sighted the West Coast of Tasmania on 24 November 1642.
.
George Bass and Matthew Flinders
explored the waters of southeastern Tasmania in late 1798 during their historic circumnavigation aboard the colonial sloop
Norfolk.
1800s
The French, Nicolas Baudin expedition of 1802, made contact with the Aboriginal Tasmanians.
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| Géographe and Naturaliste, The French, Nicolas Baudin expedition of 1802 |
In September 1803, the establishment of a small British military outpost at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River near present-day Hobart commenced. Between 1803 and 1823, there were two phases of conflict between the Aboriginal people and the British.
Surveyor James Meehan first passed through the
district now known as Sorell in 1803. The area was known as Pittwater until 1821.
In 1805, Lieutenant David Collins sent George Prideaux Harris to survey the area. Wheat was growing there in the following year.
The first land grants were confirmed by Governor Macquarie in 1812.
A flour mill was built by Robert Nash in 1815.
In 1815, Bushrangers, Michael Howe and J. Whitehead, attacked the homesteads of A. Humphrey at Cornhill and B. Reardon at Thornhill.
Land for a
township was purchased by the government in 1816.
For five years, from 1817, the 40th Regiment was stationed at Sorell.
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| Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas. : 1816 - 1821), Saturday 5 July 1817 |
John Birchall, transported in 1802, sentenced at Chester, England, was given a conditional pardon in 1818. He was granted 55 acres at Pittwater (Sorell). In 1816 he started a wheat delivery service from Pittwater to Kangaroo Point using his schooner ‘Young William.’
Robert Nash, built a flour mill on his 200-acre Pittwater grant. This mill, situated near the junction of the Sorell and Pittwater rivulets, came into operation in February 1817.
1820s
There were 9 residents and 60 farms at Pitt Water (Sorell) in 1821. The Gaol was also built in this year.
In 1821, Lachlan Macquarie, the fifth Governor of New South Wales, visited the town, naming it after William Sorell, the third Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land between 1817 and 1824.
A school opened in 1821, and the Anglican church was built soon after.
In 1823, many of the Sorell region’s 133-person
population were assigned convicts.
Whaling was conducted in Frederick Henry Bay starting in 1824 from a shore-based station on Sloping Island.
Sorell was on the edge of uncharted territory, leading to conflicts between colonists and the Mumirimina people.
The Black War was the violent conflict which took place between European colonists and Tasmanian Aboriginal People from about 1824 to 1832. The British and the Tasmanian Aboriginal people were probably the most cultural and technologically different people to have ever met. Aboriginal people such as Mosquito and Black Tom (Kickerterpoller), using guerrilla tactics, played a prominent role during this period.
George Augustus Robinson (1791-1866), protector of Aboriginals, in his journals wrote about many aspects of Aboriginal life; relationship with sealers, amusements and games, drawings, rock carvings, songs, chants and dances,
information on language, grammars and vocabularies, gestures; personal adornment, ochre and ochre deposits and more. He also wrote a number of comments about the Aboriginal Tasmanians' susceptibility to diseases, particularly respiratory diseases.
The official Government position was that Aboriginal people were blameless for any hostilities, but when Musquito was hanged in 1825, a significant debate was generated which split the views of colonists.
In 1813, a New South Wales Aboriginal man named Musquito (alternative names) had been transported to Tasmania following his murder of a woman. Many reports claim that Musquito was ostracised by convicts who resented his tracking for the British authorities of escaped bushrangers. Musquito walked into the bush, heading south where he joined a ‘tame gang’ that was affiliated with the Oyster Bay people. ‘Tame gangs’ were bands of Aborigines who had become disconnected from their own people,
A newspaper claimed that there were only two solutions to the problem: either they should be 'hunted down like wild beasts and destroyed' or they should be removed from the settled districts. The second solution was chosen.
