Boom town? An introduction to George Town, Tasmania

Nestled on the north coast of Tasmania, just over 30 minutes’ drive from Launceston, lies George Town, one of Australia’s oldest European settlements. A recent article in the Sydney Morning Herald listed George Town and Bell Bay among what it described as ‘green energy mineral towns that could fuel their own property booms’.

With a project launching soon in George Town, here’s the lowdown on this hidden gem.

According to this Sydney Morning Herald article, there are several towns around Australia set to benefit from the growth of green mineral mining and manufacturing.

‘Just as the demand for iron ore led to a mining and property boom in Western Australia, the green energy-driven minerals boom could bring population and property price growth to a string of Australian towns,’ the article says.

‘In regions such as Bell Bay in Tasmania [next to George Town], where aluminium smelters have existed for years, median house prices have skyrocketed 44 percent in the past year.’

The article references comments from Tristan Edis, director of clean energy advisory firm Green Energy Markets, who said demand has driven a price rise in many green energy minerals.

He said the future of some minerals such as aluminium depended on the evolution of green energy.

“As battery costs get cheaper and lighter, that premium of light-weighting [using aluminium] declines. If Tesla was using a lot of aluminium in their cars, that’s a sign aluminium is more important.”

‘Property prices in many of these green energy mineral regions have already exploded in their own right due to pandemic-driven demand for a tree-change.’

With other green energy projects planned for Bell Bay, such as Line Hydrogen’s $100 million green hydrogen project, George Town could well be a boom town in the making.

Here are some stats we’ve learned about George Town in assessing this upcoming project in Tasmania: