Map - Meander, Tasmania (Meander)

Meander is a rural locality and town in the local government area of Meander Valley in the Launceston region of Tasmania. The locality is about 34 km south-west of the town of Westbury. The 2016 census has a population of 328 for the state suburb of Meander.

In 2011 it had a population of 415, forty percent of whom worked directly in agriculture, many in the dominant industries of grazing of sheep and cattle, and the dairy industry. The surrounding land has been modified by the original Indigenous inhabitants, who turned forest into grassland, and the later settlers, who have created extensive channels for irrigation and drainage. The town is 24 km south of the town of Deloraine, Tasmania and is bisected by the Meander River. It sits between Quamby Bluff and Mother Cummings Peak of the Great Western Tiers mountain range.

Meander's surrounds had been inhabited for thousands of years by the Pallittorre, part of the Northern Tribe of Aboriginal Tasmanians. European immigrants began moving into the area in the 1820s and they came into often violent conflict with the Pallittorre. The Pallittorre were removed from the land by a combination of deliberate government policy, disease and the conflicts with the new settlers. Land grants were first made to the European settlers from 1828, firstly of large areas but later for areas of under 100 acre. The town of Meander was first gazetted in 1901, though never built as intended, then finally gazetted in another location in 1907. Industry in the town has included sawmilling, dairy, a cheese factory, and an abattoir.

Meander Primary school, built c.1910–11, contains buildings relocated from closed schools formerly in surrounding areas. It, and the adjacent St Saviour's Anglican church, have been classed a "historic precinct" by the National Trust. The town has had a Methodist church—later part of the Uniting Church in Australia—and a Baptist church, but only the Anglican church remains in use. The town has a single store, with a post office agency, and a community hall. Timberworld, a timber and prefabricated home supplier, was formerly run by Kim Booth, leader of the Tasmanian Greens political party. The town has had cricket, basketball, badminton, sheep dog and Australian rules football clubs. Two of the football club's players went on to play in the Victorian Football League, a cricket chairman was awarded an Order of Australia medal for his services to the area, and the town featured in the early life of noted Australian country music singer Jean Stafford.

The original inhabitants of the Meander area were the Pallittorre, who were part of the Northern Tribe of Aboriginal Tasmanians. There are caves south of Meander, in the Great Western Tiers, with deposits showing Aboriginal habitation, though these have not been dated. The deposits were either left by the Pallittorre, or their neighbours the Luggermairrernerpairre who were part of the Big River tribe. The Pallittorre probably inhabited the area for thousands of years; aborigines are believed to have lived in Tasmania for more than 30,000 years. The Northern Tribe had three other bands, based near Emu Bay, Hampshire Hills and Port Sorell. The Pallittorre's numbers have been estimated from as low as 50–60 to as high as 600. They maintained cleared grassy plains by regular careful burning, and used this method also to control undergrowth in the forests. This land management technique enabled easier hunting and food gathering. European colonists noted, after the Pallittorre had been eliminated from the area, how the forests rapidly reclaimed the formerly cleared land. They ranged across the land on a seasonal basis, at least as far as Mole Creek, and lived in villages of bark huts at times. They mined ochre in the Gog Range, trading this with other aborigines, across Tasmania. The Pallitorre congregated in areas in the Meander area, such as Jackeys Marsh - the name 'jackey' being a colloquial term for Aboriginal people.

From c.1824 the movement of European colonists and their farming practices onto Pallittorre lands brought the two groups into often violent conflict. The conflict increased over time. In retaliation for acts by Europeans, killings of settlers by aborigines in 1827 appear to have been part of a coordinated effort to drive the settlers away. The conflict and violence was from both Europeans and aborigines, though more the former than latter. European disease, deliberate killings, forced exile to the islands of Bass Strait, and the driving of the natives from their land and food sources reduced their population. This reduction was such that during an 1834 visit George Augustus Robinson, Protector of Aborigines, could find only one woman in the area. There are only records of two colonists killed by the Pallittorre. The number of Pallittorre killed is not recorded; Shayne Breen—Lecturer in Aboriginal Studies at the University of Tasmania—has estimated more than one hundred. The removal of the Pallittorre from their land, a pattern echoed across Tasmania, was largely intentional. Deliberate policy, promulgated by Governor Arthur, was to remove the native population from the land and grant it to European settlers.