Bushranger Matthew Brady and his gang, in 1825, captured all the soldiers at Sorell, and wounding Lieutenant Gunn, their leader.
The Anglican rectory at Sorell is one of the oldest buildings in the town, built in 1826.
Military barracks and a watch house built at Sorell in 1826.
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| Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser (Hobart, Tas. : 1825 - 1827), Friday 1 June 1827 |
In 1827 John Stacey was listed as a Ferryman in Sorell.
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GOVERNMENT and GENERAL ORDERS. Extract of a Letter from LORD HOBART to LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR COI.LINS. "You are to endeavour by every means in your power to open an Intercourse with the Natives, and to conciliate their good will, enjoining all Persons under your Government, to live in amity and kindness with them, and if any person shall exercise any acts of violence; against them, or shall wantonly give them any Interruption in the exercise of their several occupations, you are to cause such offender to be brought to Punishment, according to the degree of the Offence."Tasmanian (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Friday 28 November 1828 |
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| Hobart Town Gazette (Tas. : 1825 - 1833), Saturday 4 November 1826 |
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| Mr. Laing, the Chief District Constable at So-rell, received information that Black Tom, the native Aborigine, commonly called Birch's Tom, was encamped within about one hundred yards of a hut on Mr. Laing's farm, occupied by a man named Robert Grimes, near the Brown Mountain. Mr. Laing left Sorell at 11 o'clock, p. m. with a party of four soldiers of His Majesty's 40th Regiment, and arrived at Grimes's hut, a little before day-break, on Saturday morning ; and at day-light, they proceeded to the spot where Tom and his party lay, and got upon them unper-ceived. They secured Tom and his com-panions, consisting of four other black men, four women, and one male child; who made no resistance; neither had they any weapons or dogs with them. On being asked where his dogs were, he replied he had lost them. The natives were then conducted to Sorell Gaol, where they now remain, until orders are sent from His Excellency respecting them. Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser (Hobart, Tas. : 1825 - 1827), Friday 15 December 1826 |
St George’s church was completed in 1827.
Sorell Barracks, located at 31 Walker Street in Sorell, Tasmania, were built in 1827.
The Cape Grim massacre was an attack on 10 February 1828,
where about 30 Aboriginal Tasmanians were ambushed and killed by workers of the Van Diemen's Land Company.
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| Colonial Advocate, and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1828), Monday 1 September 1828 |
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Black Natives. We noticed in our last the outrages and murders committed at Prosser's Plains by the Black Natives. The attention of the Authorities has no doubt been called to this transactionand we trust they will take measures to protect the peaceable Settlers from any further aggressions of this kind, or all im-provements must cease in those thinly inhabited parts. It is absolutely weakness and mistaken clemency to suffer thesepeople to wander at large, and murder the King's subjects. If one of our own people went upon the highway and robbed would he not be instantly taken, tried, and hanged! even with-out committing murder? Still this puny race of savages are keeping the country in a state of terror, and commit murders with impunity. The King's subjects in this Colony have a positive right to be protected; else, what is our immense revenue raised for? Those people therefore should be placed in a se-cure spot, as we have years ago advised, and prevented from committing those crimes, for which our own people would suffer deserved death. It appears by a letter from Camp-bell-town, that two persons were also killed in that neighbourhood, one of whom, Moses Garcia, a Jew, had his head beat quite flat, and three spear wounds; the other had twenty -one spear wounds in, different parts of his body. It is high time that the whole force, of the Colony, Police, Volunteers &c. should be employed in capturing these people, who might (or at least their children) be made useful to themselves and the Colonists hereafter by proper management. Scarcely any circumstance has tended more to check emigration, than the unprotected state in which Settlers residing in distant and lonely parts of the Island are left at the mercy of those savages, the reports of their atrocities being greatly magnified by the time they reach England.Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857), Friday 5 June 1829 |
The Plough and Harrow Hotel of 1829.
