History
The Derwent River valley was inhabited by the Mouheneener people for at least 8,000 years before British settlement. Evidence of their occupation is found in many middens along the banks of the river. In 1793, John Hayes named it after the River Derwent, which runs past his birthplace of Bridekirk, Cumberland.
When first explored by Europeans, the lower parts of the picturesque valley were clad in thick she-oak forests, remnants of which remain in various parts of the lower foreshore.
There was a thriving whaling industry until the 1840s when the industry rapidly declined due to over-exploitation.
Read more about this topic: River Derwent (Tasmania)
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“The history of reform is always identical; it is the comparison of the idea with the fact. Our modes of living are not agreeable to our imagination. We suspect they are unworthy. We arraign our daily employments.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)