We’re heading south again now getting ready to welcome a very special person to Hobart for Easter. But first – a trip down the A1.
Christmas Hills Raspberry FarmYes, the ice cream was absolutely delicious.
Maree and Carl met us for coffee in Latrobe on their short break from the Mornington Peninsula. Outside Latrobe is House of Anvers chocolates which deserved a look in – hot chocolate for morning tea!
Really good chocolate, particularly the truffles. Ashgrove dairy. Just a retail outlet and cafe. But they do have colourful cows! Our campsite beside the Elizabeth River, Campbell Town. With potential for a duck á la orange for dinner.
The RV park is just a short stroll from the Red Bridge.
Using convict labour this pretty bridge was finished in 1838 and has been in constant use since then. It’s one of the oldest surviving bridges in Australia and is the oldest brick bridge.Walking into town we noticed a continuous row of red bricks on both sides of the road. There are more than 160,000 bricks.Each brick has the name of a person transported here as a convict, their age, the ship they came on, the misdemeanour and their sentence. So many of the crimes were so minor. It’s quite disturbing. The statue of Eliza and the ram was interesting. In 1830 Eliza Forlong, a Scotswoman, carefully selected breeding stock from around German farms to be shipped to Hobart, pioneering the super-fine merino wool industry with her husband and sons.The town of Ross also has a beautiful convict-built bridge completed in MDCCCXXXVI.
Daniel Herbert was the stonemason/sculptor who was given a life sentence and transportation to Van Diemens Land for highway robbery.
On arrival in Hobart he was employed as a convict stonemason and amongst other notable structures worked on the Ross bridge.He sculpted the 186 keystones of motifs, people and other designs for the bridge.
Oatlands, however, was our favourite town.
With 138 sandstone buildings, 87 in the Main Street, this town has the greatest display of Georgian houses in Australia.Some as private homes.Additionally the Callington Mill, a fully functional wind-driven flour mill has been painstakingly restored along with several other sandstone buildings associated with the mill.The restored millers cottage.
Until 2020 and COVID restrictions the mill had been producing specialty flours for artisan bakers. Unfortunately it hasn’t been restarted since then.
The Callington Mill Whiskey Distillery makes a very tasty drop which we discovered on a ‘tasting’.Steve needed a little rest after the tasting. He was feeling kind of small.A large lake at the edge of town has a cycleway/walking path alongside it joining Oatlands to the nearest town some 7km away. A walk along this stretched out the legs and took us past some historical points of interest.One of which is the night cart (dunny) pans that were discarded at this location when septic systems were installed in Oatlands during the 1950s. When constructing the path the decision was made to leave them as found, in recognition of their past role. Rumour has it that the best potatoes are grown where these used to be emptied.
Leaving Oatlands we drove down off the plateau through very dry and often over-grazed sheep country and into wine, berry and stone fruit orchard country. A stop at the popular historic tourist town of Richmond to see the bridge, was a must.
When it was gazetted as a place of National Heritage importance it was described thus, “Richmond Bridge, built by convict labour in 1823 to 1825, is the oldest, surviving, large, stone arch bridge in Australia with a high degree of integrity.”Old Hobart Town in Richmond accurately replicates in miniature (scale 1:16) the life and history of Hobart as it was in 1820.It covers an area equivalent to 2 tennis courts and includes present day photographs to compare the changes, and similarities. This is well worth your time to visit. Just over the road is the Pooseum, its tag line being “An education in defaecation – in all its scatological splendour”. Unfortunately closed today, it being Good Friday. Pity, with grandchildren who delight in all things scatalogical I could have done with some good facts at my fingertips.
Tonight we’re camped across from the Longley International Hotel just a short drive to Hobart. This ‘out of the way’ hotel in the country boasts some music royalty in their line-up!
It’s also the home of the Big Axe. Not sure whether to be reassured or worried about camping here.
30th Mar – 6th April
Yay, we’re in Hobart and our daughter, Laura, is going to join us. We’ve booked an AirBnB in Battery Point for the week.
Yummm! Salamanca Markets are a must.And then our favourite daughter arrives. ❤️“Chocolate and Whisky” turned out to be a great place to chill.We caught the Mona Roma ferry up the Derwent R to enjoy an afternoon of live music on the lawn at Mona.The Cascade Brewery was on Steve’s bucket list for not only their tasting paddle but also the rivulet that runs beside the brewery. Apparently heaps of platypus live there. After a little tipple we went in search of them, unsuccessfully.Summiting Mt Wellington is a must for every tourist in Hobart. The walking on Mt Wellington is beautiful. We found a waterfall to walk to.
As well as these activities we filled our week with a few too many visits to the best bakery ever, Jackman and Ross, a very enjoyable evening of Gypsy jazz, a day shopping in the CBD, a mother/daughter spa morning and lots of time together just chilling.
