St Peter's Anglican Church

Fingal
Quiet and attractive rural town
The beauty of the Fingal district has been an inspiration to a number of writers and poets. James McAuley, who spent a lot of time on Tasmania's east coast, wrote of Fingal in his poem 'Fingal Valley'.

The blonding summer grasses
The stubble-fields, the green,
The sheep in pools in shadow,
Mauve thistledown between.

The jagged ridge stands sharper
Without a bushfire haze;
The river winds in silence
Through wide blue hours, days.

Located 237 km east of Launceston via the Tasman Highway and 249 km north east of Hobart, Fingal was named, probably after Fingal's Cave in the Hebrides, by Roderic O'Connor who surveyed the area with John Helder Wedge in 1824.

Shortly after the survey, land was granted in the district and two substantial holdings were taken up by William Talbot ('Malahide' - located 2 km north of the town it is a gracious two storey stone Georgian house which was built in 1828) and James Grant ('Tullochgoram' - the property is located 5 km out of Fingal on the road to Avoca).

Fingal came into existence in 1827 when it was established as a convict station. It grew dramatically, if briefly, after the discovery of gold at Mangana, 10 km north west of Fingal, in 1852. This discovery is widely regarded as the first discovery of payable gold in Tasmania.

Here's a thought about the town's naming from Steven Jutton: "The Talbots occupied Malahide Castle for about 800 years. The castle is located to the north of Dublin. The last of the Talbots, the Hon. Rose Talbot sold the castle to Dublin County Council in the 1970šs. She now lives in Malahide, near Fingal in Tasmania. Her ancestors acquired land and gold mining rights in Tasmania in the 1820šs. Bearing in mind that the names Malahide and Talbot made it to Tasmania (the Fingal Hotel is located on Talbot Street) I am guessing that the same is true of Fingal. Fingal is an area north of Dublin and formally became a county in 1994, when the old Dublin County Council was abolished and replaced by three new ones. The name Fingal has long been associated with the area around the Talbot family ancestral home of Malahide Castle and it seems quite likely that this would account for the name appearing in Tasmania."

Things to see:  

Fingal Hotel

Historic Buildings
The town has a number of historically significant buildings, particularly in Talbot Street, the town's main street. The Holder Brothers Store dates from 1859 and nearby is the old Tasmania Hotel, constructed, in part, from the stones which were originally used to build the Prison barracks in the 1840s. It became a hotel in the 1850s and is now the local Tourist Centre. It sells arts and crafts from the district.

Also in Talbot Street is the Fingal Hotel, a two storey hotel built in the 1840s which, in the spirit of the town's name, has a fine collection of Scotch whiskies - reputedly the largest in the southern hemisphere. And, at the west end of the street, opposite the Town Hall (1882) is St Peter's Anglican Church, the town's oldest church which was consecrated in 1867.

Fingal Post Office

In Seymour Street, which runs south from Talbot Street, there are a number of historically significant buildings. The local primary school, with some modern additions, dates from 1884 (it is one of the oldest primary schools in Tasmania) and Uniting Church (1881) and St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church (1880) indicate a period when, towards the end of the nineteenth century, the town was growing rapidly.

	Hotels
	Fingal Hotel 7 Talbot St Fingal TAS 7214 Telephone: (03) 6374 2121 Rating: *
	Holiday Homes & Units
	Fawlty Towers Accommodation "Rostrevor Estate" Fingal TAS 7214 Telephone: (03) 6374 2119 or (03) 6374 2265 Rating: **
	Restaurants
	Fingal Hotel 7 Talbot St Fingal TAS 7214 Telephone: (03) 6374 2121