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Sentosa

Sentosa Island, known mononymously as Sentosa, is an island located off the southern coast of Singapore's main island. The island is separated from the main island of Singapore by a channel of water, the Keppel Harbour, and is adjacent to Pulau Brani, a smaller island wedged between Sentosa and the main island.

Formerly used as a British military base and afterwards as a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp, the island was renamed Sentosa in the 1970s to become a popular tourist destination. It is now home to a popular resort that receives up to 25 million visitors per year. Attractions include a 2.5 km long sheltered beach, Madame Tussauds Singapore, an extensive cable car network, Fort Siloso, two golf courses, 14 hotels as well as the Resorts World Sentosa, which features the Universal Studios Singapore theme park and one of Singapore's two casinos, the other being in Marina Bay Sands.

Sentosa is also widely known as being the location of the 2018 North Korea–United States Singapore Summit, where North Korean Chairman Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Donald Trump met at the Capella Singapore located on the island. This was the first-ever meeting between the leaders of North Korea and the United States. As an island geared towards recreation and tourism with its casino and resorts under a tropical climate, as well as residences for the wealthy, Sentosa is more than twice the size of Monaco.

Etymology
The name Sentosa translates to "peace and tranquility" in Malay, which was in turn derived from the Sanskrit term Santosha, meaning "contentment, satisfaction". Sentosa was formerly known as Pulau Blakang Mati which in Malay means the "Island of Death Behind".

The name Blakang Mati is old; an island was identified as Blacan Mati in Manuel Godinho de Erédia's 1604 map of Singapore. Other early references to the island of Belakang Mati include Burne Beard Island in Wilde's 1780 MS map, Pulau Niry, Nirifa from 1690 to 1700, and the nineteenth century reference as Pulau Panjang (J.H. Moor). However, early maps did not separate Blakang Mati from the adjacent island of Pulau Brani, so it is uncertain to which island the seventeenth century place names referred.

The island has changed name several times. Up to 1830, it was called Pulau Panjang ("long island"). In an 1828 sketch of Singapore Island, the island is referred to as ''Po. Panjang''. According to Bennett (1834), the name Blakang Mati was only given to the hill on the island by the Malay villagers on the island. The Malay name for this island is literally translated as "dead back" or "behind the dead"; belakang means "at the back" or "behind" or "after"; mati means "dead". It is also called the "dead island" or the "island of the dead" or perhaps "island of after death".

There are a number of different suggestions on how the island came to acquire such an unpropitious name:
 * One account attributed the ominous name to murder and piracy in the island's past.
 * A second claimed that the island is the material paradise for the spirits of warriors said to have been buried at Pulau Brani.
 * A third account claims that an outbreak of disease on the island in the late 1840s almost wiped out the original Bugis settlers on the island. Dr Robert Little, a British coroner investigating the deaths, stumbled upon what was called Belakang Mati Fever, purportedly a type of fever caused by miasmastic fumes arising from decaying leaves and swampy water on the island. This led to a controversy in medical circles at that time as to the causes of this disease. The disease was later recognised in 1898 as malaria spread by the Anopheles mosquito. The government's malaria research station was originally located here.
 * A fourth interpretation is that "dead back island" was so-called because of the lack of fertile soil on the hills. However, since the island creates an area of dead water behind it with no wind (hence "still behind" - still or stopped being an alternative translation of mati) it may be as simple as this — less romantic perhaps, but believable from a nautical viewpoint.

In 1827, Captain Edward Lake of the Bengal Engineer Group in his report on public works and fortifications had proposed an alternative name for Belakang Mati as the "Island of St George". However, the island was seen as too unhealthy for habitation and his proposed name was never realised.

In a 1972 contest organised by the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, the island was renamed Sentosa, a Malay word meaning "peace and tranquility", from Sanskrit, Santosha.

Pulau Blakang Mati
Pulau Blakang Mati was once home to the native Malays who were relocated to the mainland, together with the Pulau Brani villagers, due to urban redevelopment in the late 1970s. In the nineteenth century, the island was considered important because it protected the passage into Keppel Harbour. Plans to fortify the island as part of the defence plan for Singapore were drawn up as early as 1827, but few fortifications actually materialised until the 1880s, when the rapid growth of the harbour led to concern over the protection of coal stocks against enemy attack. The four forts built on the island were Fort Siloso, Fort Serapong, Fort Connaught and the Mount Imbiah Battery.

Fort Siloso and Sarang Rimau
The western end of Pulau Blakang Mati, the place where Fort Siloso is now, used to be called sarang rimau (the tiger's den). Selusuh is a kind of herb used as a remedy in childbirth, but there is no explanation of how the fort came to be so called, the orang laut of Kampong Kopit only knowing the place by the name of sarang rimau. By the 1930s, the island was heavily fortified and a crucial component of Fortress Singapore, and the base of the Royal Artillery.

Fort Connaught
Fort Connaught, on eastern side of Sentosa island, was earlier called Belakang Mati East Battery which was constructed in 1878. It had ammunition similar to Fort Siloso, with three Mark I 7 Inch RML Guns of $6 1/2$ tons and two RML 64-pounder 64 cwt guns. In 1890 it was renamed the Fort Connaught to mark the visit of Duke of Connaught. In 1930s, fort was rebuilt and three Mark X 9·2-Inch Guns on 30° Mark VII Mountings with better range replaced the older firepower. On Mount Serapong, an underground Battery Plotting Room was constructed on the northern side and a Battery Observation Post on top of the mountain. In 1942, during WWII, British forces at this fort exhausted their ammunition, and guns were tempered and disabled before the British surrendered to Japanese forces. A significant part of Mount Serapong was removed and it made way for the present day Tanjong Golf Course, due to which a major part of the fort was destroyed. Presently few remains of the fort can still be seen in the extreme east corner of the Tanjong Golf Course, namely observation tower in the northeast corner of golf course near Allenbrooke road, then to the south of it are gun number 3, gun number 2 and engine room, and finally gun number 1 - all short distance from each other.

Fort Serapong
Fort Serapong, Fort Siloso, Fort Connaught and Imbiah Battery were constructed on Sentosa island in 1870 to form the southern defence of Singapore. Presently only 20% of the original fort has been discovered. Ruins are reachable via Fort Serapong Road, then walking on a forested ridge which has several "Danger: keep out" type of signs.

Second World War
During the Second World War, the island was a British military fortress. The British set up large-calibre gun fortifications at various points along the island that were aligned to the south, facing the sea in expectation of a seaward Japanese assault. The myth that the guns were incapable of pointing north developed after the War but this was wrong, they could swivel to point north but they were only equipped with armour-piercing shells for ships which made the shells ineffective against land based forces. The Japanese invaded and captured Singapore from the north, after having done the same to Malaya (now known as West or Peninsular Malaysia).

Following the surrender of the Allied Forces on 15 February 1942, Fort Siloso became a prisoner of war camp, housing Australian and British prisoners of the Japanese. During the Japanese Occupation, under the Sook Ching Operation, Chinese men who were suspected, often arbitrarily, of being involved in anti-Japanese activities were brutally killed. 300 bodies, riddled with bullet wounds, washed up on the beach of Pulau Belakang Mati, and were buried by the British prisoners.

1945–72
After the Japanese surrender in 1945 and the return of Singapore to British rule, the island became the base of the locally enlisted First Singapore Regiment of the Royal Artillery (1st SRRA) in 1947. Other locally enlisted men from Singapore were sent to the island for basic military training before being sent to other units of the British Army in Singapore. Ten years later, the 1st SRRA was disbanded and its guns dismantled. The coast artillery was replaced with Gurkha infantry units, first the 2/7th Duke of Edinburgh's own Gurkha Rifles and later the 2/10th Princess Mary's own Gurkha Rifles. Fort Siloso and Mount Imbiah became a religious retreat and a Protestant church house respectively. Fort Connaught was left in ruins. Fort Serapong became a secure communications and listening station.

In the early 1960s, during the Indonesian Confrontation, the 2/10th occupied the island. Even though Indonesia was in close proximity there were few amateurish attempts of direct action by the Indonesians against Singapore. The Gurkha battalion rotated on a six monthly basis to Borneo where most military action during the Confrontation took place. A significant parade took place on the island during the Confrontation to announce the award of the Victoria Cross to Rambahadur Limbu for an action in Borneo. With the end of the Confrontation in 1966 and the withdrawal of the Gurkha battalion from the island, the British handed over Sentosa to the Singapore Armed Forces of the newly independent Government of Singapore in 1967. In 1967, Pulau Belakang Mati became the base for the Singapore Naval Volunteer Force, which relocated there from its old base at Telok Ayer Basin. The School of Maritime Training was also set up there, as was the first Naval Medical Centre. It became part of the Republic of Singapore Navy. Also in 1967, Pulau Belakang Mati became the military base for the School of Field Engineers, which relocated there from Pasir Leba Camp. The Field Engineer School trained the 1st Batch of Combat Engineer Commanders who in turn trained the 1st batch of Full Time National Servicemen who were enlisted in 1968. The 1st operational Combat Engineer Battalion was also raised here. The Engineer Headquarters (EHQ) was established here 1970 before moving to Gillman Camp in 1971.

By 1967, the Singapore government had reached an agreement with Esso to build an oil refinery on the island with the intent to eventually turn the island into a petrochemical complex. However, the then-chief of the Urban Renewal Unit (the forerunner of the Urban Redevelopment Authority), Alan Choe, wanted to somehow preserve the greenery of the island. With the support of Dr Albert Winsemius, he managed to convince then-Finance Minister Goh Keng Swee and then-Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong to turn the island into a tourism destination, and shift the planned Esso refinery to Jurong Island instead.

1970s

In the late 1960s, the government began to set out proposals for developing the island, and a contest to find a new name for the island was held in November 1969. The island was renamed "Sentosa" in September 1970, which means peace and tranquility in Malay (from Sanskrit, Santosha), from a suggestion by the public. In March 1971, the government announced plans to develop the island into a holiday resort for local visitors and tourists, and a S$124-million plan for developing Sentosa was unveiled in March 1972.

The Sentosa Development Corporation was formed and incorporated on 1 September 1972 to oversee the development of the island. Since then, some S$420 million of private capital and another S$500 million of government funds have been invested to develop the island.

