Mount Heemskirk is a mountain in

Western Tasmania The West Coast of Tasmania is one of the Regions of Tasmania, regions of Tasmania in Australia. It is mainly isolated rough country and is associated with wilderness, mining and tourism. It served as the location of an early convict settlement ...

, west of the

West Coast Range The West Coast Range is a mountain range located in the West Coast, Tasmania, West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. The range lies to the west and north of the main parts of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park. The range has h ...

. It has an elevation of above sea level. The closest town is

Zeehan Zeehan is a town on the west coast of Tasmania, Australia south-west of Burnie. It is part of the West Coast Council, along with the seaport Strahan and neighbouring mining towns of Rosebery and Queenstown. History The greater Zeehan a ...

, about 14 kilometres (9 mi) away.

History

The indigenous

Peerapper Northwestern Tasmanian, or Peerapper ("Pirapa"), is an Aboriginal language of Tasmania in the reconstruction of Claire Bowern.Claire Bowern, September 2012, "The riddle of Tasmanian languages", ''Proc. R. Soc. B'', 279, 4590–4595, doi: 1 ...

name for the mountain is recorded as ''Roeinrim'' or ''Traoota munatta''.

European naming

On 24 November 1642, Dutch explorer

Abel Tasman Abel Janszoon Tasman (; 160310 October 1659) was a Dutch sea explorer, seafarer and exploration, explorer, best known for his voyages of 1642 and 1644 in the service of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). He was the first European to reach New ...

became the first European explorer to sight and document the Heemskirk and West Coast Ranges. Tasman sailed his ships close to the coastal area which today encompasses the Southwest Conservation Area, south of

Macquarie Harbour Macquarie Harbour is a shallow fjord in the West Coast region of Tasmania, Australia. It is approximately , and has an average depth of , with deeper places up to . It is navigable by shallow-draft vessels. The main channel is kept clear by th ...

, but was unable to send a landing party ashore due to poor weather and did not make contact with any South West Tasmanian groups. In their circumnavigation of Tasmania between 1798 and 1799,

George Bass George Bass (; 30 January 1771 – after 5 February 1803) was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia. Early life Bass was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George B ...

and

Matthew Flinders Captain (Royal Navy), Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British Royal Navy officer, navigator and cartographer who led the first littoral zone, inshore circumnavigate, circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then ...

named the Heemskirk Ranges mountains Mount Heemskirk and

Mount Zeehan Mount Zeehan ( ) (Peerapper/palawa kani: ''Weiawenena'') is a mountain located in the Heemskirk Range on the West Coast of Tasmania, Australia. It has an elevation of above sea level. The closest town is Zeehan, about 4.93 kilometres (3 ...

after Tasman's ships, the warship '' Heemskerck'' (itself named after

Jacob van Heemskerck Jacob van Heemskerck (3 March 1567 – 25 April 1607) was a Dutch explorer and naval officer. He is generally known for his victory over the Spanish at the Battle of Gibraltar, where he ultimately lost his life. Early life Jacob van Hee ...

, whose surname means "from

Heemskerk Heemskerk ( ) is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is located in the Kennemerland region. History The town was formed during the Middle Ages. In an official deed from the year of 1063, the town was ...

") and the

fluyt A fluyt (archaic Dutch language, Dutch: ''fluijt'' "flute"; ) is a Dutch type of sailing ship, sailing vessel originally designed by the shipwrights of Hoorn as a dedicated ship transport, cargo vessel. Originating in the Dutch Republic in the 16 ...

''Zeehaen'' (Old Dutch for "Sea Rooster") in honour of Tasman's voyage of exploration. Although Dutch in origin, Bass and Flinder's

Anglicised Anglicisation or anglicization is a form of cultural assimilation whereby something non-English becomes assimilated into or influenced by the culture of England. It can be sociocultural, in which a non-English place adopts the English language ...

naming of Mount Heemskirk and Mount Zeehan created some of the oldest British place names in Tasmania.

Mining

The mountain and its surrounding high ground was also known as the Heemskirk mining area in the 1890s and the first decade of the 1900s.

Tourism

After the success of mountain biking in Derby, several

mountain bike A mountain bike (MTB) or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling (''mountain biking''). Mountain bikes share some similarities with other bicycles, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in r ...

trails opened on Mount Heemskirk in 2020.

Notes

References

{{Western Tasmania , state=autocollapse Heemskirk Western Tasmania