TREVALLYN, LAUNCESTON TASMANIA

TREVALLYN, FROM THE SEAPORT

A bit of a change this week......a few notes about suburban Trevallyn (there will be separate postings about The Gorge, dam etc at some stage).

The first non-indigenous settlers were farmers, although to my eyes the land still looks a bit on the rocky side to the left and the swampy side to the right! As there were no arbitrary boundaries between Trevallyn and the much-later named suburb of Riverside, it seems that most of the land reasonably close to town, but over the river, was referred to as “Trevallyn.”

The actual property by that name was purchased in 1824 by William Barnes, and encompassed land between The Gorge and Cormiston road. John and Don Morris in History in Our Streets, also suggest that the name may have Welsh origins, but mention also, that there is a Trevallyn Road in Launceston, Cornwall. They write that “Mrs June Gee states that an old shepherd who had worked for Barnes said that it was a Welsh name meaning “the hut by the mill”

This is not entirely inconsistent with an account of Trev-alyn - “The abode on the River Alyn, called Trevallyn Hall” which is described in Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales (1878) as “an ancient place which was long the seat of one of the most venerable families in Denbighshire” (a county in north-east Wales). William Barnes was from Cheshire, the English county that adjoins Denbighshire, so this explanation seems likely. A letter to The Examiner written in 1929 suggests that perhaps its a misspelling of the surname Trevelyn or Trevennel in Cornwall, but the author H I Scott does admit he is just guessing!

Barnes was one of Launceston's earliest brewers (he established the Port Dalrymple Brewery in Paterson Street, near present day Park Street) and grew hops close to the Gorge. The Barnes family went back to England in the 1840s for their son's education and returned with a tutor Henry Plow Kane, who was to become the first headmaster of Launceston Church Grammar School..

William Barnes jnr represented George Town in the House of Assembly and his widow donated most of the land that we now know as “The Gorge” to the city of Launceston.  Portraits of the early Barnes family were donated to the Museum and Art Gallery by present-day family members in 2013. (see http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1576319/family-deserves-citys-thanks/)

From the 1830s. Trevallyn was a source of firewood (mainy she-oak) for the residents of Launceston, and of timber and stone for builders. Dairying was also undertaken. The river was crossed by means of a punt until the bridge was finally built in 1864.

Although the area had attracted residents from the earliest days of settlement, Trevallyn only began to develop significantly as a suburb in the 1880s and 90s, at about the same time as Mowbray and Invermay. It was not incorporated within Launceston city boundaries until 1906, and before that functioned with a separate administration. Trams began running to Trevallyn in 1913– sharing King's bridge with other vehicles.

Trevallyn today has a population of a little over 4,600.