In 1974 the Singapore Cable Car system was built, linking Sentosa to Mount Faber. Finally, in 1975, the Republic of Singapore Navy had moved out from the Sentosa to Pulau Brani Island. A series of attractions were subsequently opened for visitors including Fort Siloso, Surrender Chamber wax museum, Musical Fountain, and the Underwater World. The causeway bridge was opened in 1992 connecting Sentosa to the mainland.

The Sentosa Monorail system was opened in 1982 to transport visitors across seven stations located around the western side of the island.

1989
The former political prisoner and Nobel prize nominee Chia Thye Poh spent three-and-a-half years in internal exile on Sentosa after he was freed from 23 years in jail in 1989.

2005
On 16 March 2005, the monorail service was discontinued to make way for the new Sentosa Express, which commenced operations on 15 January 2007. An environmental assessment conducted by the government of Singapore concluded that the construction of an integrated resort on Sentosa would result in a high likelihood of high scale biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, soil erosion and climate change, as well as several other destructive ecological impacts. Therefore, over two hundred trees and plants from the area that was to be cleared for the construction of the resorts were replanted elsewhere on the island to minimize negative environmental impact.

In 2009, construction of a new foot bridge began. The S$70 million Sentosa Boardwalk includes themed gardens, shops and eateries. There are covered walkways and travellators along the boardwalk for rainy days. The Boardwalk, officially opened by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on 29 January 2011, provides visitors with an alternative mode of travel to reach the island. Sentosa Boardwalk, designed by Aedas, was named Best Leisure Architecture in Asia Pacific and 5* Best Leisure Architecture in Singapore, at the 2014 Asia Pacific Property Awards.

2018
The island hosted the 2018 North Korea–United States summit between the United States President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un of North Korea on 12 June 2018, at the Capella Singapore. Sentosa island was gazetted as a 'special event area' by the Singapore Government and the Capella Singapore was chosen as the venue by the White House, a week prior to the summit.

In his 2018 autobiography, Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong revealed that, when the tourism sector was suffering, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew made an attempt to allow a nudist resort to be built on Sentosa in order to attract tourists, but the motion was ultimately vetoed.

2024 oil spill
On 14 June 2024 at about 2.20pm, a dredger hit a stationary bunker vessel stationed at Pasir Panjang Terminal, causing an oil spill that spread across several Southern Islands through East Coast Park, including Palawan, Siloso and Tanjong beaches. Sentosa announced that the beaches are still available, but any water-related activities are suspended while cleaning is underway.

Geography
The island has an area of close to 5 sqkm. It lies just half a kilometre (a quarter of a mile) away from the southern coast of the main island of Singapore. It is Singapore's fourth-largest island (excluding the main island). 70% of the island was covered by secondary rainforest, the habitat of monitor lizards, monkeys, peacocks, parrots as well as other native fauna and flora, also, when the construction of Resorts World Sentosa commenced; environmental impact was kept at a minimum when over two hundred trees in the designated area were replanted elsewhere on the island.

Further development has significantly impacted the biodiversity of the island, resulting in the loss of much of the native fauna and flora. The island also has a 3.2 km stretch of white sand beach, which has impacted the reef. Significantly large portions of land are currently being added to Sentosa due to land reclamation.

Cable Car and Mainland Buses
Sentosa can be reached from the Singapore mainland via a short causeway or Cable Car, which originates from Mount Faber and passes through HarbourFront en route to its final destination at Imbiah Lookout. In 2015, Sentosa opened an intra-island Cable Car to facilitate travelling within the island. Dubbed the "Sky Network", the Cable Car has 3 stations, in Siloso, Imbiah, and near the now-closed Merlion, and is not linked to the original Cable Car.

Public bus services are available to connect Sentosa Island to the mainland. Tong Tar Transport service RWS8 operates between VivoCity/ HarbourFront station to Resorts World Sentosa during peak hours only. On 30 July 2017, SBS Transit Bus Service 123 was extended to enhance connectivity to Resorts World Sentosa, Merlion Tower (now closed), and Beach Station Bus Terminal.

Prior to COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore, SMRT had operated Express Bus Services 188R and 963R between Choa Chu Kang and Woodlands towards Resorts World Sentosa respectively on weekends and public holidays. These bus routes were withdrawn on 7 April 2020 due to low demand.

Sentosa Express
The island is also accessible by the Sentosa Express monorail, which replaced the old Sentosa Monorail that operated from 1982 to 2005. The Sentosa Express has three stations on Sentosa and one on mainland Singapore. The northern terminus of the line, which opened on 15 January 2007, is located at the VivoCity shopping mall on the mainland and the southernmost terminus, Beach Station, is located on Sentosa Island. In Vivocity, the mainland MRT is in turn served by the HarbourFront of the North East Line and the Circle Line.

Bus Terminal
The Beach Station Bus Terminal within Sentosa serves both residents and tourists access to various amenities around Sentosa. There are two bus services serving the terminal, identified as Bus A and Bus B. SBS Transit Bus Service 123 also serves this terminal.

Car/Foot
Since 1998, passenger cars have been allowed to enter the island.

Visitors can also access the island via the Sentosa Boardwalk which is parallel to the causeway (which opened on 29 January 2011). The first two days of its opening were marked with free entry into Sentosa for visitors who walk, and subsequently, an SGD 1 admission fee into Sentosa is charged. From 7 June 2014 to 4 January 2015, walk-in entry into Sentosa via the Sentosa Boardwalk is free on weekends and public holidays. Walk-in has been free of charge since the end of SG50 celebrations. The Sentosa Boardwalk hosts frequent bazaars on weekends.

Tram
Sentosa Beach Tram is a free-to-ride tram that serves Palawan Beach, Siloso Beach, and Tanjong Beach, using four vehicles including 2 Volvo B12BLEAs, in which the second carriage is an open-top and another one with green and blue liveries. The Volvo B12BLEAs were manufactured by ComfortDelGro Engineering bodywork, which has since been taken out of service. The connection is at Beach Station Bus Terminal, beside Beach Station.

Separately, a 3-car tram used to serve Underwater World.

An Autonomous Bus Trial was also conducted from mid-2019 to the end of 2019.

Operating attractions
Sentosa offers a variety of attractions, museums, and other facilities. These include Universal Studios and Madame Tussauds chain of attractions, as well as a Marine Life Park, which consists of a water park and an aquarium. Most of the attractions on Sentosa are located in either Resorts World Sentosa, Imbiah Lookout, or the Sentosa Beachfront.

 * Magical Shores opened on Siloso Beach in January 2020,
 * The Royal Albatross is a unique 47 m class A luxury Tall Ship (pirate ship) that is berthed behind the SEA Aquarium at Resorts World Sentosa. The ship has 4 masts, 22 sails, and is the largest charter yacht in Singapore, with a capacity of 149 passengers. It is owned and operated by Tall Ship Adventures Pte Ltd and can be chartered by the hour or day for private and corporate events. The company also sells tickets for short cruises via their website. The ship was featured as Bruce Wayne's luxury yacht in the Batman movie The Dark Knight.
 * Butterfly Park and Insect Kingdom is a landscape garden with over 15,000 live butterflies, representing more than fifty species. Housed in a cool outdoor conservatory, these butterflies range from the 25 millimetre (1 in) Eurema sari to the 150 mm (6 in) Papilio iswara. The Insect Kingdom houses some 3,000 species of rare insects from around the world, including a 160 mm Dynastes Hercules beetle.
 * Wings of Time a multimedia performance which started its run on 17 June 2014 replacing previous successor show called Songs of the Sea, with pyrotechnics displays, water fountains, water screens, laser projectors, flame bursts. The show currently runs every evening once during weekdays and twice during weekends, eve of public holidays and on public holidays.
 * Sentosa 4D Adventureland contains Singapore's and Southeast Asia's first four-dimensional theatre. Opened in January 2006 at the cost of S$3.5 million, the theatre is equipped with digital projection and a DTS 6.1 sound system. Currently, there are several attractions in Sentosa 4D Adventureland:
 * 1) An immersive 4-D movie - "Journey 2: The Mysterious Island", based on the film starring Dwayne Johnson
 * 2) A virtual 4-D roller coaster - "Extreme Log Ride"
 * 3) An interactive 4-D Shoot-Out game - "Desperados"
 * 4) A new 4-D experience ride - "Haunted Mine"
 * Fort Siloso is located in the west of the island, with the guns of this preserved fort still standing. Fort Siloso was built by the British in 1880s to guard the narrow western entrance to Keppel Harbour. The fort guarded the western approaches to Singapore during World War II. By 1939 it was armed with two 6 in Mark2 guns and two rapid firing 12-pounder guns. Fort Siloso is now the only surviving coastal gun battery from the twelve such batteries that made up Fortress Singapore at the start of the war. The ammunition bunkers, barracks, tunnels, and gun emplacements of the fort are now open to visitors as a military-themed attraction. Also on display is a collection of artillery guns dating from the 17th century to World War II. Life-sized replicas of British soldiers and other people are on display to depict life at the fort. Fort Siloso is home to the country's largest collection of World War II memorabilia, including photographs, documents and film clips. The fort also served as the place of internment for the Singaporean political prisoner Chia Thye Poh in the period 1989–1993. This attraction was once served by the Fort Siloso Monorail Station of the discontinued Sentosa Monorail. After the monorail closed in 2005, the station was repurposed to add on to this attraction. An elevated walkway, called the Fort Siloso skywalk, was opened in 2015, giving visitors an aerial view of the fort and its surrounding foliage.
 * Hydrodash Sentosa is Singapore's first inflatable water park located at Palawan Beach, officially opened in 2020. It is made up of 4 zones, zone 1 being kid's friendly – for kids between 5–8 years old, and zone 2-4 for adults.
 * Mega Adventure Park, located at the top of Mount Imbiah, is Singapore's first adventure park with one of the longest and steepest zip wires in Asia (MegaZip), a 3-level, 40 feet-high aerial rope course (ClimbMax), a 50-foot high free fall simulator (ParaJump) and a challenging 16-metre-high rock climbing wall (NorthFace). At over 450 metres long and 72 metres above sea level, MegaZip is Asia's most extreme zip line. Guests descend at speeds of up to 50 km/h from the jungle canopy of Imbiah Hill to the sands of Fox Finishing Point at Siloso Beach. This attraction was visited on the sixteenth season of the American reality show, The Amazing Race.
 * Madame Tussauds Singapore is part of the worldwide Madame Tussauds chain of wax attractions and is situated at Imbiah Lookout. It connects to Images of Singapore, a historical museum that exhibited the culture and history of Singapore. After the opening of Madame Tussauds, Images of Singapore was turned into a live show. Images of Singapore and Madame Tussauds Singapore has eight fully themed interactive zones, a new "Spirit of Singapore" boat ride, and the Madame Tussauds wax museum zone. Madamme Tussauds Singapore also has frequent wax displays on tour, including One Direction and the Marvel Avengers showcase. It has also recently added a Marvel Comics 4D cinema and a Formula One race car simulation to its full experience.
 * Wave House Sentosa is located at Siloso Beach. The 70000 sqft Wave House consists of the Double FlowRider and the 10 ft FlowBarrel, Singapore's first artificial barreling wave.
 * The Skyline Luge & Skyride features a self-steering, gravity-driven three-wheel cart. Invented in New Zealand over 27 years ago, this non-motorised cart allows riders to speed down a hill choosing among the 688-metre-long Dragon trail, the 628-metre-long Jungle trail, the 658-metre-long Expedition trail, or the newly opened 638-metre-long Kupu Kupu trail, all ending at Siloso Beach. At the foot of the hill, guests can board one of two Skyrides, a chairlift which affords a bird's-eye view of Sentosa Island, the Singapore city skyline and the South China Sea. The Luge has extended operations to include night rides.
 * iFly Singapore - Measuring 16.5 feet in diameter with a flying height of 56.5 feet, iFly Singapore is the world's largest themed vertical wind tunnel.
 * Sentosa Nature Discovery features interactive and colourful exhibits as well as a 1.8 km-long nature walk on an elevated boardwalk that was once the monorail's tracks.
 * AJ Hackett Sentosa opened in 2018 at Siloso Beach. It features Singapore's first bungy jump, as well as a giant swing and a vertical wall for extreme sports, and a skybridge for leisure viewing of the Sentosa beachfront.
 * Headrock VR opened in late 2018 as Singapore's first virtual reality theme park. It is located at Resorts World Sentosa.
 * KidZania Singapore opened in 2016 at Palawan Beach, as an interactive indoor theme park for children aged 4 to 17, part of the international indoor chain of family entertainment centers, Kidzania. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, KidZania Singapore was closed until May 16, 2024, when it reopened after a few months of renovations.

