The first inhabitants of the area of Launceston were largely nomadic Aboriginal Tasmanians believed to have been part of the Northern Midlands Nations.

In 1804, reports from early European voyagers describe a number of Letteremairrener camps, consisting of up to ten bark huts located on either side of the Tamar River.

[18] Campbell Macknight characterizes early colonial contact with the Letteremairrener people as a mixture of fear, curiosity and aggression.

[20] These conflicts intensified from 1827 until 1831 during the period of the Black War, with genocidal expeditions occurring within the Letteremairrener country and neighbouring areas.

[24] Newer popular team sports such as cricket and football failed to be sustained in Launceston before the population grew substantially.

[15] During the late 1880s, a small periodical called Launceston Literary contained stories as well as memoirs of the pioneering days of the region.

In earlier years, oceangoing shipping used the river to obtain access to the Port of Launceston wharves located in the city centre and Invermay.

The Port for Launceston is now located at the George Town suburb of Bell Bay, some 40 kilometres (25 mi) downstream on the east bank of the Tamar estuary, close to the river mouth.

The North Esk River starts in the Northallerton Valley in Tasmania's north-east mountains and winds its way to Launceston via the Corra Linn Gorge at White Hills.

The St Patrick's River, the largest tributary of the North Esk, is dammed at Nunamara to provide the majority of Launceston's town water since the mid-1800s.

The St Leonards and West Tamar Highways were temporarily closed as water levels rose, causing significant disruption to the city and loss of livestock.

[citation needed] The maximum recorded temperature was 39 °C (102 °F) on 30 January 2009, with Launceston Airport reaching 40.4 °C (105 °F) on that same day, during the 2009 Southeastern Australia heat wave.

[41][44][45][46] Many of the buildings in the city's central business district (CBD) were constructed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Launceston is a major location of Federation style housing.

[56] State Upper House seats that incorporate parts of Launceston are the Electoral Divisions of Paterson, Windermere and Rosevears.

[57] The Brisbane Street Mall, the War memorial at Royal Park, atop the Council Chambers and on top of the Albert Hall are places in the city where the flag is regularly flown.

[58] The city is home to a campus of the University of Tasmania including the Australian Maritime College and also has a minor minerals and manufacturing base.

[63] The Launceston General Post Office is a heritage-listed building that dates back to the 1880s, with a clock tower added in the early twentieth century.

[64] Tasmania Zoo, which is known for its wildlife conservation work, including a breeding program for Tasmanian devils, is located near the city.

[66][67] Now the largest museum located outside a capital city in Australia, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery is located at two sites across the city: the original purpose-built building at Royal Park and another at the Inveresk Cultural Precinct, on the grounds of the former railway station and rail yards in buildings largely converted from the former Railway Workshops.

From 2006 to 2011, it hosted the MS Fest, a music festival held at the Inveresk Show grounds each summer to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research.

[74] This has since been replaced with the Breath of Life Festival from 2012 to 2014, a similar event held at the Inveresk show grounds to raise funds for lung cancer research.

Since 2004, the V8 Supercars (Tasmanian Challenge) has been annually held at the recently re-developed Symmons Plains Raceway, which is around 30 km south of Launceston.

[81] Marcos Ambrose, driver of the number 9 Richard Petty Motorsports car is most likely America's most notable Launceston native.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service supplies an aircraft and pilots under contract to the state's ambulance service and the aircraft (a Beechcraft Super King Air) is staffed by Ambulance Tasmania's Intensive Care Paramedics and doctors from the Launceston General Hospital.

This was followed by keepers cottages, labs, the Headquarters Building and the iconic 1930s vertical retort recognised by the wording "COOK WITH GAS" written in its brickwork.

[92] The car is by far the most dominant form of transport in Launceston, with the city having 721 km of urban and rural roads, even though much of the CBD has narrow one-way streets.

Launceston's streets, most of which were planned in the early nineteenth century, were probably always too narrow for trams to be fully successful: in many cases little of the roadway remained for other forms of transport.

[98] A regional passenger rail system operated in Tasmania, of which Launceston was a major hub; however, after many years of gradual retrenchment it was closed in July 1978.

[102][103] The Port of Bell Bay handles around 5,300,000 tons of domestic and international cargo each year, and has five piers for cruise and passenger ships.

[104] The port is adjacent to an industrial park that houses facilities for Temco, Sims Metal, BP Australia and Onesteel, among other companies.