tiagarra Aboriginal Culture and Art Centre, the Davenport Regional Gallery, the Maritime Museum, the Don River Railway and Museum and Home Hill, the house that Australia’s only Tasmanian prime minister, Joseph Lyons, built when he married. Joseph and Dame Enid Lyons lived in the house, now owned by the National Trust, for the rest of their lives. It is preserved as they left it and open to the public.

The city has a population of about 22,000 and is surrounded by rich, fertile soil that produces more than 40 per cent of Tasmania’s vegetable crops. The roadsides are lined with fields of potatoes, carrots and the yellow and white pyrethrum flower used as a natural insecticide, and paddocks of grazing Friesian cows.

You can explore Devonport’s coastline by walking or cycling along Victoria Parade to the Bluff, where Tiagarra Aboriginal Centre explains the areas Aboriginal history and nearby rock carvings.

The Don River Railway has an impressive collection of locomotives, including a steam train that travels to Coles beach. Devonport’s Imaginarium is Tasmania’s only science discovery centre and is full of hands-on activities.