Defunct attractions

 * A section of Imbiah Lookout closed down on 27 March 2007 to make way for Resorts World Sentosa. Some of the attractions listed here may have closed down earlier.
 * Sijori Wondergolf was a miniature golf park. There were 54 landscaped greens set in three different 18-hole courses. It eventually went under redevelopment.
 * Fantasy Island was a water-based theme park. Opened in 1994 at a cost of S$54 million, it had numerous water slides and other features. It was plagued by several accidents that resulted in several people getting injured as well as two fatalities. All these accidents led to the eventual closure of the attraction on 2 November 2002.
 * Adventure Asia Park, adjacent to Fantasy Island, was a separate gated attraction housed within the Asian Village-themed area. The park closed permanently before 1998.
 * Sentosa Monorail circled the western half of Sentosa until it closed in March 2005. Most of the island monorail was dismantled though several of the stations were repurposed for other uses and parts of the original track structure still remain and some of them reused. The monorail was replaced by the three internal bus lines and the current Sentosa Express, which operates from the main island of Singapore to Sentosa.
 * Volcanoland featured an artificial volcano along with Mayan motifs and scenery. It was closed down to make way for the new integrated resort, Resorts World Sentosa
 * Sentosa Musical Fountain, opened in 1982, underwent three extensive renovations in 1992 (upgrading project) and 1999 (major restoration and upgrading). In 2002, Yves Pépin who also designed Songs of the Sea and Wings of Time created a new musical fountain show named Magical Sentosa Show which lasted for 5 years, from 2002 to 2007. The fountain itself eventually shut down on 25 March 2007 to make way for the Resorts World Sentosa.
 * Sentosa Ferry Terminal opened in 1973, and was the first cruise center in the region. For some time it was a popular attraction which ferried 9 million passengers to and from Sentosa, but passenger traffic started to decline steadily after 1998 when cars were allowed into the island for the first time. The Ferry Terminal Monorail Station of the now-defunct Sentosa Monorail once connected tourists to the western half of the island, but it no longer does after the station closed in 2005. The ferry terminal itself was demolished along with the Sentosa Musical Fountain and the Fountain Gardens that connected the terminal to the musical fountain in 2007 to make way for Resorts World Sentosa which would occupy the area. The demolition was watched by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the media, and the general public.
 * Asian Village Opened in 1993, Asian Village closed in 2000.
 * Underwater World was an oceanarium. Opened on 13 May 1991, the Underwater World closed on 26 June 2016.
 * Tiger Sky Tower (previously known as the Carlsberg Sky Tower) was a free-standing observation tower. At a height of 110 m above ground and 131 m above sea level, it offers a panoramic view of Sentosa, Singapore, and the Southern Islands. It has a lifting speed of 1.2 meters per second and weighs 200 metric tonnes. On a clear day, the view extends to parts of Malaysia, Johor Bahru (30 km / 18 miles), Indonesia, Pulau Bintan (45 km / 28 miles) and Pulau Bintan (43 km / 27 miles). At ground level, visitors enter a large disc-shaped air-conditioned cabin fitted with glass windows all around. The cabin then revolves slowly as it ascends the column of the tower. The cabin has a capacity of 72 visitors. The Sky Tower sits at the very spot of what was formerly known as the Dragon Court. It had a dragon statue as the centerpiece with water spouting from its mouth. In one of its claws, it held a previous logo of Sentosa which was used in the early 1980s. Its tail ended at the Dragon Trail in the northern part of Imbiah Lookout. The statue was demolished a few months before the groundbreaking ceremony of the Sky Tower. The Sky Tower was officially opened on 7 February 2004, is situated in the Imbiah Lookout zone in the center of Sentosa and can be reached by Cable Car, Sentosa Luge Chair Lift, the Sentosa Express or by an internal bus. Tiger Sky Tower closed on 28 December 2018 after three breakdowns occurred; it was dismantled shortly afterwards.
 * Sentosa Merlion was a gigantic 37-meter-tall replica of the Merlion which was completed in 1995, housing two viewing galleries and a souvenir shop. The Merlion statue once played a role in the Rise of the Merlion, Spirits of Sentosa, and Magical Sentosa show, since the show was discontinued in March 2007 to make way for Resorts World Sentosa, The laser from the Merlion Eye never used again. The Sentosa Merlion closed on 20 October 2019 with the four shops closing from the next day, making way for a S$90 million Sentosa Sensoryscape project to be completed by 2022.

Beaches
Sentosa has a stretch of sheltered beach of more than 2 km on its southern coast, divided into three portions: Palawan Beach, Siloso Beach and Tanjong Beach. These beaches are artificial, reclaimed using sand bought from Indonesia and Malaysia. They are guarded by a beach patrol lifeguard team who are easily identified by their red and yellow uniforms.
 * Palawan Beach lies in the centre of the southern coast of Sentosa. There is a suspension bridge that leads to a small islet off the coast which is said to be the southernmost point of continental Asia, or Asia's closest point to the Equator. The attractions Kidzania Singapore, MOSH! and the Port of Lost Wonder are located at Palawan Beach. There are several bars along the beach offering food and beverage options to visitors as well as Beach Station of the Sentosa Express. Palawan Beach was once served by Central Beach Monorail Station, but this station closed in 2005.
 * Siloso Beach lies on the west portion of the southern coast and it is known as the place for beach volleyball and other outdoor activities such as canoeing, skimboarding, mountain biking and rollerblading. There are also dining and shopping outlets along the beach. The beach underwent a SGD$3 million facelift in December 2012. The Rasa Sentosa Resort is located at the western end of Siloso Beach, along with the Siloso Beach Resort and the Costa Sands Resort Sentosa. It is the location of attractions like AJ Hackett Sentosa, Wavehouse, iFly Singapore, and Wings of Time.
 * Tanjong Beach is located on the relatively more secluded eastern part of the coast. The crescent-shaped beach is sometimes used for special events or parties. The Tanjong Beach Club is now the main draw on Tanjong Beach.

Other facilities
The Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) newest fire station officially commenced operations on the island of Sentosa at 8am on Monday (6 June 2016). Sentosa Fire Station, which is located at 37 Artillery Avenue, has a fleet of five emergency vehicles: two fire engines, a fire bike, an ambulance and an aerial firefighting and rescue support vehicle. It is strategically placed to provide emergency services within the island and the immediate vicinity such as the HarbourFront and Telok Blangah areas.

Hotels
There are several hotels and resorts in Sentosa (excluding Resorts World Sentosa accommodations):
 * Amara Sanctuary Resort Sentosa has five-star hotel facilities, and 140 guest rooms, suites, villas and mansion to offer.
 * Capella Singapore is a luxury resort situated on 30-acres of lush grounds and gardens. It has 112 manors, suites and guestrooms designed by Norman, Lord Foster. It is developed by Pontiac Land. It was officially opened in March 2009. Capella Singapore's long-stay accommodation arm, The Club at Capella Singapore features 81 serviced apartments, penthouses and manors. The hotel was the venue for the 2018 North Korea–United States summit between US president Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un on 12 June 2018.
 * Costa Sands Resort operates a number of chalets and 15 kampung-like huts. It is located on a hill overlooking Siloso Beach.
 * Oasia Resort Sentosa is a 191-room resort and spa located at the former Le Meridien Hotel and Spa. The resort opened in the second quarter of 2021.
 * Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort, Singapore is a beachfront five-star hotel located at the western tip of Siloso beach, with 454 rooms and suites.
 * Siloso Beach Resort opened in July 2006. It has 172 rooms, 10 family suites, 1 treehouse and 12 Villas overlooking the sea. In line with ecologically friendly carbon credit practices, over 600 of the original trees that are native to Sentosa island were preserved. 1000 more fruit trees, flowering plants, exotic ferns, and herbs were planted. The architecture of the resort was purposely structured to circumnavigate and protect these trees.
 * The Barracks Hotel Sentosa is a 40-room luxury resort housed in a conserved colonial building.
 * The Outpost Hotel Night Club Sentosa is a 193-room dance resort.
 * Sofitel Singapore Sentosa Resort & Spa (known as The Sentosa Resort & Spa till 2015 ) is a five-star hotel with 214 rooms and suites.
 * Village Hotel Sentosa is a 606-room hotel and is the flagship property of the Village hotel brand.
 * W Singapore - Sentosa Cove is a 240-room five star luxury resort hotel well known for providing a variety of services & facilities including the popular Whatever/Whenever service. The property is connected to a 228 unit residential complex (W Residences) located at Quayside Isle - inaugurated in September 2012.

