Plenty, Tasmania

Plenty is a small locality and the name of a tributary river on the south side of the River Derwent in the Derwent Valley in Tasmania. It is on the main road between New Norfolk and Bushy Park. At the 2006 census, Plenty had a population of 164.

Formerly the location of hop growing, and fishing for salmon trout (brown trout), it is now notable for the Salmon Ponds (the original 1864 Plenty river fish hatchery) and the Tasmanian Museum of Trout Fishing.

History

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.