Hampshire is a locality in the north-west of Tasmania (Australian postcode 7321) inland from Burnie. It was first settled by Europeans in the late 1820s when rolling plains were mistakenly believed to be good grazing ground for sheep by the surveyors of the Van Diemen's Land Company. In fact, the open lands were the result of generations of burning off the natural temperate rainforest by the indigenous aboriginal population of the area, and it proved totally unsuitable for the chosen purpose.