TAMAR, RIVER

tidal estuary in northern Tasmania, Australia, formed by the confluence of the North and South Esk rivers. It extends 40 miles (65 km) northwest to enter Bass Strait at Port Dalrymple, the mouth of the estuary. The latter was named in 1798 by the explorers George Bass and Matthew Flinders and was the site in 1804 of George Town, the first settlement. About 2 miles (3 km) wide, the River Tamar is navigable over its entire length to the port of Launceston, but larger ships use wharves closer to the mouth at Bell Bay, Australia's largest aluminum-production complex, and at Beauty Point and Inspection Head. Fertile terraces, supporting orchards and sheep farms, line the river, which is paralleled by the East and West Tamar highways. The name Tamar was taken from a river flowing between Cornwall and Devon, Eng. river in southwestern England, rising within 4 miles (6 km) of the Bristol Channel and flowing south to the English Channel by Plymouth Sound. For most of its length of 61 miles (98 km), it forms the historic boundary between the counties of Devon and Cornwall. Its estuary, like those of its lower tributaries, Tavy, Lynher, and Tiddy, is a barrier to east-west communications, which are carried by ferry at Torpoint and the Tamar Road Bridge upstream of the railway bridge at Saltash. The sheltered, deepwater estuary known as the Hamoaze is the site of Plymouth Naval Base and Devonport dockyard, both notable British Royal Navy installations.