Geeveston is Australia's most southerly administrative centre, taking its name from William Geeves, who took up a land grant in the area known as Lightwood Bottom. The settlement He was, presumably, an ancestor of the former Tasmanian bowler who picks up radio commentary work on the ABC when the travelling cricket circus gets to Hobart’s Bellerive. I’ve heard Brett Geeves give the place a wrap, without having paid a great deal of attention.
The settlement was renamed Geeves Town in 1861, and Geeveston in 1888 and sits at the centre of Tasmania's apple and fruit-growing industry, and was a key player in the state’s timber industry since the late 19th century. A pulp mill was the town's largest employer between 1962 and 1982, and today the town’s major attraction is The Forest & Heritage Centre, which details the history of the timber industry in the area, and its status as the gateway to the Arve River forests, Hartz Mountains National Park and the Tahune Airwalk.
From there we had occasional glimpses of water as we headed through Waterloo and Sturges Bay, where could have turned off to follow the water. That would have taken us through Police Point and Surveyors Bay en route to the overnight accommodation at Dover, but we stuck with the main road passing through Glendevie before we hit the shoreline again just before we located Driftwood Cottages.
