Officially founded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson in 1805,
Launceston is Australia's third oldest City and the commercial
center of northern Tasmania.
The Tamar River estuary was discovered in 1798 by Bass and Flinders
who were circumnavigating Van Diemen's Land to find out if it
was joined to the rest of Australia. Launceston was the third
attempt at a settlement on the river and was originally calls
Patersonia, after its founder. In 1907, the city was renamed in
honor of Governor King who was born in Launceston, England, a
town settled 1000 years before on the Tamar River in the county
of Cornwall.
