Publisher's Synopsis
As islanders, Tasmanians identify strongly with their maritime heritage. Barks and brigantines, whaling, Antarctic exploration, and memories of the many trading ketches, small craft and steamers which sailed in and out of the harbors and coves, and of a vigorous interstate passenger trade live in the romantic imagination. Shipping difficulties, however, have been described as Tasmania's Achilles heel. Like a great island continent, Australia is heavily dependent on overseas shipping, but Tasmania has additional disadvantages. Isolated from the mainland, its dependence on interstate shipping is two and a half times greater than that of any other Australian state. Tasmania's smaller islands such as King and Flinders are dependent in turn. Geography has also affected the island's intrastate organization of shipping services. The south, with its splendid deepwater harbour and safe approaches from the open sea, has suffered from its distance from Bass Strait and hence from the Australian mainland.
Another feature of Tasmania which has distinguished it from mainland patterns has been the relative strength of its minor ports in relation to the capital port of Hobart. They have achieved an importance far greater than that of their mainland counterparts where one port is unassailably dominant, and Tasmanian ports are historically in rivalry with one another.
This book will give you more detail the Tasmanian shipping in the early time!
