Best 24 Real Estate Agents In Hadspen [2025]

Hadspen Suburb Overview

Hadspen is a small Australian town on the South Esk River in the north of Tasmania, just south west of Launceston. The centerpiece of the town is the historic property Entally House, the family home of Thomas Reibey who was the Premier of Tasmania from 1876 to 1877. Settlement began in the early 19th Century as a cluster of houses on the Launceston side of the river, near a frequently flooded ford. Over time various bridges were built, largely on the same site, across the river. Though it had been settled for some time Hadspen was only officially declared in 1866.

Most of the town’s buildings are residential, and relatively recent. There are heritage properties and some other from colonial times. Entally House was built in 1819 a wealthy settlers colonial estate. The Red Feather Inn was built in the 1840s and remains as a restaurant and accommodation. A gaol from the same time reflects Tasmania’s convict past. The two churches have a long history. The Uniting Church building dates back over 150 years, originally as a Wesleyan chapel, and the Anglican Church of the Good Shepherd is known for taking over ninety years to complete.

Though originally on the main road from Launceston to Devonport, the town’s centre was bypassed in the 20th Century. Hadspen has few commercial establishments and is primarily a residential suburb of nearby Launceston. There have been schools in its history, though there are now none.

Hadspen lies approximately 142 metres above sea level on the South Esk River, near the confluence of the South Esk and Meander Rivers, west of Launceston, Tasmania. Surrounding countryside contains valleys, river flood plains, remnant uncleared bush and undulating pastures. The majority of the town lies between the South Esk and a low section of land east of the town called Beams Hollow. Beams Hollow is named after Thomas Beams, owner of a 50 acre lot through which the road from Launceston first ran.

As of 1831 there was a settlement named Hadspen and a road was proposed from Launceston crossing the South Esk River at the ford near Thomas Haydock Reibey’s property of Entally. By the 1840s Hadspen was a small cluster of houses near “Reibey’s ford”, the river crossing on now main road. Hadspen Post Office opened on 1 November 1849, though the town was not declared in the government gazette until January 1866. A bridge was constructed in the early 1840s replacing the often impassable ford, and during the next century the bridge was often repaired and sometimes replaced.

Hadspen.-This rural township, long marked out on the maps, is fast assuming the appearance of a village. It is situated close to and on this side of Reibey’s Bridge. Mr. Sprunt lately obtained a licence to open an inn, which is a large and commodious brick building. Several cottages are erected, and a blacksmith’s forge for the convenience of surrounding settlers will soon be at work. Abundance of excellent stone is found within a few yards of the spot, and we observe one gentleman has built a remarkably neat cottage, fronting the main street, of this material. The distance from Launceston is about eight miles, and if the road were slightly repaired the drive in this direction would be the most pleasant in the neighbourhood

In early years there were two Hotels: Cricket club hotel near the river, which was partly destroyed by flood in the 1870s and subsequently demolished;Hadspen Hotel, a convict built sandstone structure. By 1881 there was no hotel in the town. An application to re-licence a building opposite the Wesleyan church was unsuccessful. The Hadspen Hotel was a private home in the early 20th Century and remains as part of the town’s heritage. None of these hotels are open in the 21st Century, the Rutherglen complex on the town’s west is the only licenced premises. There was a brewery in the town for a time, though it has long closed. The postal service from Hadspen originally was handled by a licencee operating from a shop, and subsequently from one of hotels. By 1966 the post office was in a separate building on the site of the former blacksmith’s shop.

An early reference to churches was in 1844 when the Examiner noted that Bishop Nixon “laid the foundation stone of a new church at Hadspen, Reibey’s ford” though it is not stated which church. This church is likely to have been a small wooden one that was the first used by the Church of England. The then Reverend Thomas Reibey had a small stone chapel built at Entally in 1850. Though it was intended for the employees of the estate it was used by some in the town. From the 1870s Reibey himself conducted some of the services in this Chapel. The Uniting Church building in Hadspen’s main street is a small, weatherboard colonial church. There was a Wesleyan chapel in the town by at least 1852 as well as another small church. In July 1874 the current Uniting church building was completed as a Wesleyan Chapel, that by 1924 was used as a Methodist church. The grounds the church is on were owned by the Wesleyans as early as 1865.

Hadspen is a small town on the South Esk River in the north of Tasmania, just south west of Launceston that functions as an extension of the Launceston metropolitan area. On the town’s west, across the river, is the historic property Entally House, former family home of Thomas Reibey who was the Premier of Tasmania from 1876 to 1877. Hadspen is a growing town that is seen as a “dormitory suburb” for Launceston. The town has a small shopping centre with a post office and service station, adjacent to a large caravan and cabin park. Development has been almost entirely residential and mostly on the northern side of Meander Valley Highway. Over 13 hectares of land was already zoned for development within the town boundary as of 2005, and the council plans to allow further expansion on the Highway’s south. A 1978 study looked at various areas around Hadspen for development, the only area to date where this has happened is the expansion of the town south of the Highway on the River’s east bank..

Hadspen has grown without any area set aside for small commercial operations, a fact that has led to just the single shopping complex. There was another service station, in the main street, but it closed in 2008 after operating for approximately forty years. Rutherglen is a holiday village, conference and event centre, and retirement village on the town’s west. It is the only generally licenced premises in Hadspen. Rutherglen, or a similarly named premises at the same location, has been used for accommodation since at least 1923. At this point the site was part of Entally estate, and was home to some 300, ninety year old hazelnut trees that were investigated as part of a report on the prospect of growing Hazelnuts in Australia for Cadbury chocolate production. The town has access to reticulated water and sewerage. The town’s sewerage has been, since the mid 1970s, processed at a plant near Carrick that also serves that town. Treated waste-water from there is discharged into a tributary of the Liffey River.

In the 21st Century there were no schools remaining in Hadspen. An early record of schooling in Hadspen was in 1845 when the local members of the Church of England, as part of a petition calling for funding, stated that they had established a new school. By 1848 there was also a Wesleyan Sunday School with 20 students. By 1867 there was a secular state school in the town, though funding was inconstant and the school was closed for at least the next two years. This school never grew large;as of 1903 it had an average attendance of 20 students.

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