St Helens is the largest town on the north-east coast of Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, on Georges Bay. It is located on the Tasman Highway

Tasman Highway

The Tasman Highway is a highway in Tasmania, Australia. Like the Midland Highway, it connects the major cities of Hobart and Launceston — however it takes a different route, via the north-eastern and eastern coasts of the state. The Highway also acts as a major commuter road to Hobart...

, about 160 km east of Tasmania's second largest city, Launceston

Launceston, Tasmania

Launceston is a city in the north of the state of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after the state capital Hobart...

. In the early 2000s, the town was one of the fastest growing areas of Tasmania, and reached a population of 2049 at the 2006 census. St Helens is part of the Break O'Day Council; a council that includes the surrounding town Binalong Bay.

History

St Helens was first used as a whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 base in the early 19th century. When tin

Tin

Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...

 was discovered in the surrounding area in the 1870s, St Helens became the shipping

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

 port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

 for the mines. This was the first time a coach service had been introduced to the town; previous access had only been by sea. The town became named after St Helens

St Helens, Isle of Wight

St. Helens is a village and civil parish located on the eastern side of the Isle of Wight. The village is based around village greens. This is claimed to be the largest in England but some say the Village Green is the second largest. The greens are often used for cricket matches during the summer...

, Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

. Today the town is a popular resort for fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, swimming and other aquatic activities. Its economy is based largely on tourism, fishing and timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

.

Important Bird Area

The town is adjacent to the St Helens Important Bird Area

St Helens Important Bird Area

St Helens Important Bird Area comprises four separate sites, with a collective total area of 24 km2, in the vicinity of the town of St Helens on the northern part of the east coast of Tasmania, south-eastern Australia.-Description:...

, identified as such by BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 because of its importance as a breeding site for seabird

Seabird

Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...

s and wader

Wader

Waders, called shorebirds in North America , are members of the order Charadriiformes, excluding the more marine web-footed seabird groups. The latter are the skuas , gulls , terns , skimmers , and auks...

s.

Climate

St Helens has a mild temperate climate, with four distinct seasons. Summers are warm and sunny and winters are quite cool. Rainfall throughout the year is very consistent, with an average of 54.2mm in February and 76.2mm in June. Being on the East Coast, St Helens winter temperatures are warmer than most parts of Tasmania. Summer temperatures however are not as warm as inland areas, although they are still warmer than Tasmania's capital, Hobart.