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

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

Australia 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 , Australia is the largest country by ...

, 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, it connects the major cities of Hobart and Launceston – however it takes a different route, via the north-eastern and eastern coasts of the state. The ...

, 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 Break O'Day Council is a local government body in Tasmania, situated in the northern part of the state's east coast. Break O'Day is classified as a rural local government area and has a population of 6,770, the major towns of the region includ ...

, a council that includes the nearby town of

Binalong Bay Binalong Bay is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Break O'Day in the North-east LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about north-east of the town of St Helens. The 2016 census recorded a population of 290 for the state ...

. 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.

History

St Helens was first used as a

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industr ...

base in the early 19th century. When tin was discovered in the surrounding area in the 1870s, St Helens became the

shipping Freight transport, also referred 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 H ...

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 ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

. 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, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

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

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

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 an English 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 directions ...

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

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.

Environment

Important Bird Area

The town is adjacent to the

St Helens Important Bird Area St Helens Important Bird Area comprises four separate sites, with a collective total area of 24 km2, in the vicinity of the town of St Helens on the northern part of the east coast of Tasmania, south-eastern Australia. Description The si ...

, 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 ...

because of its importance as a breeding site for

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

s and

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">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 mudflat ...

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, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ...

( Köppen: ''Cfb'', Trewartha: ''Cfbk''), with four distinct seasons. Summers are warm with occasional heatwaves; springs and autumns are mild, and winters are cool and cloudy. Rain falls consistently through the year, peaking slightly from November to March. Being on the east coast, St Helens' winter temperatures are warmer than most parts of Tasmania due to the

foehn effect A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of i ...

. Summer temperatures are not as warm as inland areas, however, they are still warmer than those experienced in

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/ Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

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

References