Talk:Launceston, Tasmania

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[edit] earlier comments (check the dates)

Launceston was the home of John Bateman, the founder of Melbourne. Bateman planned the city and in 1834 he sailed from Launceston to settle at Port Phillip in Victoria. - I'm assuming that in the above passage, "the city" refers to Melbourne, but I'm not sure. RickK 05:08 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Yes, Melbourne - I used "The city" to avoid saying "Melbourne" too much in the one sentence. I'll try and re-phrase it some other way! Chuq 07:08 13 Jul 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Launceston City Flag

This entry needs a copy of the Launceston City Flag Lauchlin 13:28, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I didn’t even know there was such a flag. <-- who wrote this?

There is. It is yellow with a blue 'Y' on it showing the meeting of the two Esk rivers to form the Tamar, as can be seen on the coat of arms. I'll try and take a photo of it next time I am in the city. -Lauchlin

[edit] Inveresk precinct?

Regarding this edit: This precinct, near Royal Park, hosts the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (the largest museum and art gallery in Australia located outside a capital city), Chinese Temple, Railway Workshops and a Planetarium.

AFAIK, the inveresk precinct holds the art gallery part of the museum, and railway workshops, and is not near Royal Park. The rest of the QV Museum and the planetarium are near Royal Park. -- Chuq 03:50, 23 June 2006 (UTC)

Are there no other wikipedians from my own home city?? Shame on you all!! All joking aside, I have corrected the factual inaccuracies of this section - and added a bit about the lovely old (original) museum building in the "landmarks" section. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 23:19, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
Hi Soundofmusicals, I am from Launceston but live in Hobart now. There are a group of us on Wikipedia:WikiProject Tasmania from the state, though the WikiProject page itself is very quiet it is a handy guide as to what has been done and what needs to be done. Australian Wikipedians' notice board is a more active area for general discussion about Aussie articles. By the way, I didn't think the AMC had merged with the Uni - although there were talks of it I didn't think it was definite? -- Chuq (talk) 23:40, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
Happened very recently - but is quite definite - they have new UT signs up everywhere out there now - although we heard about it from contacts with AMC students. I was joking about the fact that the messup over the QVM had remained uncorrected for at least two years - I am just as "responsible" for this oversight as anyone else, of course. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 00:21, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Small City ?? Opening Para

The opening para is very confusing about the size of Launceston. At one point it uses the term "small" to describe the city, and in another sentence it mentions that it is the second largest. In some sections it compares it with towns and in others it is definately classed as a city.

I really don't see the point of the word small. It is either a city or not. The population is over 100,000 and articles like Ballarat, Toowoomba and Geelong which have comparable populations do not use the word "small" in their opening paragraphs. Anyone object to me removing it ? --Biatch 01:45, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

Sounds fair to me. The confusion may have come from the fact that there is a big gap between Australia's "big five" cities, and the rest. -- Chuq 05:33, 9 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Third Oldest City?

The article reads: Launceston is Australia's third oldest city (after Sydney and Hobart) and has many historical buildings and sights.

From what I can tell, Sydney was settled in 1788; Newcastle was first explored in 1797, first penal colonies established in 1800, and named Newcastle in 1804; Hobart was established and moved in 1803-1804; and Launceston was established in 1803, but moved to its present location in 1805.

What criteria classifies Launceston as third-oldest city? Is it naming of the city, date of discovery, date of first (penal) colonies, or date of relocation?

Hobart Town (as it was known until 1881) was proclaimed a city in 1842. bottom of 2nd paragraph
Launceston was proclaimed a city on October 9 1888. ref Stony (talk) 06:36, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
Logically - the "date of actual European settlement at the present site" would seem to be the best and most obvious criterion. By this definition, Australia's "oldest cities" are (in order) - Sydney (1788), Newcastle (1800), Hobart (1804), Launceston (1806) - making Launceston the fourth city in age. But then there are several older settlements that either remained small townships, or which became swallowed by the growth of modern conurbations, and survive only as suburb names. I think the current text "one of Australia's oldest cities" is perfectly adequate, given the fundamental ambiguity of the whole thing. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 22:52, 10 June 2008 (UTC)
I think it may well be by date of proclamation if I'm ever in at town hall(Launceston) I'll certainly ask, what year was newcastle proclaimed a city? Stony (talk) 02:31, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
That might be interesting - although I think by the time Launceston was officially a "city" as such it would have been preceded by quite a few other places - Newcastle probably being just one of them. (Melbourne was a city before the 1880s, surely!) I have often seen the "third oldest" furphy - a think it really should be (at best) "fourth oldest", and then by the "place now a city, by date of original settlement" criterion. "One of the oldest" as in the current article, is, as I said, quite OK, IMHO - and avoids any quibbling. --Soundofmusicals (talk) 03:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Flood levees

It would be good to include info about the flood levee system. There is some information at http://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/lc/dean/flood.htm -- Barrylb 07:21, 17 August 2007 (UTC)

I have added a few really negative (but TRUE) remarks about the effects of our topography - not just the potential for flooding in Inveresk and Invermay but also our notorious winter air pollution and the tendency for some houses in steeper parts of the city to have problems with landslip. I don't claim that this bit is necessarily 100% right just yet - and I'll have the "reference everything brigade" after me too, but these things have to be said if the article is to be an honest encyclopedia article and not a tourist brochure! --Soundofmusicals (talk) 02:19, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
Just thought I would point out that I added a reference yesterday about the smog levels - but it's from the Mercury (Hobart) - not sure how reliable they can be when talking negatively about Launceston ;) -- Chuq (talk) 23:23, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
I think that the topographic of area catches smoke/smog from other places as well as Launceston and the way it is just does'nt allow it to escape, after all launceston is surrounded by hills, so it's like a bowl, when the victorian bushfires were going on we managed to trap a lot of that smoke aswell, that we were not the cause of, but this is just my opinion, i also have no references. --Stony (talk) 03:10, 12 June 2008 (UTC)

Silverdome (Launceston) and Country Club Resort probably deserve mention as a notable feature of Launceston. Barrylb (talk) 08:26, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Phonetic alphabet and pronunciation of "Lonny"

One little thing I would love to fix but my knowledge of the phonetic alphabet isn't up to it. Most Australians pronounce the first vowel in our city's name as the vowel in "lawn" or "born" (a long vowel) - whereas the correct local pronunciation is the much shorter vowel as it "hot or "gone" (or even "lonny" - what most Tasmanian Launcestonians call it most of the time). It would be cute to have both at the head of the article - pointing out which is correct!! Anyone up to doing that in the offical IPA???--Soundofmusicals (talk) 02:50, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I think I've done it!!! It's all a question of vowel length - and I think just adding the "long vowel" symbol does the trick!. By all means correct me if I'm wrong!!--Soundofmusicals (talk) 03:44, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
The locals myself being one of, pronounce it as though it was lon rather than lawn -Stony (talk) 08:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)
That's exactly what I meant - all I was confused about was how to write this in IPA. I think I actually got the phonetics right too, now! --Soundofmusicals (talk) 18:53, 11 June 2008 (UTC)