Namesake

Scottsdale, in north-east Tasmania, is named after James Scott, a government surveyor commissioned in 1852 to mark a bridle road between St Patrick’s River and Cape Portland.

Scott discovered challenges on the original route, so he proposed an alternative via Piper’s River.

After completing a bridle road between St Patrick’s River and Ringarooma River in November 1853, Scott engaged in private surveying contracts for a period of time. He then entered politics, serving on the Launceston City Council. In 1869, Scott became the independent member for George Town in the House of Assembly, serving until 1877. He was re-elected to the House of Assembly the following year, this time as the independent member for South Launceston.

History

The origins of Scottsdale trace back to 1833, when the area was first settled by Europeans – but the pyemmairrener people had inhabited the land for thousands of years before this.

The region was surveyed between 1858 and 1859, and was named ‘Scotts New Country’. British settlers subsequently moved in and a town soon sprang up. It was called Ellesmere, and its first post office was built in 1865.

Two years later, in 1868, a visitor to Ellesmere wrote:

“[The town has] numerous cosy neat cottages with their fruit and flower gardens in the front … There are five or six hundred inhabitants … There is yet neither police station nor public house, but the people appear to get on harmoniously enough without them.”

The Launceston to Scottsdale railway line was opened in February 1889 with the rail reaching Branxholm in 1911 and Herrick in 1919. By 1978 the last passenger trains closed down in Tasmania and the rail network, including the Launceston-Scottsdale line, focused solely on freight.

By the early 1980’s the Scottsdale line had just three daily services and by 2005 the line was closed. A 26km section between Scottsdale and Billycock Hill has been converted into the North-East Rail Trail, with a further 40km planned and approved for the section of rail corridor between Scottsdale and Lilydale Falls Reserve.

Ellesmere had been re-named Scottsdale by 1893.

King Street in Scottsdale (1906).

Tas That Was is a column that includes:

  • anecdotes of life in Tasmania in the past;
  • historical photographs of locations in Tasmania; and/or
  • documentaries about locations in Tasmania.

If you have an anecdote or photograph you’d like to share with us, please send it to [email protected].

Callum J. Jones studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania. He has written fiction and non-fiction for Tasmanian Times since 2018. He can be traced by the smell of fresh coffee.

Follow him on Twitter (@Callum_Jones_10) and Facebook (@callum.j.jones.creative).