One of the best indicators of a strong community is the desire of those who grew up there to return to raise their own families. Recent trends show that this is indeed true of Burnie, located on Tasmania’s north west coast. Burnie has a reputation as a place for growing a safe, healthy and happy family.

Infamous in the 1980s as ‘Australia’s Dirtiest City’, Burnie is now reinventing itself as a city by the sea, embracing a northfacing waterfront and beaches as well as its green and fertile hinterland. This resulted in the city being a national finalist for the Australian Sustainable Cities Award.

Burnie boasts a backyard containing Cradle Mountain, Tasmania’s wild West Coast and the Tarkine wilderness. Tasmania has a reputation for being clean and green, and the North West region is also considered by some to be the food basket of Australia.

As a regional service hub, Burnie is home to the region’s base hospital, as well as a campus of the University of Tasmania. It also has a vibrant commercial and retail sector serving a region of over 100,000 people.

Burnie is regarded as one of Tasmania’s safest communities, with one of the lowest rates of personal and property crime in Australia. It also has a vibrant sporting, arts and cultural sector led by a number of dynamic community organisations and clubs strongly supported by local government.

Major sporting events include the ‘Burnie 10’ footrace and ‘Burnie Wheel’ cycle race. There is a strong emphasis on junior sports development in the city, evidenced by the large number of young people who represent the State in their chosen sport.

The nationally acclaimed Burnie Youth Choir, Creative Paper Tasmania and the Burnie Print Prize are all indicators of the energy of the local arts and cultural community. There are also a number of enviable facilities to support these activities, including the Burnie Regional Art Gallery.

Burnie has a strong history of high educational achievement, with graduates from local senior secondary colleges now making their mark in a range of industry sectors across the globe. Secondary and senior secondary schools off er a broad curriculum and provide students with opportunities for national and international exposure. Tasmania’s senior secondary education system is currently being enhanced to ensure Tasmanian students are leaders in academic and vocational achievement.

The pace of life is relaxed with a country feel. The peakhour rush is most probably going to be you or your children participating in the local surf life-saving club activities, which occur right on the edge of the CBD. So if you want to give your family the best chance to grow in what can be a chaotic, dangerous and crazy world, why not make a true home in Burnie.

For more information, visit: www.burnie.net or contact Burnie Council’s Director of Community and Economic Development (rgreene@burnie.net) to discuss the opportunities.

Erik Muilenburg has come a long way to finally find his home in Tasmania. Born in the Netherlands in the 1960s, Erik emigrated to Western Australia with his family in the late 1970s before meeting his future wife, Thelma, ten years later. The couple have now been living in Circular Head in far-north-west Tasmania for more than five years, and they love the laid-back lifestyle.
The Muilenburgs had purchased a house in Perth in the late 1980s, “just as the interest rates skyrocketed to 18 per cent,” Erik, then working as a carpenter, recalls. “We had to sell our house and then looked around for a place in which to make a fresh start and live the Australian dream.”
The couple were keen to fi nd a place where they could get away from the hassles of big-city life on the mainland and in 1989 they moved to Launceston. Eleven years later, keen for a career change, Erik enrolled at the University of Tasmania, gaining a degree in Education.
“After graduating from university at the end of 2001, I looked for a job as a mathematics teacher,” Erik explains. “An opening came up here in the Circular Head Christian School, so in February 2002 we moved to Smithton with our four sons. Thelma later got a job at the school as a teacher’s aide.”
The family love the unhurried lifestyle of Circular Head and the extraordinary natural beauty of the State’s far-north-west. Smithton is surrounded by beautiful green farmland, lovely thick forests, beautiful beaches and remarkable seascapes with great thundering surf.