In addition, there are six hotels in Resorts World Sentosa:
 * Crockfords Tower is an exclusive all-suite hotel.
 * Hotel Michael designs its rooms in the style of a gallery, with mural-adorned walls and artistic furnishing.
 * Hard Rock Hotel Singapore
 * Festive Hotel
 * Equarius Hotel
 * Spa Villas

Spa

 * Fish Reflexology is a foot massage where Turkish spa fish or African spa fish nibble on the dead skin of one's feet, making the skin smooth. This is followed by a reflexology session. This is available in the Underwater World.
 * Spa Botanica is set in the Sentosa Resort & Spa. It has facilities including mud pools and Turkish-styled steam baths.

Events

 * 2018 North Korea–United States summit: Capella Singapore in Sentosa island was used for the 2018 North Korea–United States summit during 10 to 13 June 2018. Singapore announced the several locations related to the Trump-Kim summit would be designated as "Special event areas" and secured by both leaders' own personal security teams and elite Singaporean police.
 * Barclays Singapore Open was held yearly at the Sentosa Golf Club's Serapong Course from 2006 to 2012. The event was co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour and the European Tour. In 2013, the Sentosa Golf Club began hosting the annual HSBC Women's Champions golf tournament, played at the Serapong Course until 2016 and since 2017 at the Tanjong Course.
 * Sentosa Balloon Hat Festival began in 2004. It is a gathering of local secondary school bands who would do display marches from Tanjong Beach to Palawan Beach before a mass display event. The participants would wear balloon hats made by themselves and each school comes up with their own unique design. At the end of the event, all the students would pop their balloons followed by the release of a large number of balloons into the air. The event began as part of an attempt to create the world record for the gathering of the largest number of balloon hats. It was discontinued after 2006.
 * Beach parties: Hed Kandi, a dance music label owned by Ministry of Sound, began a monthly dance party on Siloso Beach in 2011, drawing over 14,000 visitors over a seven-month span. The Hed Kandi events and Ministry of Sound events are produced by SEAM in Singapore. The Siloso Beach in Sentosa is host to the annual ZoukOut beach dance party organised by Zouk nightclub. On 10 December 2005, some 18,000 people attended the event. A New Year's Eve party, Siloso NYE Splash (later rebranded as Siloso Beach Party), is also held annually at Siloso Beach. On 31 December 2005, the party attracted some 15,000 people.
 * Sentosa Flowers: Running from 2005 to 2013, the annual Sentosa Flowers event showcased rare and special blooms unique to the spring season. The event, which coincided with the Chinese New Year or "Spring Festival" celebration in Singapore, hosted other activities including mural painting and photography competitions and a festival market for gardening enthusiasts.
 * The Swatch FIVB World Tour 2007 for beach volleyball was held on 24–27 May 2007 at Siloso Beach. This was the first ever Women's World Tour event and was the biggest-ever beach lifestyle event hosted on the island. This was also the first time Olympic-level athletes competed on Singapore soil for Beach Volleyball.
 * Experience Mars was held on 12 and 13 November at Palawan Beach as part of National Geographic's promotion of its six-part TV series "MARS".
 * Sandsation was held at Siloso Beach on 1–17 September 2017.Sandsation-6Sep17.jpg
 * Peroni Sunset Cinema is a seasonal open air cinema held at the beachfront. It offers audiences the opportunity to watch films on headsets in a silent environment in deck chair seating. The movies are accompanied with DJ's before the films start, sunset drinks and coastal cuisine.

Resorts World Sentosa
This is a family-oriented Integrated Resort with a casino at its core. A resort developer and operator was chosen on 8 December 2006. The winning proposal was the Genting/Star Cruises consortium in their bid for Resorts World Sentosa. It has a Universal Studios Theme Park (known as Universal Studios Singapore) which occupies nearly half of the resort space. Development of the resort was financed privately at a cost of $SGD5.75 billion and it does not receive any government subsidies. The proposal for a casino was met with extensive opposition from many conservative critics. Nevertheless, the government has constantly reassured the public that there would be stringent measures in place to maintain the social fabric of the nation Singapore, and to prevent problems such as gambling addiction. It is also home to several celebrity chef restaurants, including Joël Robuchon, and the Ocean Restaurant by Cat Cora, which faces the open ocean display of the S.E.A. Aquarium.

The Adventure Cove waterpark offers water rides (including the Southeast Asia's first hydro wet coaster), and marine experiences like swimming with dolphins, sharks, manta rays, as well as snorkeling in an artificial reef.

It also has a concert venue known as the Hard Rock Colosseum, which has played host to musical acts like Of Monsters and Men, Jimmy Eat World and Bastille.

On 14 February 2010 at exactly 12:18 p.m., which was also the first day of the Chinese New Year, Resorts World Sentosa was opened to the public. In Cantonese, "1218" sounds like "prosperity", hence the opening time. The resort's main attractions include Universal Studios Singapore, Adventure Cove water park, S.E.A. Aquarium, the Maritime Experiential Museum, The Royal Albatross and the Trick Eye Museum Singapore.

In 2019, Resorts World Sentosa is listed as a winner in TripZilla Excellence Award

Sustainability
Sentosa Development Corporation (SDC) has developed a sustainability plan to safeguard the environment and to conserve Sentosa's heritage assets. In fact, many parts of Sentosa still retain her original tranquil and lush environment - driven by the corporation's land-use policy of maintaining 60% of the island as green and open spaces (natural area reduced to about 25% by 2014).

Efforts are made to raise awareness among both visitors and staff of the island regarding environmental issues and sustainable tourism. This is done via regular campaigns and educational talks.

Key sustainability-related achievements include:

 * Sentosa was shortlisted as a Sustainable Tourism Destination finalist in the World Travel and Tourism Council's "Tourism for Tomorrow" Awards in 2013.
 * The island is home to some 30 heritage trees (listed in the National Parks Board's Heritage Tree Register ) and over 20 conserved colonial buildings, some of which date back to the 1800s.
 * Singapore's only fully restored coastal military fort, Fort Siloso.
 * Several Green Mark-certified buildings such as Sentosa Cove Village, Sentosa Family Entertainment Centre, W Hotel, and Resorts World Sentosa. The Green Mark is awarded by Singapore's Building and Construction Authority to buildings that fulfill specific environmentally friendly criteria.
 * An eco-hotel, Siloso Beach Resort.
 * Developing the Sentosa Boardwalk, which is a covered pedestrian walkway with various sustainability features, to connect the island with the Singapore mainland. Guests are encouraged to use the Boardwalk to enter and exit Sentosa as it leaves a minimal carbon footprint.
 * Partnering with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) to testbed Singapore's first low-flow tidal turbine at the Sentosa Boardwalk.
 * Community-giving initiatives such as an annual "Sentosa Gives" initiative in September, which sees more than 1,500 children, teenagers and seniors from the participating voluntary welfare organizations, schools and charities benefiting from the many activities planned for them. The corporation also offers island entry concessions to charity groups throughout the year.

title: Sentosa


text:
Cape Juby

Cape Juby (رأس جوبي, trans. Raʾs Juby, Cabo Juby) is a cape on the coast of southern Morocco, near the border with Western Sahara, directly east of the Canary Islands.

Its surrounding area, including the cities of Tarfaya and Tan-Tan, is called the Cape Juby Strip (after the homonymous cape), the Tarfaya Strip (after the homonymous city) or the Tekna Zone (after the Tekna, the native Saharawi tribe). The region is presently the far south of internationally recognized Morocco, and makes up a semi-desert buffer zone between Morocco proper at the Draa River and Western Sahara. The strip was under Spanish rule during much of the 20th century, officially as part of the Spanish protectorate in Morocco, but mainly administered alongside Saguía el-Hamra and Río de Oro as part of Spanish Sahara, with which the Strip had closer cultural and historical links.

Precolonial era
On 28 May 1767, Mohammed ben Abdallah, the Sultan of Morocco, signed a peace and commerce treaty with King Charles III of Spain. In the treaty, Morocco was unable to guarantee the security of Spanish fishermen along the coasts south of the Noun River, as Morocco did not have control over the Tekna tribes of that area (Art. 18).

On 1 March 1799, Sultan Slimane signed an accord with King Charles IV of Spain, in which he recognized that the Saguia el Hamra and Cape Juby regions were not part of his dominions (Art. 22).

In 1879, the British North West Africa Company established a trading post near Cape Juby called "Port Victoria". On 26 March 1888, Moroccan soldiers attacked the post, killing the director of the post and leaving two workers badly injured. In 1895, the company sold its post to the Sultan of Morocco.

Spanish protectorate

In 1912, Spain negotiated with France (which controlled the affairs of Morocco at the time) for concessions on the southern coast of Morocco. Francisco Bens officially occupied the Cape Juby region for Spain on 29 July 1916. It was administered by Spain as a single entity with Spanish Sahara and the Ifni enclave, as Spanish West Africa.

The Spanish area comprised 12700 sqmi and had a population of 9,836. Its main town was founded by the Spanish as Villa Bens (now called Tarfaya). Villa Bens was used as a staging post for airmail flights.

Retrocession to Morocco
When Morocco regained full independence in 1956, it requested the cession of officially Moroccan areas controlled by Spain. After some resistance and some fighting during 1957 (the Ifni War), the Spanish government in 1958 ceded the Cape Juby Strip to Morocco.

Sahara sea
In 1877, the Scottish engineer Donald Mackenzie was the first to propose the creation of a Sahara Sea. Mackenzie's idea was to cut a channel from one of the sand-barred lagoons north of Cape Juby south to a large plain which Arab traders had identified to him as El Djouf. Mackenzie believed this vast region was up to 61 m below sea level and that flooding it would create an inland sea of 155400 km2 suited to commercial navigation and even agriculture. He further believed that geological evidence suggested this basin had once been connected to the Atlantic via a channel near the Saguia el-Hamra. He proposed that this inland sea, if augmented with a canal, could provide access to the Niger River and the markets and rich resources of West Africa. There are several small depressions in the vicinity of Cape Juby; at 55 m below sea level, the Sebkha Tah is the lowest and largest. But it covers less than 250 km2 and is 500 km north of the geographical area identified as El Djouf (also known as the Majabat al-Koubra ) which has an average elevation of 320 m. Mackenzie never travelled in this area but had read of other sub-sea level desert basins in present-day Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt similar to those found near Cape Juby. These basins contain seasonally dry salt lakes, known as chotts or sebkhas. Egypt's Qattara Depression is perhaps the largest such basin in North Africa.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Cape Juby


text:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard

Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970.

