Campbell Town

Campbell Town, proclaimed a municipality in 1866, boasts an impressive collection of colonial architecture including the Foxhunters Return (1834), the convict-built Red Bridge over the Elizabeth River (1838), St Luke's Church (1839),

The Grange (Dr William Valentine's home, built in the late 1840s), and St Michaels Church (1857). The Campbell Town Golf Club, adjacent to the Midlands Highway, was originally a racecourse.

Dr William Valentine was one of Campbell Town’s most active early citizens. He arrived in 1839 to be the hospital’s doctor and became involved in many other aspects of the town until his death in 1876. 

He established Turkish baths, acted as Lay Preacher at the Anglican Church, was instrumental in the construction of St Luke’s Sunday school, set up a reading room and library and built two pipe organs himself. He lived in The Grange, which was built for him in 1847.

His interests also included botany and astronomy and it was he who organised the viewing of the Transit of Venus in 1874. His memorial, put up by the community, lies just inside the churchyard and weighs two and a half tons.

Alfred Biggs, the town’s schoolmaster, made the first telephone call in the Southern Hemisphere from the Campbell Town Railway Station in 1874. He engineered two telephones from huon pine based on sketches by Alexander Graham Bell. He placed one at Launceston railway station and the other at the Campbell Town station and connected them via the telegraph line. The telephones can be seen at the Heritage Museum.