Ms BADGER (Lyons) – Deputy Speaker, I rise this evening to talk about Low Head and an absolutely remarkable Tasmanian who had a very significant impact on the peninsula, that being Florence Perrin. Florence was born in 1884. She was the granddaughter of TW Mons, I am sure anyone from the north of the state would be very familiar with the Mons Mill at Carrick, the roadside icon.
Florence lived until 1952. She had an absolutely remarkable life and is a seriously underappreciated Tasmanian. She was one of the earliest females to go bushwalking in Tasmania in what is today the Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair National Park. She was the first female known since colonisation to summit some of the peaks such as Pelion West, Mount Oakleigh, Mount Ossa, and Perrins Bluff, which was named in Florence’s honour. It was done so in 1920 when she, with her husband George, became some of the first known and recorded ‑ that we currently know ‑ to summit that incredible remote peak.
She was also a remarkable wilderness photographer, who not only took landscape shots but close up shots as well. Her photography went unnoticed for many years, unlike those that she bushwalked with, such as Stephen Spurling. She was also a scientist. She studied seaweed quite prolifically. Being from Launceston, the Tamar River was, back in the day, one of the most extraordinary sources for a wide variety of seaweed. She also specialised in looking at orchids.
Like many women of the day, she had her voice oppressed, or sometimes what she did was actually accidentally attributed to her husband. When the Country Women’s Association came along in 1936, she had a platform in which to raise her views. She did incredible work through the CWA across the entirety of Tasmania, including editing their Country Women’s magazine. She was a major part in the Women for Canberra movement through the 1940s.
It was actually back in 1916 that she came to own a large portion of the land on the Low Head Peninsula, which became known as the Perrin Farm Precinct. Although she purchased most of it for her brother, who unfortunately passed away earlier, she and her husband, George, maintained that land and used most of it as a hobby farm. It was prolific in the orchids that Florence would collect and what a magnificent place for seaweed collection at Low Head as well.
One of the significant things that Florence did with this land was donate it to women in need, or allow them to purchase lots of land at an affordable price that they otherwise would not have been able to get in the area. She donated a lot of parcels of land for public use as well, such as parks and tennis courts. A significant block of land was for a CWA holiday home. The plaque for that home still exists on the gate today on the main road.
It is remarkable that she has so many things named in her honour that are vastly eclectic: from Perrins Bluff; the CWA holiday home, as I mentioned; Codium perrinae, which is the botanical genus for a type of seaweed that she was pivotal in identifying and discovering; Perrin Drive; and the unofficial Perrin Reserve at Lagoon Beach.
FROTH – the Friends and Residents of the Heads or Low Heads – have been seeking to heritage list sections of the Perrin Farm, not only for the values that Florence attributed, but also there are significant heritage values, as you would be aware of, at Low Head. It is home to Australia’s oldest continually running signal and pilot station in Australia, built in 1805. There is environmental significance in sections of some of the reserves as well, those being some orchids that are found there and in very few other places in Northern Tasmania. There is significant Tasmanian Devil habitat as well.
People in Low Head and the residents group FROTH have been working very hard over the last few years so that without further delay there would be state heritage significance, marking Florence Perrin’s historical association with the Low Head Farm, so that is recognised and there is interpretation for people.
They are working really hard for the state government’s Low Head Heritage Precinct Master Plan, which included a heritage trail and part of the She Oak Hill Lookout, to be completed. There has been a significant amount of work that would strengthen the heritage values in that area through the state heritage and conservation legislation. That group are doing remarkable work to honour the heritage of Low Head and also the remarkable Tasmanian that was Florence Perrin.
