St Helens is the largest town on the north-east coast of

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, 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 The Tasman Highway (or A3) is a highway in Tasmania, Australia. Like the Midland Highway (Tasmania), Midland Highway, it connects the major cities of Hobart and Launceston, Tasmania, Launceston – however it takes a different route, via the no ...

, 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 Tasmania http://www.starfm.org.au, title=Star FM Radio 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 the Bay of Fires IGA. and Gallery Parnella.

History

St Helens was first used as a

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

base in the early 19th century. When

tin Tin is a chemical element; it has symbol Sn () and atomic number 50. A silvery-colored metal, tin is soft enough to be cut with little force, and a bar of tin can be bent by hand with little effort. When bent, a bar of tin makes a sound, the ...

was discovered in the surrounding area in the 1870s, St Helens became the

shipping Freight transport, also referred to as freight forwarding, is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

port A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manch ...

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 The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

. Today the town is a popular resort for

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment (Freshwater ecosystem, freshwater or Marine ecosystem, marine), but may also be caught from Fish stocking, stocked Body of water, ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

and other aquatic activities. Its economy is based largely on tourism, fishing and

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...

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 Captain Tobias Furneaux (21 August 173518 September 1781) was a British navigator and Royal Navy officer, who accompanied James Cook on his second voyage of exploration. He was one of the first men to circumnavigate the world in both direction ...

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 A one-night stand is a single sexual encounter in which there is no expectation that there shall be any further relations between the sexual participants. It draws its name from the common practice of a one-night stand, a single night performanc ...

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 The Smith Street Band are an Australian rock band from Melbourne, Victoria, in which the titular Smith Street can be found. The band have released five extended plays and six studio albums, ''No One Gets Lost Anymore'' (2011), ''Sunshine and T ...

& Tom Busby from

Luca Brasi Luca Brasi is a fictional character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel ''The Godfather'', as well as its 1972 film adaptation. In the film, he was portrayed by Lenny Montana, an ex-wrestler and former bodyguard and enforcer for the Colombo crime fami ...

Environment

Important Bird Area

The town is adjacent to the St Helens Important Bird Area, identified as such by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because of its importance as a breeding site for

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adaptation, adapted to life within the marine ecosystem, marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent ...

s and

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

Waterfalls

35 km to the west is Mount Victoria Forest Reserve near the high St Columba Falls.

Climate

St Helens experiences an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

( Köppen: ''Cfb''. Summers are mild with occasional heatwaves and frequent

cold fronts A cold front is the leading edge of a cooler mass of air at ground level that replaces a warmer mass of air and lies within a pronounced surface trough of low pressure. It often forms behind an extratropical cyclone (to the west in the Northern ...

; winters cool and mostly cloudy. Rain falls consistently through the year, peaking slightly from November to March. The town receives 86.1 clear days annually, much higher than

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

's 46 days.Summary statistics ST HELENS POST OFFICE
Bureau of Meteorology. Retrieved 26 December, 2024. Being on the east coast, St Helens' winter temperatures are warmer than most parts of Tasmania due to the foehn effect. Summer temperatures are not as warm as inland areas, however, they are still warmer than those experienced in

Hobart Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...

. St Helens' record high temperature is recorded on 30 January 2009, the equal second highest temperature recorded in Tasmania.

References