Richmond Bicentenary

Over five themed weekends, Richmond’s bicentenary program brought together history, art, music, nature, food, heritage, and community celebrations across the valley. Each weekend featured exhibitions, performances, talks, and participatory events, culminating in a village fair and community street party.

The Bicentenary program commenced with two ‘lead-up’ projects during 2023: Richmond Talks, monthly community conversations about topics related the Coal River Valley, and information about the Bicentenary program, and 200 Richmond Trees, provided an opportunity for residents to be given a commemorative tree.

The first three weekends were reflective and commemorative. The fourth weekend focused on the town’s anniversary and its built heritage. The final weekend included the annual Richmond Village Fair and a street party for residents. The richness and diversity of events and projects ensured a series of interesting and enjoyable weekends, each with focused resident and visitor appeal. All weekends included Aboriginal recognition and events developed in consultation with Aboriginal advisors.

In summary, the overall program comprised 50 events and activities: Seven major events, 17 special events, Eight exhibitions and displays, 14 music concerts, and four special Clarence City Council projects, attracting more than 30,373 visits.

The launch weekend was mammoth – Sounding the Bridge concert on Friday night, two significant exhibitions, and the Bridge Street Community Parade – 100s participated: walking, riding and driving.

The Clarence City Band and Bicentenary Children’s Choir entertained audiences prior to the formal speeches MC’d by broadcaster, Jane Longhurst, which included, Pakana Elder, Theresa Sainty, Councillor Brendan Blomeley, Mayor of Clarence, The Honourable Mark Shelton, Speaker of the House of Assembly, Liberal member for Lyons, representing the Tasmanian Premier and Minister for State Growth, The Hon Jeremy Rockcliff, and the Governor of Tasmania, Her Excellency the Hon Barbara Baker AC.

An estimated 5,000 watched the parade and up to 10,000 people visited Richmond over the weekend.

The second weekend, Richmond History Festival, opened on Friday afternoon, 18 January, with journalist Chris Wisbey’s engaging interview with long-term local resident, Madeleine Shaw, followed by an evening keynote address by esteemed Professor Henry Reynolds, with 20 more speakers engaging audiences on Saturday and Sunday. The history program was complemented by two exhibitions. A total of 318 people attended the Richmond History Festival.

ARichmond Convict Muster was the main event for the third weekend. It included two days of talks and a day discussing and researching convict heritage. 309 people attended talks. The complementary Heritage Farming Expo at nearby Summer Hill Farm was a captivating success with 1300 visitors. The weekend also included a community dance, two music performances and an exhibition.

Open House Richmond in partnership with Australian Institute of Architects (Tas Branch) was the signature event for weekend four. Residents shared the village and valley by opening their doors to visitors – a fitting recognition of the town’s 200^th anniversary. The program comprised 56 activities: including, 38 open properties, four cemetery walking tours, five exhibitions, five music concerts, special events – a dinner at the Star & Garter Inn and two events at Roslyn Estate, and an art class. A total of 9,684 visits were recorded.

Richmond Village Fair rewarded 1800 visitors, and a street party for residents attracted 200 guests (539 registered but many were dissuaded by the Bicentenary’s only wet weather day). Food and music were enjoyed as the final event.

Mumirimina country extended from the lower kutalayna/Jordan River along the eastern shore of the Derwent, encompassing Kangaroo Bay, across to Pittwater, and north along the Coal River Valley. Richmond represented a significant meeting place and crossing point for the Mumirimina and the other nine Oyster Bay bands, and the neighbouring Big River people.

The lands around Richmond were fire-farmed, managed, and hunted by the Mumirimina for millennia. British invasion of Mumirimina country commenced with Lieutenant Bowen’s arrival in 1803 and quickly expanded to the east and south with brutality and destruction of the Mumirimina. Despite concerted resistance against the British by Oyster Bay and Big River nations’ people, their food sources were depleted, lands lost (but never ceded), and their peoples decimated.

The British established their Van Diemen’s Land (lutruwita/Tasmania) settlement at Piyura kitina/Risdon Cove on eastern side of the Derwent River in 1803. Exploration of the district further to the east commenced soon afterwards.

For millennia, the lands to the Derwent River’s east had been the home of the Mumirimina people of the Oyster Bay nation. Their valley and its river, the district now known as Richmond and the Coal River Valley, was an important hunting ground, meeting point, and crossing point  for the Oyster Bay and Big River people.

By 1808, land grants along the Coal River encroached further east. The new occupiers also saw the significance of the location and a bridge over the river was commenced in 1823, with the town of Richmond being proclaimed in February 1824. As a police district, it had a role in preventing traditional owners from using their lands and contributed to the ultimate destruction of the Mumirimina band. Within 15 years of Richmond’s settlement, no Mumirimina remained on their country.

For around 70 years, Richmond was a key transit point, increasingly significant for agriculture, and a regional centre until it was bypassed by the causeways across Pittwater and the north-south rail line in 1873 and 1876 respectively.

Agriculture remained the core industry, but the town drifted into a century of reduced relevance. In the 1970s, with increasing interest in heritage, Richmond began retelling its story and became a nationally significant tourism destination.

Richmond’s proximity to Hobart and the airport, together with many heritage-listed properties and the valley’s fine wine industry enhanced its tourism appeal. In the 21st century, Richmond’s community is a mix of descendants of early residents, and people who chose to move into the area for its heritage charm.

A total of approximately 30,373 people visited over the Bicentenary program, including Richmond Talks in 2023.

• An estimated 5,000 people attended the 10 December parade. Approximately 10,000 visited the village over Bridge Anniversary weekend.
• The Town Anniversary weekend, Open House Richmond, attracted 9,684 visits.
• Richmond Village Fair attracted 1800 visitors.
• And the final event, a street party for residents – 539 registrations reduced to 200 actual attendances, due to wet weather.
• Attendances at other Bicentenary events totalled, 8,689