[2] "Like it's the only thing Levendale has, we don't have a shop, a pub, or anything to fall back on, this is all we have, is our school, and it keeps the women supported and networking on behalf of the men as well, so it kind of flows through the whole community."

In 1830, a large fire was kept burning on the summit of Brown Mountain as a point of direction for Governor Arthur's Black Line, that ill-fated attempt to drive the remaining Aboriginal people towards the Tasman Peninsula where they could be captured.

[citation needed] The first known settler was Henry Buscombe who selected 655 acres (2.65 km2) of land at Levendale in 1842, calling his property Cutting Grass Marsh.

In 1873 Kele Balsley, a native of Denmark who had apparently jumped ship at the Saltworks near Little Swanport in 1865, purchased 24 acres (9.7 ha) of land at Levendale where he built a family home.

Settlers taking up land at this time were: Colin Patterson and Michael Powell (1883), the brothers Montgomery (1886), Harold Burrows (1887) and William Crawford who built a house at Levendale in 1897.

[citation needed] The first task facing these early settlers was of course to carve out farms and homes from the dense bush – a thankless and difficult job.

At first this work was carried out by hand, the settlers ring barking trees and cutting the undergrowth with axes and slash hook, the ash from the annual summer burnings used as fertilizer to help in the growth of grass and clover for cattle.

Straight-grained trees that split easily were used to provide palings and posts for buildings and fences; vegetable gardens were established, and each household produced its own milk, butter and eggs.

The preservation of food was always a problem, but salting down vegetables and the use of wet sand packs for butter in summer ensured a reliable supply of household necessities.

The purchase of essential items such as flour, tea, sugar and salt meant a fairly arduous journey to either Oatlands or Sorell every three months.

And so the school opened with Mr. W. Duthie appointed first teacher in charge and with William Crawford and Frank McConnon registered as the first of what would eventually prove to be over 1000 students who would pass through the doors.

With the school under threat of closure in 2008 due to low student numbers author and local resident Rachael Treasure proposed to the community that vacant farmhouses be put up for rent of $1 per week to attract more families to the area.