page_title: City of Clarence
section_title: European settlement
hierarchical_section_title: City of Clarence / History / European settlement
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of Hobart, Australia showing locations of Risdon and Sullivan Coves.
context_page_description: Clarence City Council is a local government body in Tasmania, and one of the five municipalities that constitutes the Greater Hobart Area. The Clarence local government area has a population of 56,945, covering the eastern shore of the Derwent River from Otago to the South Arm Peninsula and the smaller localities of Cambridge, Richmond, and Seven Mile Beach.
  The administrative centre and main commercial district of Clarence is Rosny Park, approximately 5 kilometres from the CBD of Hobart. Bellerive Oval lies immediately to the south, and the Hobart International Airport is located further north-west along the Tasman Highway.
  The area that now constitutes the City of Clarence was once part of the traditional land of the Moomairemener, a sub-group of the Tasmanian Aborigines. In 1803, the island of Tasmania was colonised by United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, who subsequently established the settlement of Hobart Town. By the 1820s the settlement had spread to the 'Clarence Plains', but the area remained primarily agricultural until the mid to late 20th century, when it experienced a residential development boom.
context_section_description: Clarence was the site of the first European settlement in Tasmania (then Van Diemen's Land) in 1803 at Risdon Cove. At the time Napoleonic France and Great Britain were at war with each other. Fearing the arrival of French explorers who may have wished to make a rival claim to the island of Van Diemen's Land, the then Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King dispatched a young 23-year-old Lieutenant by the name of John Bowen to establish a colony there. The first vessel of his party, Lady Nelson arrived in the Derwent on Wednesday, 8 September 1803, and Bowen arrived five days later aboard Albion.
  Bowen selected the inlet at Risdon Cove, as when he had arrived in Spring the nearby stream was in full-flow. However within months it had dried up, and his camp was in despair for want of water. The site at Risdon Cove was badly affect by inconsistent water supply, and stagnation of the inlet during the late summer.
  King was insecure about Bowen's juniority and inexperience as a young commander, and when he was contacted by David Collins, who had been dispatched directly from England aboard HMS Calcutta with Ocean as a supply vessel, to establish a colony at Port Phillip, he redirected Collins' expedition to the Derwent.
  Collin's party arrived on the Derwent River on 16 February 1804, and immediately became becalmed in Storm Bay. Collin's dispatched troops to row ashore off what is now Rokeby to march overland to the camp at Risdon and announce their arrival. The party found navigating the thick Australian bushland hard-going, but did gain useful intelligence as the nature of the area. In the end, they only arrived shortly before the ships were able to navigate up-river.
  Upon his arrival, Collins discovered the camp in such a state of despair for want of water, it was threatened with collapse. He immediately set about his first task of relocating the colony to the mouth of the Hobart Rivulet on Sullivans Cove. From there, the city of Hobart grew.
  The relocation of the colony did not end the desire to settle the eastern shore of the Derwent though. Within the first few years following the establishment of Hobart Town, difficulties in growing crops led to difficulties providing food. The initial intelligence from the soldiers that had marched overland from Rokeby to Risdon Vale, and subsequent explorations suggested the plains on the eastern shore of the Derwent were more suited to agriculture.
  The successful establishment of crops on Clarence Plains was vital to the survival of Hobart Town. When new settlers arrived from Norfolk Island in 1808, some were granted land in the Derwent Valley, and others upon Clarence Plains. Very soon a mixture of mansions and fine houses, cottages, inns and churches began to be built in the area. However the population growth on the eastern shore was much slower than that of Hobart Town, despite the close proximity of the young town. By the 1810s, a ferryman was making regular crossings of the Derwent between Sullivans Cove, and 'Kangaroo Point', near where the ferry still arrives at Bellerive Quay. The point was so-called due to the large numbers of Kangaroos that would be seen grazing there in the first few decades after European arrival. By the late 1810s, farmers, timbermen, and pioneers had begun settling on the eastern shore of the Derwent River.
caption: This map depicts the site of the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land, at Risdon Cove, which is now located within the city of Clarence.
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