TASMANIAN TRIP
DECEMBER 2006-JANUARY 2007
Monday 22 January to Sunday 28 January
Miena to Devonport
Blog 8
This was our last week in Tasmania. We had driven the coasts, the north, west and east and now we planned to see the middle of the island. We took the Midlands Highway and headed south to Campbell Town. The country side was farmland and the rain over the last 2 days has made everything green and fresh.
This Heritage Highway literally is covered with colonial buildings, bridges, flour mills and beautiful gardens. The history is lovely. Campbell Town was established in 1820 as a connecting town between Hobart and Launceston. We stopped at Valentine Park which contains a sundial to commemorate the transit of Venus observed in Campbell Town in 1874 and 2004. The colonial buildings were beautiful.
In Campbell Town there is a Red Bridge which dates back to 1838 made of more than 1 million red bricks convict made. It is still the original bridge which was built to take horse drawn carriages which is now part of A1 Highway and is now crossed by 2 million vehicles a year. Campbell Town also has a Convict Brick Trail which is a commemoration and celebration of the towns convict history with each brick being engraved with the name and personal detail of particularly convicts.
There were 70,000 convicts transport to Tasmania, 200,000 in total in Australia, and it is believed that 4 out of every 5 Tasmanians have links to the convict past. We continued south on the A1 to the little town of Ross which was absolutely beautiful. The sandstone buildings along the main street were just great and the 4 corners of the main intersection of town are known as Temptation (Man O’ Ross Hotel 1835), Salvation (Roman Catholic Church), Damnation (Once the Town Gaol) and Recreation (Town Hall).
The old stone Ross Bridge built in 1836 has fantastic faces carved into the stones of local personalities of the time. The 2 convicts, the stone mason, Damiel Herbert, and the engineer, were given their freedom when they completed the bridge.
Our last stop on the Heritage Highway was Oatlands and of course there were more sandstone buildings but also a beautiful old flour mill. We climbed to the top. It was great.
We decided to drive west along the dirt road to a place called Interlaken which is between Lake Sorell and Lake Crescent. They are both big lakes but locals tell us that the levels are quite low because of the drought.
We continued on to The Great Lake, biggest lake in Tasmania, which was over 1000m above sea level and very cold. We booked into the caravan park at Miena, on the Great Lake, for a few nights so that we could travel the area without the caravan.
There are many lakes in the centre of Tasmania and we were on our way to see Arthurs Lake. As we drove between the Great Lake and Arthurs Lake we realised that water was being piped from the Great Lake into Arthurs Lake. The water level at the Great Lake was so low that all of the boat ramp was exposed and couldn’t be used.
The drive to Poatina, in Great Western Tiers Conversation Area was very winding and we were coming down the mountain. The view would have been spectacular except that we were in cloud. The lakes and the steep mountains make the area ideal for hydroelectricity.
We wandered around the town of Deloraine and stopped for lunch by the river. We decided to take the minor dirt roads to Liffy Falls. The walk to the falls was through a beautiful fern, myrtle and sassafras forest and the smells were delicious.
As we left Miena it was a very cold 6 degrees C but the sun was shining on the Great Lake and it was beautiful.
On our way to Mole Creek we stopped at Chudleigh at the Honey Farm. It was fantastic. They had a display of one of the honey combs which had a glass wall so that you could watch the bees working. The area around Mole creek is a beautiful part of the world with very green pastures and tall mountains all around.
We went on a limestone cave tour at Marakoopa Cave and then on to the Devils Gullet which is a lookout overlooking a valley below with beautiful huge dolerite columns.
After the lookout we decided to drive a little further to Lake Mackenzie, one of the many lakes high up in the mountains on the plateau. It was amazing to see how they control and channel the water to produce the hydroelectricity. The engineering and the scale of it is quite amazing.
We are in the north of the state again and the farm land is lush with crops, sheep and cattle and a magnificent backdrop of mountains.
DECEMBER 2006-JANUARY 2007
Monday 22 January to Sunday 28 January
Miena to Devonport
Blog 8
This was our last week in Tasmania. We had driven the coasts, the north, west and east and now we planned to see the middle of the island. We took the Midlands Highway and headed south to Campbell Town. The country side was farmland and the rain over the last 2 days has made everything green and fresh.
This Heritage Highway literally is covered with colonial buildings, bridges, flour mills and beautiful gardens. The history is lovely. Campbell Town was established in 1820 as a connecting town between Hobart and Launceston. We stopped at Valentine Park which contains a sundial to commemorate the transit of Venus observed in Campbell Town in 1874 and 2004. The colonial buildings were beautiful.
In Campbell Town there is a Red Bridge which dates back to 1838 made of more than 1 million red bricks convict made. It is still the original bridge which was built to take horse drawn carriages which is now part of A1 Highway and is now crossed by 2 million vehicles a year. Campbell Town also has a Convict Brick Trail which is a commemoration and celebration of the towns convict history with each brick being engraved with the name and personal detail of particularly convicts.