1830
By 1830, 74 Aboriginal women lived with sealers in Bass Strait. These sealers were both ruiners and protectors of Aboriginal women, ultimately enabling their survival.
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| As every thing relating to the Blacks interests every member of the community, I avail myself of this opportunity of writing to you, to give you the latest information, which has reached me. Two of the black women who were sent to Launceston last Autumn, have been ever since in the Bush in guest of their "friends and relations," and notwithstanding their intimate acquaintance with all the localities of the Eastern part of the Island, strange to say, they only came up with them a a few days ago! They have brought in Nine Men, the remainder of their Tribe occupying the North East part of the Island, from Patrick's Head, South, to Ben Lomond, West and Cape Portland to "Ringaroome" River. They say their whole tribe has been killed off by the Oyster Bay Tribe, headed by one, "Numarrow" who they call "Damned Rogue." These poor creatures have come in with perfect willingness, and do not shew the least fear; nor has Mr. Batman put them under the slightest constraint. They sleep in his back yard round a fire. They have many spear wounds all over them, which they received in their battles with Numarrow, and two of them have lost an eye each. Their appetite is enormous, devouring every thing they meet, they are particularly fond of half hatched eggs of every description, Goose, Duck, or Hen, it is all one. so much so that Mrs. Batman's Poultry yard, will cut but a sorry figure after the campaign. Tasmanian (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Friday 22 October 1830 |
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Mosquito, the Sydney black, who lately pe-rished here, acquired such a command over the Oyster bay tribe, that he led them wher-ever he pleased, and in two or three instan-ces made them actually perform some sim-ple agricultural labour. He certainly had the qualifications of sable nobility in his veins, for he both considered himself to be so and acted as a great man. He has been known frequently to enter the cottages of the settlers, ordering his followers to the amount perhaps of 150 or 200 to await his motions on a neighbouring bank, and hav-ing seated himself with all the familiarity, or rather with all the claims to the rights of un-bounded hospitality at the board of the land-lord, would help himself bountifully to the best fare of the house, and cast with an air of condescension the bones and offals to hispeople, who submissively and thankfully gathered them up from his hand.Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Saturday 25 September 1830 |
In late 1831, George Augustus Robinson, accompanied by fourteen Tasmanian Aboriginal people, spent two and half months walking the length of the island on the Friendly Mission, to persuade the various clans to abandon their resistance and relocate to designated areas.
In late 1831, Robinson brought the first 51 Aboriginal people to a settlement on Flinders Island.
Sorell settlers take part in the 'Black Line,' and Governor Arthur was
based at Sorell during the operation in 1831.
The Sorell Post Office officially opened on June 1, 1832.
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PARTIAL DEMOLITION OF OLD HOTEL AT SORELL NEW BUSINESS PREMISES. - Situated in Pembroke Street, Sorell, and probably the original Plough and Harrow Inn, built in the 20s of last century, the central portion of this ancient brick hotel (long since delicensed) is being demolished to make room for the new shop of Mr. A. H. Hunt, local agent for "The Mercury" and "Illustrated Tasmanian Mall." The words, "Good Stabling by Samuel Iles," are still to be seen on the northern end of the building.Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 16 August 1933 |
1840sThe old Post Office, built in 1840. And, the Pembroke Inn in the 1840s (Wilson had a building here in 1832).
Sorell during the 1840s was still successful in agriculture and referred to as the 'granary of Australia.'
