TASPort & river
Wynyard
Goldfield demand turned forest into a port and farms.
1850Timber settlement expands · Inglis River port
WHAT STARTED IT
Wynyard grew during the 1850s when timber splitters cut palings for booming Victorian goldfields. A wharf, mill, tramway, shops and workshops gathered at the Inglis River settlement.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
For decades it was the leading port on Tasmania’s north-west coast. Cleared land became productive dairy and mixed farms, and Tasmania’s first butter factory opened here in 1892. Rail arrived in 1913.
TURNING POINTS
1850sTimber-port settlement grows.
1892Tasmania’s first butter factory opens.
1913Railway reaches Wynyard.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A coastal service town for the fertile Table Cape district, with agriculture, tourism and an airport supplementing its historic port role.