Elizabeth – Town and Queen
Royal visit, Elizabeth Town street decorations, 23 February, 1954. Photo courtesy of State Library and Archive Service, Libraries Tasmania, Item number AB713/1/2810
By Michelle Blake
UNDER THE entry for Elizabeth Town in Wikipedia it states, ‘The town is named after Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia during her first visit to the Commonwealth of Australia in 1954. It was the only town named after Her Majesty the Queen during her 1954 tour of Australia.’ This is incorrect. Although Queen Elizabeth II did drive through Elizabeth Town on her 1954 visit to Tasmania, the town itself existed at least 100 years prior to her visit.
In 1822 the area was known as Norfolk Plains and the land around Elizabeth Town and Deloraine was at the time designated as a Government reserve. The area was marked for a possible future township. The first land grant in the area was to Captain Malcolm Laing Smith of the 83rd Regiment who had arrived in Van Diemen’s Land around February 1826 and was later granted 2000 acres of land. He named it ‘Whitefoord Hills’. Captain Smith did not reside at this property and had caretaker stockmen run sheep and cattle on the land. After an incident with local Aboriginal people who retaliated against restrictions on their use of the land, the property was sold to William Field. An undated map held in the Libraries Tasmania online archival collection shows the road along the Rubicon River to Deloraine. Beside the road is land owned by William Field, James Bonney and E Richards. The map is labelled as Elizabeth Town, which would indicate that at the time William Field owned land in the area, it was already known as Elizabeth Town. Other maps of the area dated 1862 show the grid layout of the streets and the land owners of the subdivided area off Samuel Street. Over time the area gradually built up. In 1860 the Governor approved the establishment of a post office and postmaster at Elizabeth Town. In 1863 John Spicer held the licence for the Saddler’s Arms. By 1890, the Post Office Directory listed a bustling farming community in the area complete with the services of bootmakers and blacksmiths and a miller. The town had a post mistress, two school masters, police sergeant and John Spicer still in charge of the Saddler’s Arms. The Church of the Holy Cross held a harvest festival in 1916 and concerts were held at Salter’s Hall.
The 1930s saw an active community complete with fundraising dances, school concerts and various sporting clubs. On Tuesday 23 February 1954, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip passed through town. Arrangements had been made for the royal procession to slow down so the 300 people from the surrounding area that lined the road could cheer, clap and wave flags to welcome them. Mr Toby Lee of the Commercial Hotel had been responsible for erecting an archway and sign across the road with the assistance of the Dunorlan CWA and locals. It was decorated with holly, flowers and greenery and a large crown topped the arch which was lit with a bright, white light. The town was colourfully decorated with bunting and a festival atmosphere and celebrations lasted into the evening. Reports of the Queen’s visit noted, ‘The town has the distinction of being the only one in Australia to bear the Queen’s name’, though this only means that they shared a name, not that the town was named after her.
Libraries Tasmania – a great resource
THE INTERNET is a wonderful place for information but don’t believe everything you read. When undertaking research, it is important to use original sources where possible. The use of both primary and secondary sources will allow a researcher to confirm information and get a broader understanding of it. Primary sources were created at the time. These are usually official documents and records, such as birth, death and marriage certificates, census information, reports, log books and convict conduct records. In this article, photographs, maps, the Post Office Directory and newspaper articles are used as primary sources. Secondary sources are those in which others have written about a person, place or event and have used primary sources, but the author is giving their opinion or interpretation of those documents. In this case, Wikipedia is the secondary source. Libraries Tasmania is a great resource of primary and secondary sources. The amount of digital content on their website is impressive and worth having a look at. It is fun just to explore and see what they have. For this article, to see what was available on the Elizabeth Town area, ‘Elizabeth Town’ was entered in the search bar and when the results came up, the search was filtered to give me the items available online. There is a great photography collection and it is always surprising as to the type of maps that are available. For help with historical research please contact: Michelle Blake Historical Research https://www. mbhistoricalresearch.com/ contact
