Names
Australian Placenames of German Background
Harford/Heidelberg, Tasmania
The village of Heidelberg became known as Harford (the present name of the locality) in the late 1800s. Walch’s Tasmanian Almanac listed Heidelberg from 1864 up to 1940 (a state almanac in Australia was an annual book that listed detailed current information and facts about events and regions and towns in the colony or state).
Around 1865 Heidelberg had a school, police, shops, the Heidelberg Hotel and a post-office (though the name of the post office and of the surrounding district was Green’s Creek). Heidelberg was not renamed 'Harford' during the First World War – the name Heidelberg seems to have fallen out of use between 1890 and 1893, according to the writer Michael Holmes. The hotel was still called the Heidelberg Hotel for a long while after the village was usually called Harford.[1] It seems that the placename Heidelberg was still being used during the first two decades of the twentieth century. An article in Hobart’s newspaper The Mercury in 1916 reported on the farming economy of the north-western region of Tasmania – the reporter mentioned both Heidelberg and Harford in the same sentence.[2]
The government authority in charge of running federal elections announced in its gazette in 1919 changes to the names of some polling places – one of those changes was from Heidelberg to Harford.[3]
Official announcement of alteration of names of polling places for elections - including Heidelberg to Harford
Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (1919, August 28)
The land-owners in Heidelberg in the mid-1800s did not have German names. Perhaps their motivation for naming their Tasmanian village Heidelberg was the same motivation which Richard Browne had when he named a village close to Melbourne 'Heidelberg' – affection for the romantic sounding name of the historic, famous and picturesque university town Heidelberg in Germany.
Excursion boat moored on the River Neckar at Heidelberg, Germany.
The name Heidelberg was used on old charts and maps of northern Tasmania.
This chart of the area of northern Tasmania around Heidelberg shows the name Heidelberg. The chart is undated.
Image source: LISTmap, Heritage and Land Tasmania, Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania.
This chart of the area of northern Tasmania around Heidelberg was based on the older chart, and shows the name Heidelberg, however, the name is struck through, to indicate that the name was no longer in use. This version of the chart was put into use in 1946.
Image source: LISTmap, Heritage and Land Tasmania, Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania.
♦ Notes:
1. Holmes, Michael. & Tasmania's Ghosts Towns and Settlements, issuing body. (2014). Vanishing towns : Tasmania's ghost towns and settlements. Hobart (Tasmania) : Tasmania's Ghosts Towns and Settlements and Forty South Publishing Pty Ltd. pp.138-139
2. THE NORTH-WEST COAST (1916, August 29). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved May 28, 2022, from <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article1043676>
3. ALTERATION IN THE NAMES OF POLLING PLACES UNDER THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT. (1919, August 28). Commonwealth of Australia Gazette (National : 1901 - 1973), p. 1290. Retrieved May 28, 2022, from <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232512149>