Huon
The Huon River, Huon Valley, Huonville, Huon pine, Glen Huon, Port Huon—the list, which also includes the name of the electoral division, continues. Huon Kermandec certainly left his mark on the region in southern Tasmania that bears his name.
The region's major feature, the Huon River, rises as a small creek with sources on Mount Wedge and Mount Bowes, deep in Tasmania’s South-West wilderness. On its 170-kilometres journey the Huon traverses button grass plains, speeds swiftly through the Southern Forests, glides through rich agricultural land and orchards, flows past old world villages and, finally, enters the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, one of Australia’s finest waterways. It reaches the sea as one of Australia’s major rivers. The Huon River is the life-force of the Huon Valley.
The Huon region was first charted by the French explorers Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux and his second-in-charge Commander Huon Kermandec in 1792. Bruny Island, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel, the Huon and Kermandie Rivers and districts bear their names, while Esperance and Recherche Bay are named after their ships.
D'Entrecasteaux and Kermandec were confronted by a shoreline comprising vast, dense forest extending inland to the mountain ranges. Those forests were later to provide one of Tasmania's most prized timbers, Huon pine.
The first permanent settlement in the Huon was in 1835. Settlement increased as timber getters extended their camps and activities, seeking, in particular, blackwood for casks and barrels, and the valuable Huon pine.
In the following years development has continued, with the Huon Valley producing much of Tasmania's timber, fruit, agriculture, and more recently, aquaculture, and a growing tourism industry.
The name Huon continues an original Legislative Council electorate name dating back to 1851.
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