Hampshire is a semi-rural locality in the local government areas (LGA) of Waratah Wynyard and

Burnie Burnie is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. When founded in 1827, it was named Emu Bay, being renamed after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, in the early 1840s. , Burnie had an urban popul ...

in the North-west and west LGA region of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

. The locality is about south-west of the town of

. The 2016 census has a population of 51 for the state suburb of Hampshire.

History

Hampshire was gazetted as a locality in 1973. It was first settled by Europeans in the late 1820s when rolling plains were mistakenly believed to be good grazing ground for

sheep Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus ''Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticated s ...

by the surveyors of the

Van Diemen's Land Company The Van Diemen's Land Company (also known as Van Dieman Land Company) is a farming corporation in the Australian state of Tasmania. It was founded in 1825 and received a royal charter the same year, and was granted 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) ...

. In fact, the open lands were the result of generations of burning off the natural

temperate rainforest Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rain. Temperate rain forests occur in oceanic moist regions around the world: the Pacific temperate rain forests of North American Paci ...

by the indigenous Aboriginal population of the area, and it proved totally unsuitable for the chosen purpose. In later years its fertile soils have been used for a variety of agricultural uses although it is currently mostly used for timber plantations. Hampshire Post Office opened on 10 January 1921 and closed in 1969. Hampshire was home to one of

Gunns Gunns Limited was a major forestry enterprise located in Tasmania, Australia. It had operations in forest management, woodchipping, sawmilling and veneer production. The company was placed into liquidation in March 2013. History Founded in 187 ...

woodchip Woodchip may refer to: * Woodchips, a medium-sized solid material ** Woodchipper A tree chipper or woodchipper is a machine used for reducing wood (generally tree limbs or trunks) into smaller woodchips. They are often portable, being mou ...

export mills that chipped

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

residues that were exported to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

to be used as

paper pulp Pulp is a lignocellulosic fibrous material prepared by chemically or mechanically separating cellulose fibers from wood, fiber crops, waste paper, or rags. Mixed with water and other chemical or plant-based additives, pulp is the major raw mate ...

in the

paper Paper is a thin sheet material produced by mechanically or chemically processing cellulose fibres derived from wood, rags, grasses or other vegetable sources in water, draining the water through fine mesh leaving the fibre evenly distributed ...

making process.

Geography

The Blythe River forms most of the eastern boundary. The

Hellyer River The Hellyer River is a perennial river located in north western Tasmania, Australia. The river flows for before joining into the Arthur River. High quality cool temperate rainforest and tall eucalyptus forest grows along much of the river. Si ...

forms most of the western and part of the southern boundary. The Emu River flows through from south-west to north-east.

Road infrastructure

The Ridgley Highway (B18) passes through from north-east to south-west. Route C102 (Upper Natone Road) starts at an intersection with B18 and runs east until it exits. Route C103 (Talunah Road) starts at an intersection with B18 and runs west until it exits.

References

*Kerry Pink, ''And wealth for toil, a history of North-West and Western Tasmania,1825-1900'', Advocate Marketing Services, Burnie, 1990 {{authority control Suburbs of Burnie, Tasmania Towns in Tasmania Localities of Waratah–Wynyard Council