Campbell Town was one of the early coaching stops between Launceston and Hobart and sits on the banks of the Elizabeth River.
It was named by Governor Lachlan Macquarie, after his wife’s family, during a visit in 1821.
It was, and is, the centre of the sheep-farming region and is a popular stopping point on the journey north and south. It has a population is around 900, and there is an impressive collection of colonial buildings such as The Grange (the local wealthy doctor’s house designed by convict architect James Blackburn in the late 1840s), the Foxhunters Return a lovely example of a 19th century inn built in 1834, St Luke’s Church (1939) and the convict-built Red Bridge (1836).
From Campbell Town you can head east past Lake Leake to Freycinet and the east coast.
Just opposite St Luke’s look out for the monument to Harold Gatty, a native son of Campbell Town. In 1931, with American Wiley Post, he was the first person to fly around the world. In 1929, Gatty had flown as navigator with Roscoe Turner in a record 19-hour non-stop flight from Los Angeles to New York. He went on to serve, as an Australian citizen, in the U.S. Army Air Corps.