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| AT a Meeting of the Inhabitants, of Pittwater and its neighbourhood, held at Sorell, this 20th day of July, 1841, pursuant to advertisement, Captain Forth, Police Magistrate, in the Chair, The following Resolutions were, entered into :— Proposed by Alexander Goldie, Esq. ; seconded b y Joseph Steel Esq.,— That this meeting haying taken into consideration the present unpassable state of the road now in use between Richmond and the Carlton, are of opinion that the labour of the probation gangs likely to be formed soon in this colony on the arrival of prisoners from England, should be secured to this district by the adoption of such measures as are most likely to meet the approval of the Government, and to be of substantial benefit to the inhabi-tants of Pittwater and its neighbourhood.— Carried unanimously.Van Diemen's Land Chronicle (Hobart, Tas. : 1841), Friday 6 August 1841 |
... the following offer be made to the Government, viz. £400, and all the cartage required towards the erection of barracks between Sorell and Richmond for two hundred men ; and that £600, and all necessary cartage, be tendered towards the erection of a building calculated to accommodate three hundred men, to be stationed between Sorell and Carlton.
Van Diemen's Land Chronicle (Hobart, Tas. : 1841), Friday 13 August 1841
In 1842, Presbyterian Church opened in Sorell. Scots Uniting Church, built in 1842.
Roman Catholic Church opened in 1846.
1850s
The construction of causeways began in the 1850s, improving access to Hobart. Before this, the area was isolated, relying on ferries to cross Pitt Water.
Bridge over Sorell Rivulet finished in 1855. And, Sorell Cricket Club began in the following year.
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| GROUP OF TASMANIAN ABORIGINES. .1, Native of East Coast ; 2, Native of East Coast; 3 Trugernana, Native of Recherche Bay ; 4, Native of Hampshire Hills ; 5, Native of Hampshire Hills ; 6, Woureddy, Chief of Bruni Island ; 7, Larratong, Native of Cape Grim ; 8, Native of Port Sorell ; 9, Native of Port Dalrymple; 10, Manalargenha, Chief of the East Coast ; 11, Native of Recherche Bay ; 1 2, Native of Port Sorell ; 13, Native of Cape Grim. 1859, PD |
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| Lake Sorell showing house on foreshore, TAS, 1859, Libraries TAS |
1860s
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| Sorell school, TAS, 1860, Libraries TAS |
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| Sorell Library, TAS, 1860, Libraries TAS |
Original library, built in 1861.
The first Council was elected on 26 May 1862.
Blue Bell Inn first opened, 1863.
St Thomas Catholic Church, built in 1864.
Pelham House (
Originally a Maternity hospital and Doctors Surgery), built 1864.
1870s
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| Side frontal view of the Old Hotel at Sorell, TAS, 1874, Libraries TAS |
In 1876, Telegraph service to Sorell started.
1890s
A railway line was constructed between Bellerive and Sorell in 1892, but closed in 1926.
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| Cole Street, Sorell, TAS, showing buildings including Gordon Highlander Hotel, and group of people on road. Albert Archer Rollings, Libraries TAS |
1900s
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| Sorell windmill, 191 ? Libraries TAS |
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| Sorell Causeway, TAS - buggy on causeway, 1.Jan.1900, Libraries TAS |
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| Sorell, TAS, 1906, PD |
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| Gordon Street, Sorell showing Post Office, C M Yates tea shop, Sorell Garage and Pembroke Hotel, 1896-1910, Libraries TAS |
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| Train at Sorell Railway Station, TAS (Album 3 Page 49) Albert Archer Rollings, photographer (1910-1930) |
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| Sorell Cricket Team, TAS, Tasmanian Archives and State Library (Commons) ND |
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| SORELL FOOTBALL TEAM AT SWANSEA, Tasmanian Archives, ND (The Sorell Football Club was founded in 1883) |
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| Sorell Council Chambers, Court and Gaol [demolished 1910; Const. Dore on right], TAS, Libraries TAS |
WWI
Australia, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920| Name | James Hazel Townsend |
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| Age | 25 |
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| Birth Year | abt 1889 [abt 1889] |
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| Birth Place | Sorell, Tasmania |
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| Dossier Year Range | 1914-1920 |
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| Enlistment Place | Hobart, Tasmania |
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| Service Number | 8070 |
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| Father | William George Townsend |
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Water connected to Sorell from a reservoir at Cherry Tree Opening in 1916.
