Deddington, Tasmania facts for kids
Quick facts for kids DeddingtonTasmania |
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 Deddington
Location in Tasmania
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| Population | 121 (2016 census) | ||||||||||||||
| Postcode(s) | 7212 | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 245 m (804 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| LGA(s) | Northern Midlands | ||||||||||||||
| Region | Central | ||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Lyons | ||||||||||||||
| Federal Division(s) | Lyons | ||||||||||||||
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Deddington is a rural locality in the local government area (LGA) of Northern Midlands in the Central LGA region of Tasmania. The locality is about 34 kilometres (21 mi) east of the town of Longford. The 2016 census has a population of 121 for the state suburb of Deddington. The town is situated on the Nile River and lies in the foothills of Ben Lomond.
History
The first inhabitants of the Deddington area were Tasmanian Aboriginal people of the Ben Lomond Nation. Aboriginal artifacts indicating land use (hunting) and seasonal camps have been found along the Nile River and Patterdale Creek. It is uncertain which clans had specific use of the area but the Plindermairhemener clan is referred to as occupying the western South Esk region. The palawa kani (Tasmanian Aboriginal Language) name for the Nile River at Deddington was witakina. It is likely that the Deddington area was a hunting ground as well as part of the seasonal migratory route for both the Ben Lomond Nation clans, referred to generally as the Plangermaireener, and also clans from the North Midlands Nation; who visited the Ben Lomond plateau in summer.
Settlers were granted land around the site of the current town in the second and third decades of the 1800s. James Cox was granted land at Nile, Anthony Cottrell to the North at Gordons Plains, and Massey was granted land to the south at Mills Plains, now the Deddington district. It is likely that stockkeepers, kangaroo hunters and timber-cutters ( convicts assigned to colonial landowners) moved in advance of settlers to the fringes of the Ben Lomond escarpment and up the South Esk Valley. As was common at the frontier, stockkeepers both negotiated and came into conflict with the Aboriginal clans in the Deddington area.
Aboriginal people often traded at the frontier with assigned men, the currency being food and hunting dogs. But, relations would often sour. There are several records of disputes at the frontier - with killing of cattle and retributive violence on both sides. Finally, escalating pressures on the Plangermaireener from encroaching settlement on hunting grounds, increasing violence, permitted by lax colonial policies towards Indigenous rights to land, and removal of women and children for domestic enslavement led to the desperate violence of the Black War.
By the 1840s the remnant peoples of the Ben Lomond nation had long been exiled to Flinders Island and there was sufficient settler population in the Deddington area for a chapel to be constructed above the Nile River. Local legend has it that the artist John Glover built the chapel but it is likely that the chapel was erected by the land donor and Rev. Russell from Evandale. John Glover is buried in the cemetery. Services for the emerging town and rural area were instituted from the 1860s when the town area was circumscribed. Deddington Post Office opened on 1 December 1862 and closed in 1970. A school opened in Deddington in early 1865, at the chapel, at the urging of Rev. Russell and the first teacher employed at 50 pounds a year. By mid 1866 land had been set aside for police barracks and a constable was permanently stationed in the town. Perhaps coincidentally the Deddington Inn was licensed in December of the same year. In 1882 a correspondent to the launceston Examiner newspaper stated:
"Deddington contains one hotel and store combined, a brick building, a smithy, post-oflice, and about a dozen other buildings."
By 1980 the town centre had declined with the post office, school and shop long closed. The Deddington Inn burnt down in 1980 and now the town, and rural area, is serviced by the nearby town of Evandale. Deddington was gazetted as a locality in 1959.
Geography
The Nile River, a tributary of the South Esk River, flows through from east to west.
Road infrastructure
Route C420 (Deddington Road) passes through from north to west.
Notable residents
The artist John Glover was granted land in the area at Patterdale creek. John Batman lived nearby at Kingston Farm on the Ben Lomond Rivulet