“The most remarkable thing that we find about living in Circular Head is that it has a real country and community atmosphere,” Erik says. “People greet each other in the street. Life in town is relaxed, and if the kids want to go to the cinema or Thelma wants some serious retail therapy, the city of Burnie is less than an hour away.”
The Muilenburgs’ four sons also love the country life. “Our oldest child is still living in Smithton while undertaking a university degree at the University of Tasmania’s Cradle Coast Campus in Burnie, which is less than an hour away,” Erik says. “Our second eldest child has gained full-time employment in an established retail business in town and our two youngest sons are still attending school.”
The family have never regretted moving from Western Australia to Tasmania. “As much as some people are led to believe that Circular Head is isolated, Smithton has all your basic needs with three supermarkets, great cafes to catch up with friends for a coff ee and a variety of boutique shops,” Erik enthuses. “It’s also a great place to bring up children, as the fi nancial pressures of keeping up with busy city lifestyles just don’t exist here.
“It’s great to live in a place where people look out for each other and rally together, especially in times of need, which is something you don’t always get living in the bigger cities. We love it here!”

Head for the Nut

Circular Head’s beautiful coastline is one of the longest in Tasmania and its fertile soils, coupled with a gently undulating landscape, support more than 30 per cent of the State’s dairy farms. The area gained its name from the unusual land formation commonly known as ‘The Nut’ at Stanley, the solidifi ed lava lake of a long-extinct volcano sighted by Bass and Flinders on their historic circumnavigation of Tasmania in 1798.
The municipality off ers a wide variety of work options. Its diverse industries include dairy and prime beef production, commercial fi shing and aquaculture, agriculture, forestry and timber production, iron ore pelletising, vegetable processing, manufacturing and tourism, along with a myriad of supporting businesses. The quality of Circular Head’s land and ocean produce is well-known, with much exported to domestic and international markets.
For locals, Circular Head off ers a variety of competitive sport and general recreation options. During the winter months men’s and women’s hockey is particularly popular, along with football. In the summer, residents take advantage of the long daylight hours and warmer weather, enjoying leisurely walks in rich forests or taking relaxing strolls along the coastline.
There is plenty of culture to be found. Top of the list is the historic colonial township of Stanley, just 15 minutes’ drive from the administrative centre of Smithton. Locals and visitors alike can challenge themselves with a steep walk (or leisurely chairlift ride) to the top of the Nut, or just admire the many historic buildings along the main street. In season, seals, penguins and other wildlife can be seen in their natural environments. Afterwards, enjoy a delicious meal or a coff ee in one of the town’s many cafes.
Circular Head is blessed with some of the world’s cleanest air, courtesy of the Roaring 40s, along with a cool temperate climate and regular rainfall, especially during the winter months. It is home to one of Australia’s largest wind farms, Woolnorth, which supplies 12 per cent of Tasmania’s residential energy needs. At the far north-west tip of the municipality is Australia’s only Baseline Air Pollution Station, Cape Grim, which measures global atmospheric composition. Cape Grim was one of the fi rst fi ve Baseline Stations established worldwide.
Circular Head is located just one hour west of Burnie, one of Tasmania’s largest regional cities. For those heading to the mainland, Burnie-Wynyard Airport provides 55-minute direct flights to Melbourne and beyond.