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| Gordon Highlander Hotel, Sorell, Tasmania, Charles Hill - Proprietor, 1916, Kaye |
The town was connected to a public water supply system by 1916.
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| Huon Times (Franklin, Tas. : 1910 - 1933), Tuesday 9 May 1916 |
1930s
Electricity connected to Sorell in 1930.
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| Australasian (Melbourne, Vic. : 1864 - 1946), Saturday 20 June 1931 |
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| A A Rollings house and shop, 21 Gordon Street, Sorell , TAS, after 1930s |
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ANNIVERSARY OF SORELL STATE SCHOOL PRESENT BUILDING.-Oh September 29 and 30 and October t, celebrations will be held concerning the "Back to Sorell" mover ment, inaugurated for the purpose of marking the 112th anniver-sary of the Sorell .State School, which was opened in 1821. The present building was remodelled in 1921. ' Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 26 September 1933 |
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HE OLD POST OFFICE AT SORELL. OLD AND SMALL, this building which has been used as a post office at Sorell for many years is to be replaced by a new build-ing on ground at the angle of Gordon and Fitzroy Streets. Mr. George Denholm, seated in the cart, is 90 years of age, and states that the building was erected before he was born. Mr. T. Bidgood carried on business as a baker and grocer in it for the greater partof his life. Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 20 March 1934, |
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| IN COSTUMES OF LONG AGO. COUNTRY WOMEN FROM SORELL.-Mrs. R. B. Denholm, Miss Ivy Turvey, Miss Betty Gill, Mrs. J. M. DunbabinMercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 2 August 1939 |
1940s and WWII
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SORELL-PORT ARTHUR AMBULANCE. Ambulance converted out of the Congregational Home Mission truck for public service in the district between Sorell and Port Arthur. Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Friday 4 June 1943 |
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Despite the handicap of having been in bed for long periods, these two ex-servicemen last night took the intermediate ac-countancy examination on the verandah of the Repatriation Hospital, Hobart. They are Mr A. Hunt (in near bed), of Sorell, former R.A.N. telegraphist, who has been an inmate for two years, and Mr H. Thomas, of Penguin, former A.I.F. corporal, who has spent l8 months on his back. Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 15 April 1948 |
World War II Military Service Records, 1939-194| Name | Edward Jeffrey |
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| Birth Date | 21 Nov. 1919 |
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| Birth Place | Sorell, Tasmania |
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| Enlistment Date | 1939-1948 |
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| Enlistment Place | Hobart, Tasmania |
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| Military Service Branch | Army, Second Australian Imperial Force |
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| Service Number | Tx4300 |
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| Next of Kin | Jack Jeffrey |
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| Series Description | B883: Army, 2nd Al F |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 2 June 1949 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 2 June 1949 |
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Anzac Day was celebrated in a practical way at Sorell, where ex-servicemen and other residents formed a working beé (above) to excavate the foundations for the proposedSoldiers'. Memorial Hall. Refreshments for Hie men were provided by; members of the Sorell branch of the I : . Country Women's Association "Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 26 April 1949 |
1950s
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| Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 - 1954), Friday 28 July 1950 |
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BED-MAKING, HOSPITAL WAY I How to make beds (hospital style) was demonstrated to Sorell school girls at the Royal Hobart Hospital yes-terday. This was part of a nurse recruiting campaign which enabled pupils and others to inspect at first hand the workings of a hospital. Nurses G. Stewart (left) and A. Dobner are making the bed. The patient is Nurse W. Willis.Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 3 July 1952 |
In 1954 the War Memorial Hall opened in Sorell.
1960s
In 1965 Sorell Bowls Club established.
1980s
Sorell Saleyards closed in 1982.
In 1988 Purity shopping complex opened in Sorell, now Woolworths.
2000s
According to the 2016 census, 23,580 people in Tasmania identified as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
