Plenty

History

Plenty was gazetted as a locality in 1959. River Plenty Post Office opened on 27 March 1869, was renamed Plenty in 1895 and closed in 1956. The town is notable as it was the location of the first introductions of brown trout outside their native range when in 1864, 300 of 1500 brown trout eggs from the River Itchen survived a four-month voyage from Falmouth, Cornwall to Melbourne on the sailing ship Norfolk. By 1866, 171 young brown trout were surviving in a Plenty river hatchery. Thirty-eight young trout were released in the river in 1866. By 1868, the Plenty River hosted a self-sustaining population of brown trout which became a brood source for continued introduction of brown trout into Australian and New Zealand rivers. Atlantic salmon, although successfully reared in the Plenty river hatchery and introduced at the same time under the sponsorship of the Acclimatization Society of Victoria, failed to establish themselves in Tasmania or Australia.

Geography

The River Derwent forms the north-western and northern boundaries. The Plenty River forms a small part of the southern boundary before flowing through to the north.

Most-observed species

• Forest Raven

  Corvus tasmanicus Mathews, 1912 · Aves
  1,365
• Gray Fantail

  Rhipidura albiscapa Gould, 1840 · Aves
  1,006
• Superb Fairywren

  Malurus cyaneus (Ellis, 1782) · Aves
  1,001
• Green Rosella

  Platycercus caledonicus (Gmelin, 1788) · Aves
  830
• Masked Lapwing

  Vanellus miles (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  775
• Tasmanian Thornbill

  Acanthiza ewingii Gould, 1844 · Aves
  769
• Tasmanian Scrubwren

  Sericornis humilis Gould, 1838 · Aves
  763
• Black Currawong

  Strepera fuliginosa (Gould, 1837) · Aves
  721

Most recent

• M 4.7 — 2002-06-15
  46 km NNE of Bagdad, Australia