Back in 1998, Ashley Huntington landed himself one hell of a job. The qualifi ed winemaker, who originally hails from regional Victoria, took up the position of senior winemaker at Hardy’s La Baume winery in the south of France. Life, you would think, could hardly get any better.
“I don’t actually know of another international Australianowned wine business that could off er that sort of experience at a senior managerial level, in an area that produces nine per cent of the world’s grapes,” Ashley says. “And we were living in some of the most extraordinarily beautiful countryside imaginable, with a unique chance to be part of a community and gain a much deeper understanding of another culture and people.”
But six years and seven vintages later, Ashley and his wife Jane decided that it was time to establish their own business. And as far as they were concerned, there was only one place in the world to do it. And it wasn’t the south of France.
“Before we left Australia for France, Ashley was doing a vintage at the Rochecombe winery in Tasmania,” Jane explains. “It was then that we caught the bug and identifi ed southern Tasmania as a fantastic place to grow things. When the decision was made to leave France, we set about looking for an agricultural property, and we found what we were looking for in the Derwent Valley.”
Ashley and Jane are fervent believers that southern Tasmania has the potential to produce distinctive wines of international class. But on their arrival in the Derwent Valley in 2004, with daughters aged three and fi ve in tow, their path took a decidedly unexpected turn. With the crowded market of vineyards and small wineries around Australia representing a challenging prospect, the couple perceived an opportunity to do something diff erent and very exciting – with beer.
“I was fascinated by beer as a small business opportunity,” Ashley recalls. “In Europe I had become acquainted with styles and regional interpretations of beer that were far more winelike than the beverage as represented in Australia. It’s a very monotonous, industrial beverage here, made almost exclusively by corporate giants in monolithic factories. There seemed to be an opportunity to interpret beer, which in its own way is capable of all the aromas and colours of wine, on a small scale.”
Certainly, they were in a very good place to do it. The Huntington’s property is a stone’s throw across the Derwent River from the Bushy Park hop fi elds, where 90 per cent of Australia’s hops is grown. And determined to maintain a focus on a purely regional product, Ashley and Jane did something rather original. They decided to grow their own grain and establish a farm-based brewery, basically applying the vineyard model of winemaking to the brewing of beer. Of course, to a seasoned vigneron, it made perfect sense. There was just noone else in the world that was doing it.
“Beer has lost its link with the land,” Jane off ers, by way of explanation. “It’s easy to forget that it is, after all, an agricultural product. Also, hops have long been bred with only bitterness in mind. We are keen to bring back old heritage varieties and make beers big on fl avour and aroma. There is, we think, a gap there in the market.”
The key to this is a focus on ‘real ale’ – bottle-fermented beer, which leaves the yeast sediment to settle on the bottom of the bottle. The beer is handmade and unfi ltered, in a process the Huntingtons say is a little like making champagne. “With champagne, you make a base wine and then re-ferment it,” Jane explains, “and that’s how we get the bubble in our ale. We don’t make beer and artifi cially gas it. The natural fermentation process gives the beer a soft sparkle rather than the gassy soda-streamtype eff ect of the fi zzy lagers we’ve all grown used to.”
The result of all this is the Two Metre Tall Company – the name being a nod to Ashley’s height. It made its fi rst brew in 2006, with four varieties of real ale. A break in production followed, in order to allow Ashley and Jane to convert their shearing shed into a new brewery that will turn out the brand new brews of 2009.
Firmly settled in their new home, the Huntingtons have no regrets about leaving the world-renowned countryside of southern France behind. Comparing their last two homes is perhaps a little like comparing a vintage fi ne wine with a fl avoursome real ale, but Jane is not too shy to express her opinion.
“I’d say it’s superior here,” she says. “The majesty of it, and the diff erence in density of population is something that I adore. I love the fact that our girls can walk to school and are out running on the green grass looking out over the River with Mount Field off in the distance. I wouldn’t live anywhere else now – we’re here forever.”
Australian beer connoisseurs, no doubt, will drink to that.

For more about the Two Metre Tall Company, visit: http://2mt.com.au.

Carol Dunkin and her husband Sam: enjoying their gardening

Tasmania’s Derwent Valley offers fertile ground for those looking to lay down new roots.

The Derwent Valley is located 36 kilometres north west from Tasmania’s capital city, Hobart, or a relaxing 30-minute drive along the banks of the majestic Derwent River. The river is the major geographic feature of the region and its nine tributaries wind through the fertile valley, creating a picturesque rural setting fi rst settled by Europeans in 1807.
The region covers 4,111 square kilometres and boasts some of Tasmania’s most spectacular wilderness areas, including the iconic Mt Field National Park incorporating Russell Falls, and the inspirational tall trees of the Styx Valley (visit www.riversrun.net.au for further details). The current population of 9,000 is projected to grow by between 3,000 and 5,000 over the next fi ve to seven years as a raft of housing projects mature.
The main regional hub, New Norfolk (Tasmania’s ‘country capital’), is celebrating its bicentennial, making it one of Tasmania’s and indeed Australia’s oldest towns. The built and natural landscape refl ects rich heritage and interesting stories, with many sites and buildings listed on the National Heritage Register.
The Derwent Valley offers fresh air, clean water and a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. Spring is warm, summer is warm to hot and dry, and winter can be cold and frosty with snow on the mountains. It is autumn, however, for which the Derwent Valley is most famous. Introduced English trees aged up to 200 years are plentiful, providing spectacular autumn colours.

Family focus

The Derwent Valley has its own child care centre and family day care service, an abundance of open spaces, scenic walking tracks, parks, BBQ facilities and playgrounds. There is a skate park and an award-winning bike track, with its own traffi c lights and pedestrian crossings, specifi cally designed for youngsters to learn real road safety rules!

Education and industry

There are five Public Primary Schools with associated kindergartens and playgroups, one Public High School at New Norfolk and one District High School at Glenora, 15 minutes west of New Norfolk. Connections between the schools, community and industry are growing. For example, an innovative program called ‘Leading Edge’ aims to create links with industry and provide individualised programs for students beyond Grade 10. There is also one Catholic Primary School at New Norfolk and a comprehensive range of Private Schools in Hobart, with an extensive daily return bus service.
Housing construction, agriculture, aquaculture, horticulture, viticulture, retail, hospitality and care are the region’s emerging industries, adding to traditional forestry and newsprint manufacturing, with demand for people with science training and people skills.

Sports and recreation

This is a sport-loving community with venues for swimming, tennis, football, soccer, golf, speed-car racing, horse riding, shooting and bowls to name but a few, all supported by active social clubs. The Derwent River provides the perfect facility for water sports and world-class fishing, and boasts a reputation for producing Olympic rowing champions.

Robert Walker: found nothing in Europe to match the Derwent Valley

Full service

Whether it’s supermarkets or old-fashioned butchers and bakeries that you’re after, the Derwent Valley has it all. There are plenty of shopping options for the fashion conscious, and restaurants and cafes off er everything from takeaway to fine dining and great coff ee (the best in Tassie)! New Norfolk also has major banks, emergency services, a lawyer, laundry, post offi ce, police station, library, online access centre, veterinary clinic and much more.
For medical needs, there is a general practice medical centre, a community health centre (social workers, family health nurse, physiotherapist, etc), a dental clinic, two chemists, two optometrists and an award-winning aged care facility. A vibrant community house provides support through many varied programs and services including adult education, counselling, life skills and a regular community market.

Property

The valley offers a variety of property opportunities including new house and land packages, new one or three bedroom apartments close to all services, and existing rural properties. Residential property investment has been strong since the early nineties and demand for rental accommodation continues, with a next-to-nil vacancy rate. Rental properties often show a return of around six per cent gross, and commercial properties achieve up to 10 per cent.

For further information please refer to:

Derwent Real Estate Ph: (03) 62614222 www.derwentrealestate.com.au
Roberts Real Estate Ph: (03) 62611755 http://www.robertsre.com.au/newnorfolk
PRD Nationwide Ph: (03) 62612555 www.prdhobart.com.au
Prime Real Estate Ph: (03) 62612000 www.primerealestatetasmania.com.

In 2005, the Derwent Valley was awarded a bronze medal at the International Awards for Liveable Communities (LivCom), which is the world’s only competition for communities that focuses on environmental management and the creation of liveable communities.

For further information please refer to www.derwentvalley.com.au or Derwent Valley Council Ph: (03) 62618500, www.derwentvalley.tas.gov.au.

