CHARLES Henry Smith spent nearly 50 years in Launceston building a very successful family business that operated for a century. C. H. Smith still trades today but not from the premises in Charles Street that have become a Launceston landmark for all the wrong reasons. The crumbling C. H. Smith buildings in Charles Street are finally to be redeveloped and provide a more fitting reminder of a very successful Launceston businessman. Born in Watton, Herefordshire, in 1827, C.H. S

Launceston train driver Lou Dennis prospecting for gold in the Gorge in 1937. Photo courtesy of the Lou Dennis Family Collection. In March 1857 gold fever swept Launceston with hundreds of fortune hunters converging on the South Esk River at the Third Basin armed with shovels, panning dishes and high hopes. Rumours of gold being found in the Gorge first surfaced on 12 March 1857 – The Examiner’s 15th birthday – with a brief item on Page 3: “Gold is reported to have been found

In 1970 there were about 4000 people working in Launceston’s textile mills. The biggest by far was the Patons and Baldwins mill at Glen Dhu with a workforce of over 2000. Within a decade, however, an industry that had existed for a century had all but disappeared. Launceston’s commercial textile industry began on Wednesday 13 May 1874 when Agnes Bulman placed the first wool on the carding machine at the new Waverley Woollen Mills at Killafaddy. The wife of Waverley Woollen Mi