Education and field work
Evans-Pritchard was educated at Winchester College and studied history at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was influenced by R. R. Marett, and then as a postgraduate at the London School of Economics (LSE). His doctoral thesis (1928) was titled "The social organization of the Azande of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan".

At Oxford, he was part of the Hypocrites' Club. At LSE, he came under the influence of Bronisław Malinowski and especially Charles Gabriel Seligman, the founding ethnographer of the Sudan. His first fieldwork began in 1926 with the Azande, a people of the upper Nile, and resulted in both a doctorate (in 1927) and his classic Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (1937). Evans-Pritchard continued to lecture at the LSE and conduct research in Azande and Bongo land until 1930, when he began a new research project among the Nuer.

This work coincided with his appointment to the University of Cairo in 1932, where he gave a series of lectures on religion that bore Seligman's influence. After his return to Oxford, he continued his research on Nuer. It was during this period that he first met Meyer Fortes and A. R. Radcliffe-Brown. Evans-Pritchard began developing Radcliffe-Brown's program of structural-functionalism. As a result, his trilogy of works on the Nuer (The Nuer (1940), Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer (1951), and Nuer Religion (1956)) and the volume he coedited with Meyer Fortes entitled African Political Systems (1940) came to be seen as classics of British social anthropology. Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande is the first major anthropological contribution to the sociology of knowledge through its neutral — some would say "relativist" — stance on the "correctness" of Zande beliefs about causation. His work focused in on a known psychological effect known as psychological attribution. Evans-Pritchard recorded the tendencies of Azandes to blame or attribute witchcraft as the cause of various mis-happenings. The most notable of these issues involved the deaths of eight Azande people due to the collapse of a termite infested door frame. Evans-Pritchard's empirical work in this vein became well known through philosophy of science and "rationality" debates of the 1960s and 1970s involving Thomas Kuhn and especially Paul Feyerabend.

During the Second World War Evans-Pritchard served in Ethiopia, Libya, Sudan, and Syria. In Sudan he raised irregular troops among the Anuak to harass the Italians and engaged in guerrilla warfare. In 1942, he was posted to the British Military Administration of Cyrenaica in North Africa, and it was on the basis of his experience there that he produced The Sanusi of Cyrenaica. In documenting local resistance to Italian conquest, he became one of a few English-language authors to write about the tariqa.

After a brief stint in Cambridge, Evans-Pritchard became professor of social anthropology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of All Souls College. He remained at All Souls College for the rest of his career. Among the doctoral students he advised was the late M. N. Srinivas, the doyen among India's sociologists who coined some of the key concepts in Indian sociological discourse, including "Sanskritization", "dominant caste" and "vote bank." One of his students was Talal Asad, who now teaches at the City University of New York. Mary Douglas's classic Purity and Danger on pollutions and uncertainty — what we often denote as 'risk' — was fundamentally influenced by Evans-Pritchard's views on how accusations, blame and responsibility are deployed though culturally specific conceptions of misfortune and harm.

Later theories
Evans-Pritchard's later work was more theoretical, drawing upon his experiences as an anthropologist to philosophize on the nature of anthropology and how it should best be practiced. In 1950, he famously disavowed the commonly held view that anthropology was a natural science, arguing instead that it should be grouped amongst the humanities, especially history. He argued that the main issue facing anthropologists was one of translation—finding a way to translate one's own thoughts into the world of another culture and thus manage to come to understand it, and then to translate this understanding back so as to explain it to people of one's own culture.

In 1965, he published the highly influential work Theories of Primitive Religion, arguing against the existing theories of what at the time were called "primitive" religious practices. Arguing along the lines of his theoretical work of the 1950s, he claimed that anthropologists rarely succeeded in entering the minds of the people they studied, and so ascribed to them motivations which more closely matched themselves and their own culture, not the one they were studying. He also argued that believers and non-believers approached the study of religion in vastly different ways, with non-believers being quicker to come up with biological, sociological, or psychological theories to explain religion as an illusion, and believers being more likely to come up with theories explaining religion as a method of conceptualizing and relating to reality.

Life and family
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was born in Crowborough, East Sussex, England, the son of an Anglican cleric. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1944.

Known to his friends and family as "EP", Evans-Pritchard had five children with his wife Ioma, including journalist Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, another writer and film festival director Deirdre Evans-Pritchard and Shineen Galloway, founder of EPG Computer Services. Some notable grandchildren are Ruth Galloway of the Midieval Babes choral group and Suriya Jayanti, a diplomat and journalist and documentary filmmaker Hannah Jayanti.

Evans-Pritchard died in Oxford on 11 September 1973.

Honours
A Rivers Memorial Medal recipient (1937) and of the Huxley Memorial Medal (1963) he was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland from 1949 to 1951. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1958 and the American Philosophical Society in 1968. Evans-Pritchard was knighted in 1971. A number of Festschriften were prepared for him:
 * Essays in Sudan Ethnography: presented to Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard
 * The Translation of Culture: Essays to E. E. Evans-Pritchard (London: Tavistock, 1973)
 * Studies in Social Anthropology: Essays in Memory of E. E. Evans-Pritchard by His Former Oxford Colleagues (eds. J. H. M. Beattie and R. G. Lienhardt; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975)

title: E. E. Evans-Pritchard


text:
Launceston, Tasmania

Launceston ( or ) is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia, at the confluence of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River (kanamaluka). As of 2021, the Launceston urban area has a population of 90,953. Launceston is the second most populous city in Tasmania after the state capital, Hobart. Launceston is the fifth-largest inland city and the ninth-largest non-capital city in Australia. Launceston is regarded as the most livable regional city, and was one of the most popular regional cities to move to in Australia from 2020 to 2021. Launceston was named Australian Town of the Year in 2022.

Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia's oldest cities and it has many historic buildings. Like many places in Australia, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom – in this case, Launceston, Cornwall. Launceston also had the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, it was the first Australian city to have underground sewers, and it was the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity. The city has a maritime climate with four distinct seasons and is appreciably warmer than the south of the island during summer. Local government is split between the City of Launceston, Meander Valley and West Tamar Councils.

History

The first inhabitants of the area of Launceston were largely nomadic Aboriginal Tasmanians believed to have been part of the Northern Midlands Nations. Three Nations made up the area around so called Launceston, the Stoney Creek Nation, Tyerenotepanner; Panninher and Lettermairrener.

The first white explorers did not arrive until 1798, when George Bass and Matthew Flinders were sent to explore the possibility that there was a strait between Australia and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). They originally landed in Port Dalrymple (the mouth of the Tamar River), 40 km to the north-west of Launceston.

The first significant colonial settlement in the region dates from 1804, when the commandant of the colonial garrison. Lt. Col. William Paterson, and his men set up a camp on the current site of George Town. A few weeks later, the settlement was moved across the river to York Town, and a year later was moved to its definitive position where Launceston stands.

Initially, the settlement was called Patersonia; however, Paterson later changed the name to Launceston in honour of the New South Wales Governor Captain Philip Gidley King, who was born in Launceston, Cornwall. The name still survives in the tiny hamlet of Patersonia 18 km north-east of Launceston. Paterson himself also served as Lieutenant-Governor of northern Van Diemen's Land from 1804 to 1808.

The geographical area in which Launceston is now located was previously occupied by the Aboriginal Tasmanian Letteremairrener people. The Letteremairrener country encompasses most of the Tamar Valley region. In 1804, reports from early European voyagers describe a number of Letteremairrener camps, consisting of up to ten bark huts located on either side of the Tamar River. Extensive archeological evidence suggests that occupation and usage of the Tamar basin can be dated from at least 7,000 years ago, although it was likely used as long as 35,000 years ago. The Letteremairrener, as seasonal hunter-gatherers, spent the winter months near George Town and the summer months residing on Ben Lomond, before returning to the banks of the Tamar River for the mutton-bird season. Campbell Macknight characterizes early colonial contact with the Letteremairrener people as a mixture of fear, curiosity and aggression. After several aggressive encounters prompted by bands of Letteremairrener in 1806, most likely as revenge for the colonists trespassing and hunting on their land without permission, Colonel William Patterson, in charge of the new settlement in Launceston, led a series of putative skirmishes that were ostensibly continued by colonists until 1831. These conflicts intensified from 1827 until 1831 during the period of the Black War, with genocidal expeditions occurring within the Letteremairrener country and neighbouring areas.

By 1827, Launceston's population had climbed to 2,000 and the town had become an export centre, mainly for the colony's northern pastoral industry. Small hotels and breweries began to emerge in the 1820s before larger, more "substantial" hotels were built in the 1830s. Sporting groups, political groups, churches and schools were often established in these hotels; however, they also hosted plays, musical soirees and readings, until theatres were built.

Ships from Launceston carried parties of sealers to the islands of Bass Strait early in the 19th century. They also took whalers to the coast of Victoria in the 1820s and 1830s where they established temporary bay whaling stations. Some of these temporary communities, such as the ones at Portland Bay and Port Fairy, were the forerunner of permanent settlement of those places. Expeditions from Launceston were involved in the Foundation of Melbourne.

Walter George Arthur, who petitioned Queen Victoria in 1847 while interned with other Aboriginal Tasmanians on Flinders Island, lived for several years in Launceston as one of numerous homeless children, before being taken into custody by George Augustus Robinson who sent him to the Boys' Orphan School in Hobart in 1832.

Newer popular team sports such as cricket and football failed to be sustained in Launceston before the population grew substantially. The sports were initially middle class recreations, as the working class found it difficult to participate after a six-day working week. Nevertheless, a "demand for facilities" led to the upgrade of the Northern Tasmanian Cricket Association Ground (NTCA Ground) among other sporting facilities in the 1860s. Not long beforehand, Tasmania played Victoria in Australia's first first-class cricket match at the NTCA Ground in 1851.

