FRANKLIN, TASMANIA

'Franklin' (Australian postcode 7113) is a small township on the western side of the Huon River in the south-east of Tasmania, between Huonville and Geeveston. It was named after Sir John Franklin and his wife Lady Jane Franklin who subdivided a large property there formerly owned by John Price to settle families of modest means. The Franklins had a ketch named ''Huon Pine'' built at Port Davey to provide a direct link between the settlement at Hobart.
Originally used for mixed cropping, especially potatoes and other vegetables, by the late 1800s Franklin and its immediate surrounds were a major apple orcharding region. With the collapse of Tasmania's export fruit industry during the 1970s the region reverted to mixed farming.