Guess the Town #3: Burnie

The six clues

1. 1
   Clue 1 of 6, the vaguest

   A bay-side city with mild, fairly dry summers, cool rainy winters and little seasonal swing.

2. 2
   Clue 2 of 6, broad

   Founded in 1827 as a base for a land company, it was renamed in the early 1840s for one of the company's directors.

3. 3
   Clue 3 of 6, getting warmer

   A huge mill's first paper machine started here in 1938; the mill closed in 2010.

4. 4
   Clue 4 of 6, distinctive

   From October to March, little penguins come ashore at dusk on its foreshore, where volunteers lead free tours.

5. 5
   Clue 5 of 6, nearly named

   The bay beside it still carries the town's old name, Emu Bay, from before the renaming.

6. 6
   Clue 6 of 6, the giveaway

   A port on Tasmania's north-west coast with a penguin observation centre, and the gateway to the Tarkine.

About Burnie

Burnie is a port city on Tasmania's north-west coast. It began as Emu Bay in 1827 and was renamed in the early 1840s for a Van Diemen's Land Company director. A huge paper mill ran here until 2010, little penguins come ashore at dusk, and the city is a gateway to the Tarkine wilderness.

Did you know?

Burnie was named after a director of which company that settled the north-west coast?

Van Diemen's Land Company. Surveyor Henry Hellyer explored this stretch of coast in the 1820s for the company.

Before it was renamed Burnie in the early 1840s, the town was called what?

Emu Bay. Emu Bay was first settled in 1827, and the name still belongs to the bay Burnie sits on.

Each dusk from spring, which small seabirds come ashore on Burnie's foreshore to feed their chicks?

Little penguins. Guided viewing runs from October to March at the Little Penguin Observation Centre at Parsonage Point.