Tin was discovered at Mount Bischoff in 1871 in north-western Tasmania, starting a minerals boom. Gold mining commenced about 50 km away in Beaconsfield in 1877. During the following two decades Launceston grew from a small town into an urban centre. In 1889, Launceston was the second town in Tasmania to be declared a city, after state capital Hobart. During the late 1880s a small periodical called Launceston Literary contained stories as well as memoirs of the pioneering days of the region. The publication was distributed from a store in the northern end of the town, and while largely forgotten today, was at the time considered relatively popular, if at times controversial.

Population
According to the 2021 census the population of Launceston is 76,849. Launceston is the 21st most populous city in Australia.
 * Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people made up 3.5% of the population.
 * 79.2% of people were born in Australia. The next most common countries of birth were England 2.9%, Nepal 1.6%, India 1.5%, China 0.9% and New Zealand 0.8%.
 * 85.1% of people spoke only English at home. Other languages spoken at home included Nepali 2.3%, Mandarin 1.2%, Punjabi 0.5%, Urdu 0.4% and Vietnamese 0.3%.
 * The most common responses for religion were No Religion 47.9%, Anglican 13.8% and Catholic 12.1%.

City of Gastronomy
Launceston's designation as a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2021 signifies global acknowledgment of this gastronomic paradise. While this recognition affirms Tasmania's stature on the world stage, it also underscores the regional zeal for gastronomy. Over the last decade, there has been a noticeable surge in the number of producers and entrepreneurs delving into the world of gastronomy, ranging from gin, whisky, truffles, and wasabi, to hemp, snap frozen fruit, and wagyu beef.

Geography
Launceston is at -41.44194°N, 147.145°W in the Tamar Valley, Northern Tasmania. The valley was formed by volcanic and glacial forces over 10 million years ago. The city is about 45 km south of the Bass Strait, with its closest neighbour-city being Devonport, about 99 km to the north west. Launceston combines steep (originally heavily wooded) ridges and low-lying areas (originally wetlands – with parts of the suburbs of Inveresk and Invermay below high-tide level). As a result, areas of Launceston are subject to landslip problems, while others are liable to poor drainage and periodic flooding. The topography of the area is not conducive to easy dispersion of airborne pollution, due to the phenomenon of thermal inversion.

During recent years the city's air quality has improved. Studies indicate that 73% percent of air pollution in Launceston and surrounding areas during the winter period is caused by wood smoke, while about 8% is from motor vehicle pollution. During the early 1990s about 60% of households used wood heaters, but since the mid-2000s only 25–30% of households use wood heating. According to the 2011 Tasmanian Air Monitoring report, particulate matter met the Air NEPM goals starting in 2006, and did not exceed the PM10 standard in the years 2009–2011.

Launceston is situated at the confluence of the South Esk River and the North Esk River, forming the Tamar River estuary. It is used for commercial and recreational shipping and boating. In earlier years, oceangoing shipping used the river to obtain access to the Port of Launceston wharves located in the city centre and Invermay. The Port for Launceston is now located at the George Town suburb of Bell Bay, some 40 km downstream on the east bank of the Tamar estuary, close to the river mouth. The South Esk River is the longest river in Tasmania. It starts in the North East Mountains near Roses Tier and flows through the Fingal Valley where it passes through the towns of Fingal and Avoca before flowing into the Northern Midlands where it flows through the towns of Evandale, Perth, Longford and Hadspen before finally reaching Launceston via the Cataract Gorge. The river is dammed at Lake Trevallyn on the upper reaches of the Cataract Gorge, with water being diverted into the Trevallyn Power Station with runoff flowing into the remainder of the Cataract Gorge and eventually merging with the Tamar River. The North Esk River starts in the Northallerton Valley in Tasmania's north-east mountains and winds its way to Launceston via the Corra Linn Gorge at White Hills. The St Patrick's River, the largest tributary of the North Esk, is dammed at Nunamara to provide the majority of Launceston's town water since the mid-1800s.

Flooding and levee system
Since the 1960s, parts of Launceston have been protected by a series of flood levees that reach up to 4 m in height as large portions of the suburbs Invermay and Newstead sit within a flood plain. The last major flood occurred in 1929 when Invermay was completely devastated. More than 4,000 people were left homeless after just one night of flooding. Since then, there have only been minor floods. Work was under way in 2011 on a $59 million flood levee upgrade that should protect the city from 1-in-200-year events, that was then expected to take five to six years to construct. The council had acquired land used by eighteen businesses on the south side of Lindsay Street in Invermay, with businesses having until July 2009 to leave. In 2016 the Tamar River flooded resulting in the widespread flooding of low lying suburbs. The St Leonards and West Tamar Highways were temporarily closed as water levels rose, causing significant disruption to the city and loss of livestock.

Climate
Launceston has an oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb), bordering on a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen: Csb), with mild to warm, somewhat dry summers and cool damp winters with chilly nights. The city is located in the Tamar Valley and is surrounded by many large hills and mountains. With this type of topography, Launceston's weather patterns can change considerably in a short period. The warmest months are in January and February with an average air temperature range of 12.2 to 24.4 °C. Throughout the year there is an average of 4.3 days a year over 30 °C. The maximum recorded temperature was 39 °C on 30 January 2009, with Launceston Airport reaching 40.4 °C on that same day, during the 2009 Southeastern Australia heat wave. The city averages 67.3 clear days and 148.8 cloudy days per annum.

Winters are cool with minimum temperatures dropping below 2 °C an average of 61 days a year. The coldest month is July, with an average temperature range of 2.2 to 12.5 °C. The lowest recorded minimum at Launceston's current weather station, Ti Tree Bend was -5.2 C on 21 July 1991. Launceston very rarely receives snowfall, with snow falling in 1951 and 1986, and again on 3 August 2015, when most of the state received snowfall due to a cold front moving up from Antarctica. On the night of 4 August 2020, Launceston received an inch of snow on the ground, with varying levels around the state.

Winter, for Launceston, is also the season with the least amount of wind. Because of this and the topographical effect of the Tamar Valley, Launceston winters are renowned for foggy mornings, with Launceston Airport the most fog-bound commercial airport in Australia. The average annual rainfall, with moderate to low variability, is 665 mm, falling on an average of 88.4 days a year. The most rain Ti Tree Bend has received in a year was 829.6 mm in 1992, though Launceston Airport received 953.1 mm in 1956. As in most of Tasmania 2006 was the driest year when just 394.8 mm fell.

The Bureau of Meteorology reported that 2007 was the warmest year ever recorded in Launceston since temperatures were first recorded in 1884. Temperatures ranged from a minimum of 8.1 C to a maximum of 19.2 C. During 2006 and 2007, Launceston had the hottest maxima throughout the state. In 2008, Launceston had the highest average maximum temperature out of all Tasmanian cities with 18.6 C.

Architecture
Many of the buildings in the city's central business district (CBD) were constructed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Launceston is a major location of Federation style housing. Launceston's many well preserved Victorian and Georgian buildings (including the Launceston synagogue, a rare example of architecture in Egyptian Revival style) together with its diverse collection of art-deco architecture (such as Holyman House and Lucks Corner in the CBD, the former Star Theatre in Invermay and the former Launceston General Hospital) give the city an unusual period ambience. 20th century examples of architecture that are part of the city include the Government offices of Henty House in Charles Street, the Police Station Building and the ANZ Building on the corner of Brisbane & George Street.

This is at least in part a matter of deliberate policy – concerns that high rise development might compromise the character of the city centre have led to strictly enforced building regulations that restrict the height of new structures in the city, so that most buildings in the CBD have fewer than five storeys.

Governance
Much of Launceston is contained within the City of Launceston local government area, although some outer suburbs are part of adjacent council districts: for instance Riverside, Legana and parts of Trevallyn are part of the West Tamar Council; Prospect Vale and Blackstone Heights are included in the Meander Valley Council.

Launceston City Council meetings are held in the Launceston Town Hall. The Mayor of the City of Launceston uses the honorific the Right Worshipful. In 2002, Janie Dickenson became the youngest female elected mayor in Australia. The current mayor is Matthew Garwood, elected in 2023. The first previous mayor, Albert Van Zetten, was initially elected in 2007, before being re-elected in 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2018. State Upper House seats that incorporate parts of Launceston are the Electoral Divisions of Paterson, Windermere and Rosevears. For federal elections, Launceston falls within the Division of Bass, with the sitting member being Bridget Archer for the Liberal Party of Australia, who won the seat in the 2019 election. The state Lower House seat is also called the Division of Bass, and is one of the five electorates in the Tasmanian House of Assembly. Both federal and state seats share common boundaries.

Flag
The Launceston flag design is based on the city's Coat of Arms granted by the College of Arms, Seoul on 11 June 1957. The Brisbane Street Mall, the War memorial at Royal Park, atop the Council Chambers and on top of the Albert Hall are places in the city where the flag is regularly flown. Flying the flag is restricted to Council Property. The three intersecting lines in the flag represent the city's three rivers (North Esk, South Esk and Tamar) and the two rectangles in the lines represent tin ingots. The strip across the top with the jagged edge is green to represent the city's parks, gardens and surrounding countryside. Waratah flowers at the top symbolise all flowers and similar beauties of nature. The ingots are included because Launceston used to be a large tin-smelting centre. The little circle at the river junction is Launceston.

Economy
Along with being a major retail centre with an average of 75% of market share in surrounding local councils, Launceston is a major service centre for the north of Tasmania. The city is home to a campus of the University of Tasmania including the Australian Maritime College and also has a minor minerals and manufacturing base.

Launceston is a major hub for the regional agricultural and pastoral activities. Historically, this has been connected with the growing of apples – in recent years the stress has moved to viticulture. Superfine wool remains an important part of the rural economy of north-east Tasmania and wool sales in Launceston attract many international buyers. The various agricultural industries in the district are supported by the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research which operates the Mount Pleasant Research Laboratories in the Launceston suburb of Prospect.

Tourism
Launceston serves as the commercial hub for the north of Tasmania, and like many parts of the state, is becoming a major tourist centre. Visitors to the city have grown over the past few years: during 2004 Launceston attracted 412,800 visitors, up 51% from 2001. The United Kingdom is the origin of 25% of all international visitors to the city and 17% originate from the United States. The Cataract Gorge is Launceston's largest tourist attraction and is in close proximity to the city centre. It is home to the longest single span chairlift in the world, stretching 308 m across the gorge. Launceston has many parks throughout the city including City Park, located next to the city centre. City Park is home to Albert Hall. The park also has a large enclosure for Japanese macaque monkeys, a gift from sister city Ikeda, Japan. The Launceston General Post Office is a heritage-listed building that dates back to the 1880s, with a clock tower added in the early twentieth century. The GPO clock chime chimes every quarter-hour, twenty-four hours a day. Tasmania Zoo, which is known for its wildlife conservation work, including a breeding program for Tasmanian devils, is located near the city.

