Meehan Ranges

Citations

A Brief History of Human Use in the Meehan Range. Peter MacFie, 1997. For the Meehan Range Management Plan, Clarence City Council, 5pp.

Meehan Range Trails Report. Peter MacFie, 2015. For the 2015 Meehan Range Management Plan, Clarence City Council, 16pp.

Outline

A short historical overview and consideration of the implications of the human use, past and present, of the Meehan Range. This was delivered to the Clarence Council for their Meehan Range Management Plan in 1997. An expanded report including interviews with elderly residents of the area was completed in 2015. Both papers were indexed in 2018.

Download pdf

A Brief History of Human use in the Meehan Range, 1997.pdf)

Meehan Range Trails Report 2015.pdf

Excerpt 1997

The Meehan Ranges.

East Risdon was the site of the first European settlement in Tasmania in 1803. The hills behind the first base of European settlement in Van Diemen’s Land, the Meehan Ranges were the site of the first encounters and clashes with Aboriginal Tasmanians, and the first domestic buildings of the settlers.

These hills were named after James Meehan, the surveyor in the first formal surveys which alienated aboriginal land to the British settlers in 1803-4.

Meehan was an Irish born political rebel and former convict who had taken part in the 1798 uprising against British rule in Ireland. He returned to survey in VDL in 1806-7 and in 1812-13. (In 1812 he surveyed the Kangaroo Bay area near Bellerive including the early land grants to Richard Morgan and other Norfolk Islanders which is now Rosny Park Golf Course.)[1]

Two Climates, Two Histories.

The Meehan Range has two aspects – east toward Pittwater and west toward the Derwent River. These aspects also have two distinct topographies and two climates. While the west has a narrow band of land beside the Derwent River, now heavily urbanised, the eastern slopes are essentially rural, although becoming subdivided into large commuter blocks.

Traditional Use.

When the Range was part of a rural existence, they were used in a relaxed manner by some land owners – though not without conflict. Farmers permitted access to wood-carters and shooters. Workmen walked cross country to shear or harvest as labourers on the larger farms while their children crossed the Range to and from school – and both used the tracks to visit relatives on either side of the Range. These routes often followed traditional paths, such as the Risdon Creek Bridle Trail between Risdon and Dulcot.

End Excerpt

To read further, download pdf as above

Reference from excerpt

[1] Stock Thieves and Golfers: a History of Kangaroo Bay and Rosny Farm Tasmania 1803-1998. Peter MacFie, 2002. Published by Clarence City Council.

Index List

Aboriginal settlements

Backhouse, Albert

Backhouse, Belle

Batt, Eileen King

Belbin Rivulet

Bellerive Sorell Railway Line

Bellerive-Sorell Railway Route

black wattle

Blackburn family

blazed trees

Break Neck Hill Coach Road

buses

bush-walking

caves

Chaffey’s grocer shop

conflicts

convicts

Craigow to Grass Tree Hill.

Cross Rivulet

Degraves, Charles

Degraves, Peter

Dickson, Bassett

Downham Town

Downham, Athol

Downham’s Rd

Dulcot

Dulcot Mud School

Duncan, Fred

East Risdon

emancipists

Fenner family

ferry crossing

fire-wood

Flagstaff Gully

fringe farmers

Geilston Bay

Genders, Madge

ghosts

Grass Tree Hill

Grass Tree Hill Probation Station

Grass Tree Hill Road

Grass Tree Hill to Dulcot Trail.

Gunners Quoin

Half-way Hill

Half-way Hill Trail

Hanslow, Chloe

Hanslow, George

Hanslow, Lou

hares

historic tracks

horses

Indigenous Tasmanians

inns

Risdon Creek Inn

Shelstone Hotel

Three Trunks Inn

Irish in Tasmania

Kangaroo Point

kangaroos

King, Alf

King, Dennis

King, Eileen

King, George

King, Leo

King, Margaret

King, Mary Ann

King, Mavis (Mrs Alf)

King, Phoebe

King, Son

King, Ted

Knopwood, Rev Robert

Lindisfarne

Malcolms Hut Road

man-ferns

McKay family

Meehan Range

Meehan Range Trails

Meehan, James

Miller, ? (Mrs ?)

Miller, Mavis

Moomairemener people

Morgan, Richard

mountain bikes

Mt Rumney saddle

Murdoch, Peter

Nichols family

Nichols, Justin

Nichols’ Hill

Norfolk Islanders

old routes

Pittwater

possums

properties

Boldrewood Park

Craigow

Federation schoolhouse

Glen Ayr

Greenfields

Mayville

Milnathort

Nichols’ Bush

Sargant

Strath Ayr

Summerhill

Sunnyside

Uplands

rabbits

Red Gate Reserve

Richmond Road

Right to Roam

Risdon

Risdon Creek

Risdon Creek Bridle Trail

Risdon Vale

Rosny Park Golf Course

Sargant, ?

Sargant, ? (Mrs ?)

saw-pits

sheep runs

shell-fish

shooters

shooting

slaughter-houses

stock theft

surveys

Tasmanian emu

tents

timber

Tunnel Hill

walkers

wallabies

wattle bark

Williams, Eddy

Williams, Kathy

Williams, Mona

wood-carters