Westerway, Tasmania
{{Short description|Locality in Tasmania, Australia}}
{{Use Australian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox Australian place
| type = town
| name = Westerway
| state = tas
| image =
| caption =
| coordinates = {{coord|42|41|S|146|47|E|display=inline,title}}
| pushpin_label_position = right
| lga = Central Highlands, Derwent Valley
| region = Central, South-east
| postcode = 7140
| est =
| pop = 225
| pop_year = 2016 census
| elevation =
| elevation_footnotes =
| maxtemp =
| mintemp =
| rainfall =
| stategov = Lyons
| fedgov = Lyons
| dist1 = 65
| dir1 = NW
| location1 = Hobart
| dist2 = 29
| dir2 = NW
| location2 = New Norfolk
| dist3 = 20
| dir3 = NE
| location3 = Maydena
| near-nw = Fentonbury
| near-n = Fentonbury, Meadowbank
| near-ne = Meadowbank
| near-e = Glenora, Bushy Park, Meadowbank
| near-w = National Park, Fentonbury
| near-sw = National Park, Styx
| near-se = Uxbridge
}}
Westerway is a rural locality in the local government areas (LGA) of Central Highlands and Derwent Valley in the Central and South-east LGA regions of Tasmania. The locality is about {{convert|29|km}} north-west of the town of New Norfolk. The 2016 census has a population of 225 for the state suburb of Westerway.
History
Westerway was originally known as Russell or Russelldale and was named after surgeon J J Russell, one of the party who discovered a set of waterfalls 3 km from Fenton Forest. (These are not the present day Russell Falls.) The Derwent Valley Railway line reached the town in 1909. Russell Post Office opened on 1 October 1910 and was renamed Westerway in 1919.{{Cite web | last = Premier Postal History | title = Post Office List | publisher = Premier Postal Auctions | url = https://www.premierpostal.com/cgi-bin/wsProd.sh/Viewpocdwrapper.p?SortBy=Tas&country= | access-date = 16 June 2012}}
Due to confusion between the town of Russell and Russell Falls further up the road, the town's name was changed in 1919 to Westerway. It was named by, and after, W H Westerway (1851–1930), the main resident of the town who was responsible for many developments in the area. He built an accommodation house and store where Coniston siding is now, owned the Coffee Palace at Glenora and started a livery business driving tourists to Russell Falls.
Westerway School opened in 1920 with thirty-six students. From 1920 to 1960 there was a bakery and, from 1947 to 1970, a police station. At the time of the 1934 bushfires, the original Westerway Hall became a temporary hospital and in 1939 a recruitment office for enlistees. That hall was pulled down and rebuilt in 1940. The present hall replaced the 1940 hall after it burnt down.
Westerway railway station was important as it was the starting point for the pack horse journey to the long abandoned Adamsfield osmiridium mine. As the timber industry became more important to the area, a sawmill was built and the number of timber mills in the area increased and the train line was used to transport logs to Boyer and Hobart. The Derwent Valley Railway was, until recently, used by tourists to visit the area.
Westerway was gazetted as a locality in 1959.{{cite web |url=https://www.placenames.tas.gov.au/#p1 |title=Placenames Tasmania – Westerway |author= |publisher=Placenames Tasmania |access-date=13 September 2020 |at=Select “Search”, enter "1306C", click “Search”, select row, map is displayed, click “Details”}}
Geography
The Tyenna River flows through from west to east.{{google maps|url=https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/Westerway+TAS+7140/@-42.6897823,146.762901,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0xaa6e383da678f10d:0x403c94dd0de05b0!8m2!3d-42.6756929!4d146.7961386 |title=Westerway, Tasmania |access-date=13 September 2020}}
Road infrastructure
Route B91 (Gordon River Road) passes through from east to west. Route C608 (Ellendale Road) starts at an intersection with B91 and runs north-west until it exits.{{cite web |url=https://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/Documents/Route%20Descriptions%20V3.6.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170801112712/http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/Documents/Route%20Descriptions%20V3.6.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2017-08-01 |title=Tasmanian Road Route Codes |author= |date=May 2017 |publisher=Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water & Environment |access-date=13 September 2020 }}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.education.tas.gov.au/dept/about/contact/schoolsatoz/westerway Westerway Primary School]
- [http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/historic/visguide/adamsfield/hist.html Adamsfield – Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service]
- [http://www.zoomin.com.au/australia/tas/westerway/?place/show&group=7 Map]
- [http://www.tasmaniacentral.tas.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=308 Central portal]
- [http://www.dvr.org.au Derwent Valley Railway Inc]
{{Southern Tasmania |state=autocollapse}}
{{authority control}}