Launceston: The Northern Capital and Its Extraordinary Natural Asset

Launceston, the northern Tasmanian city at the junction of the Tamar, the North Esk, and the South Esk rivers, is Tasmania's second-largest city and the administrative and commercial centre of northern Tasmania, providing the services, the cultural institutions, and the commercial infrastructure for the Tamar Valley wine region, the agricultural country of the northeast, and the Flinders Island and northeast community that accesses the mainland through Launceston airport. The city's heritage character, preserved in the Victorian and Federation-era commercial buildings of the CBD and the residential suburbs that the colonial prosperity of the north's agricultural and mineral economy created, provides the built heritage that gives Launceston its distinctive character among Australian regional cities of comparable size.

The Cataract Gorge, the dramatic sandstone gorge that the South Esk River has cut through the dolerite rock immediately behind Launceston's CBD and that the City of Launceston manages as the public reserve that the city uses for the walking, the swimming in the Basin's enclosed pool, the chairlift that crosses the gorge, and the peacock-inhabited grounds of the First Basin, provides Launceston with one of the finest urban natural features in Australia. The gorge's proximity to the CBD, accessible on foot from the main street in 15 minutes, creates the urban wilderness experience that few Australian cities of comparable size can offer at the walking distance from the commercial centre that Launceston's topography enables.

The Tamar Valley wine region north of Launceston, extending from the city's outskirts along both sides of the Tamar River to the Bass Strait entrance at the mouth of the estuary, produces the Pinot Noir, the sparkling wine, and the Riesling that the cool maritime influence of the Tamar Valley's north-south orientation allows the sea breeze to deliver to the vineyards of both banks. The cellar door experiences of the Tamar Valley wineries, including Pipers Brook Vineyard, Josef Chromy, and the smaller boutique producers, provide the wine tourism itinerary from Launceston that sustains the Tamar Valley's visitor economy and the cellar door wine sales that the direct consumer access creates.

Launceston's Seaport development, the waterfront precinct along the Tamar River foreshore adjacent to the CBD that has been redeveloped from the commercial wharf infrastructure into the restaurant, retail, and residential waterfront destination, provides the activated waterfront that the city has used to revitalise the Tamar River foreshore connection that the port infrastructure previously denied the city. The Seaport precinct's bars and restaurants and the marina that now occupies the restored wharf basin sustain the waterfront culture that Launceston has built in the post-industrial period as the commercial port function has moved to the deep-water port at Bell Bay.

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