Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Grindelwald, Tasmania
View of the entrance to the resort of Grindelwald, Tasmania.
Sign at the entrance to the resort of Grindelwald, Tasmania.
Blooming flowerboxes, rich timber, glassy lakes and old-fashioned window shutters — you could be forgiven for thinking you were in a Swiss village. And technically, you wouldn't be wrong. But you're not in Switzerland, you're in northern Tasmania.
ABC News, 2022
Grindelwald is a rural/residential locality in the Tamar Valley, established by a Dutchman Mr Roelf Vos. He arrived in Tasmania from the Netherlands at the age of 30 in 1951 and operated small shops in the north of the island before starting a chain of supermarkets. On a European holiday with his wife Miep he stayed briefly in Switzerland. That visit was the inspiration for the holiday village in Tasmania that he named Grindelwald.
In Switzerland Grindelwald is a well-known village and ski resort in the Bernese Alps. Mr Vos visited Switzerland again in order to finalise his ideas for the village in northern Tasmania, and construction work began in 1981. The Swiss Village, Alpenrose Bistro and Edelweiss Function Room were officially opened in December 1985.
Tasmania's place names authority officially gazetted Grindelwald as a place name in 1983.
The Firstbahn is the cable car which takes visitors up to the cable car station on First - First is the local landmark mountain above the Swiss village of Grindelwald.
♦ References:
Bovill, Monte. & Leslie, André & Napier, Kim. (2022, July 22). Why Roelf Vos built the Swiss-styled town of Grindelwald on a hill in northern Tasmania. ABC News. Accessed 20/11/2022.
Placenames Tasmania. Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment. Grindelwald. (Nomenclature Number: 20789R) <www.placenames.tas.gov.au>
Richards, J. 'Vos, Roelf (1921–1992)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/vos-roelf-16279/text28221>, published online 2016. Accessed 20/11/2022.