Dr Astrid Wootton, director of The Design Centre, Tasmania

I moved here in 1999. I like to think it was before everybody else discovered Tasmania. It was a genuine Sea Change. I had just finished my PhD at Melbourne University, and after 10 years at university I was basically sick of the whole thing.
I had previously been to Tasmania with my then boyfriend who was working here as a doctor. I just fell in love with the place. Every weekend we went on trips around the State. Then, a couple of years later, when I was looking to move somewhere, I chose Tasmania. In my mind it was this wonderful, mysterious, wild island.
When I saw the job at the Design Centre advertised I was living on the north west coast of Tasmania, where I hadn’t been able to get work in the Arts. At the time it didn’t bother me. I sold advertising, worked at a computer centre – all sorts of things.
When my current job came up I thought ‘this is something I would really enjoy; this is where I should be’. That was in 2003. When I came here there was no one acting in the position of manager or curator of the collection, so I had to learn ‘on my feet’.
Five years ago I would have said that I would have to leave Tasmania if I wanted to further my career, but these days I think the worst thing to do would be to leave.
Increasingly, it is possible to take on senior roles without moving from Tasmania. I have just been elected to the Board of the Council for Humanities, Art and Social Sciences based in Canberra. Being on a body like that gives me a great amount of say in how the ideas of design and creativity might be embedded in future federal government policies. I was also a participant in the Towards a Creative Australia stream at the recent 2020 Summit.
It’s also possible for organisations in Tasmania, like the Design Centre, to become very infl uential within Australia. Increasingly, I can see a time when Tasmania leads in creativity and innovation.
Tasmania is a happy place to be, and living is simpler. You don’t have the complex logistics of working your way around a big city every day. It’s very stressful to drive for an hour and a half to work.
Living in Launceston, one of the things that I appreciate is that I buy all of my food from local producers. I know the person that supplies my honey. I know the people that make the wine I drink. It just adds so much to my experience of the small things in life.
The pace of life in Launceston is so much better. My work takes me around Australia and every time I arrive back in Launceston I breathe a sigh of relief.
I walk to work, and I have a community like I never thought I would have. It is almost like living on Sesame Street. When I was little, Kermit used to sing, ‘Who are the people in your neighbourhood? The people are your friends next door.’ That was never my experience while growing up in an inner-city Melbourne block of fl ats where no one knew each other.
But in Launceston I know my neighbours. I have Mario across the road who gives me all of his fresh vegetables. I have Robert and Jacinta next door who have three kids who play with my chooks, and Simone and Chris over the back fence who invite me over every Sunday for a drink. I walk into my local coff ee shop and they know me, and within a few seconds there is a skinny latte in front of me. There is a sense of community and neighbourhood in my little area of Launceston that I have never had anywhere else in my life.
I think people are starting to realise deep in their hearts that very, very large cities are not a very natural or healthy way to live and people are looking for alternatives. There seems to be a trend towards ‘local’, even in design. We see in our shows at the Design Centre that people like to source things that are simple and local. There is some sort of return to simplicity in society, in food, in everything that we do. People are cycling and walking rather than driving big cars. I think it is partly a response to concerns we have about the environment and the future, but it also refl ects our ability to see nature around us and to feel like it is all there, and alive.
I will tell you a story that may explain what I mean. I was driving back from Hobart yesterday and the car in front of me suddenly screeched to a halt. As I was screeching to a halt behind him, I was wondering why he had stopped. Then I saw this little echidna toddling across the road. He had stopped so the echidna could cross the road. That sums up Tasmania to me.

The Design Centre of Tasmania, adjacent to City Park in Launceston, houses Australia’s only museum collection of contemporary wood design, which has won acclaim in the United States, Europe and China.
The Design Centre also exhibits and tours a diverse range of craft, design and art, both nationally and internationally. In 2004, the Centre was listed in the Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary Architecture as one of the world’s top 1,000 contemporary buildings.

Further information

• Launceston City Council’s website has lots of information on facilities and services: www.launceston.tas.gov.au

• Tasmania’s comprehensive ‘t-change’ website has details for property, health services, business opportunities, higher education, schools and much more: www.tchange.com.au/regions/launceston_city.html

• For information on visiting Launceston’s Tamar Valley visit the new tourism site: www.ltvtasmania.com.au or ring the Launceston Travel and Information Centre on Free Toll: 1800 651 827

• The Department of Economic Development and Tourism, incorporating the Tasmanian Development Board and the Tourism Tasmania Board, leads economic and industry development in Tasmania. It is the first point of contact for companies wishing to establish, relocate, diversify or expand in Tasmania. It also acts as a conduit to other state and Australian Government departments, local government and Tasmanian business. Visit: www.development.tas.gov.au or phone +1800 440 026