There were 70,000 convicts transport to Tasmania, 200,000 in total in Australia, and it is believed that 4 out of every 5 Tasmanians have links to the convict past. We continued south on the A1 to the little town of Ross which was absolutely beautiful. The sandstone buildings along the main street were just great and the 4 corners of the main intersection of town are known as Temptation (Man O’ Ross Hotel 1835), Salvation (Roman Catholic Church), Damnation (Once the Town Gaol) and Recreation (Town Hall).
The old stone Ross Bridge built in 1836 has fantastic faces carved into the stones of local personalities of the time. The 2 convicts, the stone mason, Damiel Herbert, and the engineer, were given their freedom when they completed the bridge.
Our last stop on the Heritage Highway was Oatlands and of course there were more sandstone buildings but also a beautiful old flour mill. We climbed to the top. It was great.
We decided to drive west along the dirt road to a place called Interlaken which is between Lake Sorell and Lake Crescent. They are both big lakes but locals tell us that the levels are quite low because of the drought.
We continued on to The Great Lake, biggest lake in Tasmania, which was over 1000m above sea level and very cold. We booked into the caravan park at Miena, on the Great Lake, for a few nights so that we could travel the area without the caravan.
There are many lakes in the centre of Tasmania and we were on our way to see Arthurs Lake. As we drove between the Great Lake and Arthurs Lake we realised that water was being piped from the Great Lake into Arthurs Lake. The water level at the Great Lake was so low that all of the boat ramp was exposed and couldn’t be used.
The drive to Poatina, in Great Western Tiers Conversation Area was very winding and we were coming down the mountain. The view would have been spectacular except that we were in cloud. The lakes and the steep mountains make the area ideal for hydroelectricity.
We wandered around the town of Deloraine and stopped for lunch by the river. We decided to take the minor dirt roads to Liffy Falls. The walk to the falls was through a beautiful fern, myrtle and sassafras forest and the smells were delicious.
As we left Miena it was a very cold 6 degrees C but the sun was shining on the Great Lake and it was beautiful.
On our way to Mole Creek we stopped at Chudleigh at the Honey Farm. It was fantastic. They had a display of one of the honey combs which had a glass wall so that you could watch the bees working. The area around Mole creek is a beautiful part of the world with very green pastures and tall mountains all around.
We went on a limestone cave tour at Marakoopa Cave and then on to the Devils Gullet which is a lookout overlooking a valley below with beautiful huge dolerite columns.
After the lookout we decided to drive a little further to Lake Mackenzie, one of the many lakes high up in the mountains on the plateau. It was amazing to see how they control and channel the water to produce the hydroelectricity. The engineering and the scale of it is quite amazing.
We are in the north of the state again and the farm land is lush with crops, sheep and cattle and a magnificent backdrop of mountains.
We were really on the last few days of our Tassie trip now as we stopped at Sheffield. It is a tiny place that decided to produce murals on many of the town buildings in order to attract tourists. Well the plan worked as there were a lot of people in town like us. Each mural had to tell a story about the town. We had scones and tea in the little Scottish Coffee shop with their own bag pipe player. It was great.
We drove on to Railton which is famous for its Topiary sculptures which are trees in the shapes of sculptures. We finally saw how they do it. They build a wire frame and then plant a climber tree to fill out the frame that then only needs trimming.
We were finally back at the caravan park in Devonport where we started our Tasmanian journey.
We spent Australia day at the Henley-on-the –Mersey celebrations in the little town of Latrobe, 7km out of Devonport. It was real Aussie country fair. There was a boat “race” on the Mersey River using boats that they had to build themselves, wood chopping competitions, a ferret race, a piglet race, whip cracking shows and music. We had to check out the Axeman’s Hall of Fame with its amazing stories of champion families with grandfather, father and sons all champion wood choppers.
There were lots of people there and we saw many fellow travellers that we had met over the last 8 weeks all getting ready to go back to the “big island”.
For our last explore in Tasmania we drove up to Bakers Beach and Bakers Point on the East Side of Port Sorell at Bass Straight in the Narawntapu National Park. In all the national parks we always found lots of campers and people fishing if there was any water whether it was rivers, lakes or oceans.
We then needed to complete the picture and drove to the west side on the bay to the town of Port Sorell which is a popular holiday spot with beautiful homes. It was late afternoon by the time we got there and as usual the wind had picked up and it was very blowy on Bass Straight.
On our way back to Devonport for the last time we just enjoyed beautiful rich brown soil with the farms growing lots of opium poppies, potatoes and herding sheep and cattle.
It was time to pack up and board the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry for our day trip back to Melbourne.
