Place names
Introduction
The names of Tasmanian towns have changed over the years.
This guide will help take the guesswork out of finding their locations and origins.
Significant place name changes include:
- Port Dalrymple – now George Town, site of first settlement in Northern Tasmania at the mouth of the Tamar River
- Carnarvon – now and previous during the convict era Port Arthur
- Clarence Plains – now Rokeby
- Green Ponds – now Kempton
- Horton – now Burnie or Circular Head
- Macquarie Plains – now Gretna
- Morven – now Evandale
- Norfolk Plains – Longford
- Penghana – now Queenstown
- Victoria – now Huon District
Libraries Tasmania records
What is online?
- The Pretyman Index to Tasmanian Place Names – A digitised card index detailing the origin of Tasmanian place names.
- Historic maps online
What else is there?
A dictionary of Tasmanian place-names by John Taylor and Wayne Smith.
Related records
- Tasmanian newspapers
- Guide to Maps in the Tasmanian Parliamentary Papers, 1856-1981 by John McQuilton
- Tasplaces: over 16 000 Tasmanian placenames and where to find them: your alphabetical guide to almost every Tasmanian place, most with bits and pieces of discovered historical and relevant background notes by John Tait
- Tasmanian nomenclature: the place-names of the state: a record of origins and dates: [being newspaper cuttings from the “Mercury”] by Moore-Robinson, James
- Bailliere’s Tasmanian gazetteer and road guide; containing the most recent and accurate information as to every place in the colony (1877) compiled by Robert. P. Whitworth
Other organisations’ records
- Tasmanian Place Names and Changes – the Tasmanian Family History Society, a valuable source of information
- Geoscience Australia Place Name Search
- Nomenclature Board of Tasmania
- Bonzle Digital Atlas of Australia