Burnie

Burnie ( ; pirinilaplu/palawa kani: Pataway) is a port city on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Australia. It is the fourth largest city on the island, located approximately north-west of the state capital of Hobart, north-west of Launceston, and west of Devonport. Founded in 1827 as Emu Bay, the township was renamed in the early 1840s after William Burnie, a director of the Van Diemen's Land Company, and proclaimed a city by Queen Elizabeth II on 26 April 1988. As of the , Burnie has a population of 19,918, with a municipality area of , administered by the City of Burnie.

Burnie’s economy has historically been driven by heavy manufacturing, mining, forestry, and farming. The city is located on the Emu Bay coastline, with its fortunes closely tied to its deep water port. The Port of Burnie handles over of freight annually, including nearly half of Tasmania’s containerised freight, and is the state’s primary gateway for mineral and forestry exports. The Burnie Chip Export Terminal, often referred to as the "Pyramids of Burnie", surpassed of annual woodchip exports in 2017.

Industrial decline in the late 20th century, culminating in the 2010 closure of the Associated Pulp and Paper Mills paper mill, which had been one of Burnie’s largest employers, brought economic and social challenges to the city. In the 21st century, Burnie has pursued diversification, with growth in education, healthcare, and logistics, alongside proposals in renewable energy and advanced manufacturing that align with Tasmania’s aspiration to achieve 200% renewable electricity generation by 2040.

History Early history (1827–1875) Burnie's history is closely tied to the establishment of the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL Company) in the early 19th century. In 1824, a group of wool merchants, bankers, investors, and woollen mill owners gathered in London to explore the idea of creating a land company in Van Diemen's Land, following the model of the Australian Agricultural Company in the Colony of New South Wales. With backing from William Sorell, a former lieutenant governor, and Edward Curr, who had recently returned from the colony, they established the VDL Company, with William Burnie its inaugural Governor of Company. They applied to Lord Bathurst for a grant of , while Bathurst approved a smaller allotment of , the company received a Royal Charter in 1825, giving it broad authority to cultivate land, and build housing and wharves to support colonial development within a area in North-West Tasmania.

Oakleigh Park, situated near the modern business centre, is regarded as the birthplace of Burnie and a pivotal site in the development of Tasmania’s northwest coast. In 1827, Henry Hellyer, chief surveyor of the Van Diemen's Land Company (VDL Company), established a camp beside Whalebone Creek. With the approval of the Company's chief agent, Edward Curr, Hellyer selected Emu Bay as the primary port to service the Company’s vast inland grazing holdings at Hampshire and Surrey Hills, located approximately inland.

The strategic value of the site was recognized early; in 1828, government surveyor John Helder Wedge recommended that Emu Bay be reserved as an official township. However, the VDL Company had already established a presence, with the initial settlement consisting of a store, a small jetty, a sawpit, and several huts. During this period, Hellyer oversaw the construction of the Old Surrey Road. Cut through dense rainforest starting from South Burnie beach, it served as the first road on the North West Coast, linking the coast to the interior.

However, Burnie’s settlement wasn’t peaceful. Between 1828 and 1832, Tarenorerer, a Tommeginne woman who had escaped from sealers, became the leader of the Emu Bay people (Plairhekehillerplue). She led a resistance against settlers during the Black War, attacking VDL Company employees until she was eventually captured. Alexander Goldie, the first superintendent of the Company's land assets around Emu Bay, led armed attacks against the Plairhekehillerplue clan. In 1828, Goldie and his men massacred several people inland from the settlement and in August 1829 they murdered a native woman at Emu Bay by shooting her and cutting her neck with an axe. Goldie then kidnapped the woman's five-year-old daughter and another woman. After an investigation, Goldie resigned from his position. Meanwhile, the VDL Company faced difficulties. By 1833, sheep farming at Surrey Hills had failed due to cold conditions, resulting in the near abandonment of the area.

Throughout the 1840s, the VDL Company began leasing bush blocks to tenant farmers, although Burnie’s growth remained slow. In 1843, the town was surveyed by Nathaniel Kentish and renamed after William Burnie, then serving as one of eighteen directors of the VDL Company. By 1853, Burnie had a population of approximately 200, with basic services such as a doctor and clergyman located in Port Sorell, and a lawyer and banker in Launceston. Transport and communication systems were rudimentary at this time, with no metal roads or established wharves. Nevertheless, the first official birth registrations in Burnie began that year.

Burnie’s first school was opened in 1862 by Mrs. Mary Morris in West Burnie, followed by the construction of the first government school on a rocky hill off Wilmot Street. In 1875, the VDL Company established its headquarters in Oakleigh (now Oakleigh Park), which remained in Burnie until the early 1950s. Burnie became the base for developing the region’s road and rail infrastructure.