Arts and entertainment
Launceston's Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery was established in 1891. Now the largest museum located outside a capital city in Australia, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is located at two sites across the city: the original purpose-built building at Royal Park and another at the Inveresk Cultural Precinct, on the grounds of the former railway station and rail yards in buildings largely converted from the former Railway Workshops. The precinct also includes the Launceston Tramway Museum, which houses the No. 29 tram, the 'Mary St' shelter shed and a host of other memorabilia. The state's largest preservation railway, the Don River Railway, also has a carriage rebuilding workshop on the site. Australia's oldest bookshop, A.W. Birchall & Sons (Birchalls) dating from November 1844, was closed in 2017

Located in the Southern Launceston suburb of Prospect, the Country Club Casino is a hotel, casino and golf course complex. It was the second casino to be built in Tasmania and one of the first in Australia. Launceston Aquatic, a $26.3 million regional aquatic centre was completed in July 2009. The site, just outside the central business district spans about 6450 m2.

From 1999 to 2003, Launceston was the site of three of the four Gone South music festivals. From 2006 to 2011, it hosted the MS Fest, a music festival held at the Inveresk Show grounds each summer to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research. This has since been replaced with the Breath of Life Festival from 2012 to 2014, a similar event held at the Inveresk show grounds to raise funds for lung cancer research.

Launceston is also the host of the Junction Arts Festival. The Junction Arts Festival was first held in 2010, and spans five days in the Launceston CBD each year. The Festival program changes each year, and includes various art forms, including music, dance, visual and interactive art, short films and live performances, from local, national and international artists.

Sport
Sport is a popular recreational and spectator activity in Launceston and like most of the state, cricket and Australian rules football are popular sports. The city has been the birthplace of two prominent Australian cricketers; the former Australian cricket captain Ricky Ponting and the retired cricketer and Australian selector David Boon. The first first-class cricket match played in Australia was at the Northern Tasmania Cricket Association Ground between the Melbourne Cricket Club and the Launceston Cricket Club in 1851.

Australian rules football is very popular in Launceston, and is often played at York Park (University of Tasmania Stadium). Holding 20,000 people—more than any other stadium in Tasmania—York Park was swampland before becoming Launceston's showgrounds in 1873. Hawthorn has played between two and five AFL matches each season since 2001, and the St Kilda Football Club played two games a year between 2003 and 2006. In 2007, the Tasmanian Government signed a A$16.4 million, five-year sponsorship deal with the Hawthorn Football Club, under which the club will play four regular season games and one National Australia Bank Cup pre-season match at the venue each year. Throughout its history, York Park has hosted major pop concerts and other entertainments. Since 2001 it has been a venue for international sports events, and in 2005 was redeveloped at a cost of $23.6 million. Association football (commonly known in Launceston as "soccer") is also played and watched in Launceston [York Park]—the only place in Tasmania to have hosted national league soccer matches. A National Soccer League game was held at Aurora Stadium in 2002 between Perth Glory and Melbourne Knights. A-League's Melbourne Victory have held a pre-season cup game at the venue each year since 2006. The record crowd is 8,061.

Launceston is not represented by an NRL Football Club or an AFL Football Club, though both sports have clubs playing at a local level.

Rugby league football is played in the region at junior level and senior level, the Launceston Warriors play in the Tasmanian Rugby League and were minor premiers in the 2012–2013 season.

Since 2004, the V8 Supercars (Tasmanian Challenge) has been annually held at the recently re-developed Symmons Plains Raceway, which is around 30 km south of Launceston. Marcos Ambrose, driver of the number 9 Richard Petty Motorsports car is most likely America's most notable Launceston native. A number of other sports have notable presence in Launceston, including basketball (men's, women's and indoor) and hockey. In 2009 Launceston redeveloped the city's swimming facilities which now include a modern indoor multimillion-dollar swimming centre at windmill hill, now named Launceston Aquatic.

The city co-hosted the basketball FIBA Oceania Championship 1975, where the Australian national basketball team won the gold medal.

Media
Launceston's local newspaper The Examiner was founded by James Aikenhead in 1842, and has been continually published ever since. The newspaper is currently owned by Nine Entertainment Co (Nine having merged with Fairfax Media in 2018). Another local media site is The Tasmanian Times.

Along with the rest of the state, the city has four free-to-air television stations, including two government funded channels from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and two commercial stations; (Southern Cross Seven (7HD) & WIN (9HD) These services are available in digital format as well as eleven digital-only stations, one carrying Network 10 programming (Tasmanian Digital Television (10 HD), and nationwide digital-only stations ABC TV Plus/ABC Kids, ABC ME and ABC News (on ABC), SBS Viceland, SBS Food and NITV (on SBS), 7two and 7mate (on SC Seven), 9Gem, 9Go! and 9Life (on WIN), and 10 Bold, 10 Peach and 10 Shake (on TDT).

Radio stations aired around Launceston are: LAFM and Chilli FM – part of the Grant Broadcasters radio network, TOTE Sport Radio – Racing Radio, Triple J – ABC, ABC Northern Tasmania – (ABC), ABC NewsRadio – (ABC), ABC Classic FM – (ABC), Radio National – (ABC), City Park Radio – Community Radio, SBS Radio – (SBS), Way FM – Christian Radio - LCFM Launceston colleges radio station and 7RPH which is a relay of 864 AM from Hobart.

Health
Launceston General Hospital is Launceston's 10-bed public hospital, located just south of the city centre. Every year, LGH treats over 24,000 inpatients and over 225,000 outpatients. St Lukes Private Hospital and St Vincent's Hospital are the major private facilities. Launceston was also the location of the first use of anaesthesia in the Southern Hemisphere. Launceston is also the hub for the state's medical retrieval service. The Royal Flying Doctor Service supplies an aircraft and pilots under contract to the state's ambulance service and the aircraft (a Beechcraft Super King Air) is staffed by Ambulance Tasmania's Intensive Care Paramedics and doctors from the Launceston General Hospital.

Education

 * University of Tasmania has its second largest campus in Launceston, based in Newnham. It is currently relocating a significant portion of its campus to Inveresk.
 * TasTAFE has two major operations in Launceston based at Alanvale and the Central Business District.

Road
The car is by far the most dominant form of transport in Launceston, with the city having 721 km of urban and rural roads, even though much of the CBD has narrow one-way streets. Since February 1998, Launceston has been serviced by the Tasmanian government-owned and operated public bus service Metro Tasmania. In addition, Redline Coaches offers school services and travels to many destinations across Tasmania.

Because of its central location, Launceston is the hub of five of the state's major highways. The Midland Highway is the primary route to Hobart. The Bass Highway is the primary route to Devonport and Burnie. The Tasman Highway is an alternate scenic route to Hobart via Scottsdale, the East Coast, the West Tamar Highway and East Tamar Highway.

Tram and rail network
Launceston operated a suburban tramway system between 1999 and 2012, which consisted of 29 trams. It was first conceived in 1909, after observations of efficiently working systems in Melbourne and Adelaide. A decade before the tram system was abandoned, Launceston had begun converting to trolleybuses, especially for the hilly routes. The Launceston trolleybus system was one of the most extensive of the various trolleybus systems in Australia. The tramway network was finally removed in 1952 to make way for cars and buses. A tramway museum in Inveresk is all that remains of Launceston's trams. Launceston's streets, most of which were planned in the early nineteenth century, were probably always too narrow for trams to be fully successful: in many cases little of the roadway remained for other forms of transport. The track gauge was 1067 mm.

A regional passenger rail system operated in Tasmania, of which Launceston was a major hub; however, after many years of gradual retrenchment it was closed in July 1978.

Former passenger railway lines servicing Launceston:
 * Launceston and Western Railway (1871–1873)
 * Launceston–Deloraine (1875–1978)
 * Launceston–Hobart (via Evandale) (1876–1978)
 * Launceston–Devonport (1885–1978)
 * Launceston–Burnie (1901–1978)

Airport
The city is served by the small curfew-free Launceston Airport, 15 km south-east of the city. The airport serves over one million passengers annually. Jetstar, QantasLink, Sharp Airlines and Virgin Australia operate scheduled services at the airport. As at November 2020, there are direct flights to and from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

There is a freight rail system in operation which links Launceston to Burnie, Hobart and Bell Bay.

Port
Launceston's port is located about 48 kilometers north on the Tamar River at Bell Bay. The Port of Bell Bay handles around 5,300,000 tons of domestic and international cargo each year, and has five piers for cruise and passenger ships. The port is adjacent to an industrial park that houses facilities for Temco, Sims Metal, BP Australia and Onesteel, among other companies. The Port of Bell Bay is part of a network of ports managed by the state-owned company TasPorts.

Utilities
Launceston's electricity is primarily generated by renewable hydro electric power plants including the Trevallyn Power Station which is supplied with water from Trevallyn Dam. The major retailer is Aurora Energy.

Historically, Launceston was powered by gas from the Launceston Gas Company, (later Gas Corporation of Tasmania). In 1988 it was sold to Boral. The first gas plant was built in 1860 as a horizontal retort Gas Works house made from brick and sandstone on the site's SW corner. This was followed by keepers cottages, labs, the Headquarters Building and the iconic 1930s vertical retort recognised by the wording "COOK WITH GAS" written in its brickwork. The Duck Reach Power Station replaced gas for street lighting when it was completed in 1895 (the first municipally owned power station in the Southern Hemisphere). Until the 1950s when Trevallyn Power Station was built, Duck Reach supplied Launceston with most of its power needs – it is now an interpretive historic site. The former Gas Works currently houses the Launceston Hogsbreath Cafe.

Launceston's water comes from the Launceston Water Catchment. The majority is sourced from St Patricks River, a tributary of the North Esk River which flows through Launceston. The main retailer is Ben Lomond Water. The first reticulated water supply constructed in 1857 still serves the CBD. There were fears that the Tamar Valley Pulp Mill might adversely affect Launceston's water supply.

Like many Australian cities, several major companies provide mobile telecommunications services and wireless internet services to Launceston. Launceston's communication infrastructure was upgraded in 1997 through the federal "Networking the Nation" program. Beginning in 2010, the National Broadband Network began installation of fire optic cables in Launceston. In 2016, Launceston became the first city in Tasmania to be fully connected to the NBN.

Sister cities
Launceston has three sister cities.

Notable people
Notable people from or who have lived in Launceston include:
 * Nathaniel Atkinson, footballer for Heart of Midlothian F.C.
 * Marcos Ambrose, NASCAR driver
 * Harold Napier Baker, Rural Dean of St John's Church
 * Simon Baker, actor
 * George Bailey, cricketer and Australian cricket selector
 * Lance Barnard, (1919–1997) former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia under Gough Whitlam
 * David Boon, cricketer
 * Harry Cooper, TV veterinarian
 * James Faulkner, cricketer
 * Sir Wilmot Hudson Fysh, Qantas founder
 * Daniel Ganderton, jockey
 * Daniel Geale, boxer
 * Belle Gibson, scam artist
 * Simon Hussey, songwriter and record producer
 * Tasman Jones, swimmer and diver
 * David Lambourne, judge
 * Alexander Tasman Marshall, Tasmanian MHA
 * Ray Martin, journalist
 * Cleo Massey, actress
 * Stewart McSweyn, distance runner
 * Ricky Ponting, cricketer
 * Richie Porte, professional cyclist
 * Bec Rawlings, boxer
 * Peter Sculthorpe, composer
 * Hattie Shepparde (1846 – 1874), actress and opera singer
 * Rachael Taylor, actress
 * Ariarne Titmus, Olympic champion swimmer
 * Frank Lee Woodward (1871–1952), Pali scholar, author and theosophist
 * John Youl, an early clergyman, St John's Church of England
 * Shane Yost, Championship Vert Skater

title: Launceston, Tasmania


text:
Wisconsin River

The Wisconsin River is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. At approximately 430 miles (692 km) long, it is the state's longest river. The river's name was first recorded in 1673 by Jacques Marquette as "Meskousing" from his Indian guides - most likely Miami for "river running through a red place."

Before roads into Wisconsin, the river was canoed, hunted and fished by Indians. Loggers used the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries to drive logs to their sawmills and the lower reaches to float rafts of sawn boards to markets as near as Portage and as far as St. Louis. Today dams along the river generate hydroelectric power and people fish, boat, water-ski and sight-see on the river.

Geography
The Wisconsin is the longest river in the state, arising at the Michigan border in the northeast and emptying into the Mississippi River far to the southwest near Prairie du Chien. It originates in the forests of the North Woods Lake District in Lac Vieux Desert on the border with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It flows south across the glacial plain of central Wisconsin, passing through Wausau, Stevens Point, and Wisconsin Rapids. In southern Wisconsin, it encounters the terminal moraine formed during the last ice age, where it flows through the Dells of the Wisconsin River. North of Madison at Portage the river turns to the west, flowing through Wisconsin's hilly Western Upland and joining the Mississippi approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) south of Prairie du Chien.

Grandfather Falls in Lincoln County was a series of rapids which constituted the largest drop in a short distance on the river. Over the course of a mile and a half, the river drops 89.5 feet. The river borders Adams, Juneau, Columbia, Sauk, Dane, Iowa, Richland, Grant, and Crawford Counties.

Formation
The modern Wisconsin River was formed in several stages. Most recent was the northernmost segment of the river, from the source to around modern Merrill. During the last ice age an ice sheet crept down from Canada, and a section called the Wisconsin Valley Lobe bulged down the valley that would become the Wisconsin River to near Merrill. As the climate warmed and that ice sheet receded about 14,000 years ago, meltwater drained down the valley, eventually cutting a course similar to the modern river.

The next segment, from Merrill to around Wisconsin Rapids, was probably formed as earlier glaciers retreated, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Like the northern segment, the bedrock beneath is pre-Cambrian igneous and metamorphic rock - hard-to-erode stuff that produces frequent rapids.

The next segment, from Wisconsin Rapids to the Baraboo Hills, flows through a sand plain. Though the last ice sheet stopped around Merrill, another lobe of the ice sheet to the east reached far to the south, butting up against the east end of the Baraboo Hills. With drainage blocked, water backed up north of the hills, forming Glacial Lake Wisconsin, which reached from modern Baraboo north to Wisconsin Rapids. As the ice sheet receded, meltwater carried sand and silt ground by the glacier into the lake, where the water slowed and its sediment settled to form a fairly flat lake bed. When warming began to melt back the ice against the Baraboo Hills, about 18,000 years ago, the flowing water quickly opened the gap and poured through, carving the Wisconsin Dells and cutting the start of the river's channel through the sand plain. Subsequent erosion has further cut that channel through the flat plain.

The lower, westward-flowing portion of the river, between the Baraboo Hills and the Mississippi, is probably the oldest section. Passing through the Driftless Area, it was never covered by a glacier. The western, lower end of the river is narrower than its upstream valley, leading to the suggestion that an ancestor river once flowed east through this segment.

History
Native Americans had long used the Wisconsin as a highway through the forests, canoeing and fishing it, living along its banks and burying their dead there.

In 1673, French missionary Jacques Marquette, French-Canadian explorer Louis Joliet, five voyageurs, and two Miami guides arrived near the headwaters of Fox River - modern-day Portage. From there, they portaged their two canoes slightly less than two miles through marsh and oak plains to the Wisconsin River. They then continued downstream 200 miles (320 km) to the Wisconsin's mouth, entering the Mississippi on June 17. Other explorers and traders would follow the same route, and for the next 150 years the Wisconsin and Fox rivers, collectively known as the Fox-Wisconsin Waterway, formed a major transportation route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River.

Naming the river
When Marquette's company entered the Wisconsin River in their two canoes, he wrote: "The river on which we embarked is called Meskousing. It is very wide; it has a sandy bottom, which forms various shoals that rend its navigation very difficult." This is the first mention of the name that evolved into "Wisconsin," which the state ended up taking. Sieur de La Salle misread Marquette's 'M' as "Ou" and wrote the name as "Ouisconsin." In the 1800s, Americans anglicized the spelling to "Wisconsin."

The meaning of Meskousing/Wisconsin has long been sought. Indians and early French residents have offered meanings ranging from "stream of a thousand isles" to "gathering of waters" to "muskrat house." In 2003 Michael McCafferty, who specializes in the Miami language, argued that Meskousing is a rendering of "river running through a red place" in the language of Marquette and Joliet's two Miami guides. They were probably referring to the reddish sandstone along the river, like at the Dells.

Fur trade
The fur trade reached up the Wisconsin and its tributaries, with traders like John Baptiste Du Bay establishing posts along the river where they traded goods like knives and beads with Indians for furs. Indian territories shifted over time, but just prior to European settlement, the Ojibwe dominated the upper section above modern Wausau, the Menominee the middle section from Wausau to Portage, and the Ho-Chunk the lower section from Portage to Prairie du Chien.

Industrialization
In the 1830s and 1840s loggers started using the river to drive logs downstream from northern forests to sawmills in new cities like Wisconsin Rapids and Wausau. They built dams on the river to power their sawmills and to raise water levels to float logs downstream.

Later, in the first half of the 20th century, more dams were constructed to provide for flood control and hydroelectricity. The dams also spurred tourism, creating reservoirs such as Lake Wisconsin that are popular areas for recreational boating and fishing. Today, the Wisconsin River is the hardest working river in the nation. Twenty-five hydroelectric power plants operate on the upper part of the river, above Prairie du Sac. In total, these power plants use 645 feet of the river's drop to generate nearly one billion kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity a year — enough energy to power the homes of over 300,000 people - with minimal pollution.

Despite this, a 93-mile (150 km) stretch of the Wisconsin between its mouth and the Prairie du Sac Dam is free of any dams or barriers and is relatively free-flowing. In the late 1980s, this portion of the river was designated as a state riverway, and development alongside the river has been limited to preserve its scenic integrity.

Navigable river of the United States
The Wisconsin River is a "navigable river of the United States." This designation primarily means that the federal government has jurisdiction for dams on the river. Dams that include hydropower facilities are regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Courts have ruled that despite the fact that the river lies entirely in one state, it nevertheless historically carried goods to markets in other states and therefore is subject to the commerce clause of the United States Constitution. Courts have also ruled that raw logs, even if merely carried via log drives to mills within the state, constitute commerce. On the basis of these judgments, the Wisconsin River is considered a navigable waterway throughout its entire length. This designation does not generally have bearing on recreational use of the river. Boat registrations and fishing licenses are obtained through the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, for example.

Lower Wisconsin River State Riverway
The Lower Wisconsin River State Riverway is a state-funded project designed to protect the southern portion of the Wisconsin River. It extends 93 mi from Sauk City to the point where the Wisconsin River empties into the Mississippi, about 3 mi south of the city of Prairie du Chien. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources manages protected lands of over 75000 acre, including the river itself, islands, and some lands adjacent to the river. In 2020 the riverway was designated as a protected Ramsar site.

There are no dams or man-made obstructions to the natural flow of water between the hydroelectric dam just north of Sauk City and the confluence of the Wisconsin and the Mississippi. This long stretch of free-flowing river provides important natural habitats for a variety of wildlife, including white-tail deer, North American river otters, beavers, turtles, sandhill cranes, eagles, hawks, and a variety of fish species.

Recreational opportunities on the lower Wisconsin River range from fishing and canoeing to tubing and camping. Canoe camping is particularly popular because of the abundance of suitable sandbars along the riverway and because no permits are required. On summer weekends, naturists can be found on Mazo Beach which is north of the village of Mazomanie. According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, two thirds of river users can be found on the stretch between Prairie du Sac and Spring Green.

Cities and villages along the river

 * Biron
 * Boscobel
 * Brokaw
 * Eagle River
 * Kronenwetter
 * Merrill
 * Merrimac
 * Mosinee
 * Muscoda
 * Nekoosa
 * Okee
 * Plover
 * Port Edwards
 * Portage
 * Prairie du Sac
 * Rhinelander
 * Rothschild
 * Sauk City
 * Schofield
 * Spring Green
 * Stevens Point
 * Tomahawk
 * Wausau
 * Whiting
 * Wisconsin Dells
 * Wisconsin Rapids

title: Wisconsin River