Strahan is a place on the west coast of Tasmania . The wettest place in Tasmania is 179 km northwest of Hobart and 20 km southwest of Queenstown . It is located on a natural harbor, Macquarie Harbor .
The first European who stayed at this place was the Englishman James Kelly with four friends in December 1815. Between 1822 and 1833 there was a penal colony on the nearby island of Sarah Island, see also Macquarie Harbor Penal Colony . After the place was previously called "Long Bay" or "Regatta Point", it was finally given its current name in 1877 after Major George Strahan , a former governor of Tasmania.
The city was officially founded in 1892. In 1899 rail lines to Queenstown and Zeehan were opened. During that time, Strahan had 2,000 residents and was Tasmania's second largest port. It was not until the 1960s that the port lost its importance when the railway line to Zeehan (1960) and the line to Queenstown (1963) were closed. In the early 1980s, the Tasmanian government wanted to dam the Gordon River and hired the Hydro-Electric Commission to build the Franklin Dam . After several protests by environmentalists, the plan was halted and the Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park was established.
Today Strahan is a popular resort.
climate
Average monthly temperatures and precipitation for Strahan (airfield) from 1981 to 2009