Mineral boom and industrial development (1876–1939)

In the late 1870s, modern communication systems arrived, with the telegraph and telephone reaching Burnie. A horse-drawn tramway on wooden rails was established to connect Burnie to Waratah. The VDL Company later upgraded this tramway to iron and steam, facilitating the transport of tin from the Mount Bischoff mine, which commenced Burnie’s role as the west coast’s export gateway for minerals. By the 1880s, Burnie's fortunes had dramatically improved as west coast mineral deposits were discovered. The Emu Bay Railway Company extended the railway to Zeehan by 1900, propelling the town's population to over 1,500.

During this time, Burnie’s business district rapidly grew, thanks to improved port facilities and the expansion of the town's infrastructure. By 1900, T. Wiseman's motor coach service was operating between Burnie and Stanley, reflecting Burnie's growing importance as a regional transport hub.

A major turning point occurred in 1936 with the development of the pulp and paper mill in South Burnie. Constructed by Associated Pulp and Paper Mills (APPM), by 1939 the mill produced of fine paper annually, the first time in the world that paper was made entirely from eucalypt pulp. This industrial expansion caused a surge in employment and population growth, setting Burnie on the path to becoming an industrial powerhouse.

Post-war boom and industrial expansion (1940–1980s) The post-war era saw Burnie become synonymous with heavy industry. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, APPM expanded its workforce to around 3,500 employees, while other secondary industries, including pigment producer Tioxide and North-West Acid, were established. This industrial boom led to Burnie’s official recognition as a city in 1988. At its peak in the mid 1980s, Burnie had a population exceeding 20,500, thriving as a bustling industrial centre.

However, the town's success came with environmental consequences. During the 1970s, the production of titanium dioxide by Tioxide led to heavy pollution, turning the sea rust-red from effluent. Burnie also developed a reputation as one of Tasmania’s most polluted towns, a situation highlighted by the Australian band Midnight Oil in their song “Burnie,” which criticised the town’s environmental issues.

Challenges and reinvention (1980s–present)

North-West Acid closed in 1978, and by the 1980s, broader economic rationalisation in Australian manufacturing caused significant downturns in Burnie. APPM downgraded its local operations, closing the original BurnieBoard mill in 1983 and ultimately shutting down the pulp mill in 2010, resulting in substantial job losses. Other major closures followed, including Tioxide Australia in 1998 and the Caterpillar mining machinery manufacturing plant in 2015.

Despite these setbacks, which led to population fluctuations and inconsistent capital investment, Burnie began diversifying its local economy in the late 1990s and 2000s. Since the 2010s, the city has capitalised on its deepwater port

and revitalised its coastal foreshore. Following Caterpillar’s departure, the local Elphinstone Group relaunched its original equipment manufacturing brand in 2016, developing off-highway haul vehicles and retaining skilled manufacturing jobs in the region.

In addition to manufacturing and agricultural processing, Burnie has increasingly positioned itself as an educational and cultural hub (such as the development of the University of Tasmania’s West Park campus) and as the primary gateway to Tasmania’s North-West region and the Tarkine wilderness.

Demographics

Burnie had a population of 19,918 according to the , making it the second largest urban centre in North West Tasmania, after Devonport. Historically, Burnie has experienced periods of rapid growth, particularly in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, followed by fluctuations in more recent decades, with some signs of stabilisation and recovery in the 21st century. While 2023 State Government growth estimates are positive, Burnie is yet to recover to population levels experienced in the mid 1980s. At the 2021 census, Burnie's population is slightly older compared to national averages, with a significant portion (around 19%) aged 65 and over. This reflects a trend of ageing populations common in regional areas.

Economically, Burnie is a working-class hub with a median household income of $1,148 per week, lower than the national median of $1,746. The city's unemployment rate was around 8.1%, higher than the national rate of 5.1%. These figures suggest some economic challenges in the area, although Burnie's role as a regional port and industrial centre still gives it economic significance within Tasmania.

Burnie also has a notable Indigenous population, with around 8.5% of residents identifying as First Nations people or Torres Strait Islander, higher than the national figure of 3.2%. This reflects Tasmania's broader demographics where Indigenous representation is above the national average. The majority of residents (84.4%) were born in Australia, with smaller populations from England (2.4%), New Zealand (0.9%), India (0.8%), Nepal and the Philippines (0.4%), and mainland China (0.3%). English is the dominant language, spoken by 90.2% of residents at home, while 5.9% of households speak a non-English language.

In terms of religion, 53.4% of Burnie's population reported no religious affiliation, while 38.8% identified with a Christian denomination, including 11.4% as Catholic and 11.2% as Anglican. Other religious groups include Hinduism (0.9%), Buddhism (0.7%), Islam (0.6%), and Sikhism (0.2%).

Climate

Burnie has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), with mild, relatively dry summers and cool, rainy winters. Seasonal variation is low due to its seaside location along the Bass Strait. Average maxima range from in February to in July, while average minima from in February to in July. Mean annual rainfall is moderate, averaging spread on 158 days, and is concentrated in winter.

The town is fairly cloudy, with 141.1 cloudy days and only 51.7 clear days per annum. Extreme temperatures have ranged from on 14 July 1967 to on 31 January 2009. Sunshine data were sourced from Elliott, a rural locality west-southwest of Burnie.

Governance