Paterson MonumentPrint Page

Monument marks spot where Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson took possession of Northern Tasmania in the name of King George III. In 1804 he raised the Union Jack on Monument Point and fired a salute from his ship, HMAS Buffalo, making George Town the first European settlement in the north and one of the first in Australia.

Paterson ran the HMS Buffalo aground at York Cove and, apparently unconcerned by this event, duly ran up the flag, fired three volleys in the air, and played the national anthem.

An outline of the celebrations to be arranged on the day on which the memorial commemoratlng the annexation by  Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson of Northern Tasmania at George Town will be unveiled, was given by Mr. A. T. Farmilo in an address yesterday at the Launceston Fifty Thousand League's weekly luncheon. Mr. Farmilo is the chairman of the special committee for the George Town celebrations which it is proposed to hold on December 28.  Mr. Farmilo explained that in 1804 Lieutenant-Colonel Paterson arrived in the Tamar in the ship Buffalo and on November 11 of that year landed approximately where the monument is now being erected at George Town. He raised his flag and read the proclamation formerly annexing the north of Tasmania as a Crown colony.
Examiner (Launceston), 12th November 1935.

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