Ross

Ross, like Oatlands, is located in the Midlands of Tasmania. Our only accommodation option here was the caravan park. Although a Hipcamp property was available, it would have required driving into Ross, which didn’t appeal to me, especially since I wanted to enjoy some drinks without worrying about driving.

The town sits beside the Macquarie River and is listed on the National Estate Register due to its many sandstone buildings and rich convict history.

After several days of attempting to organise a site at the caravan park—leaving phone messages and finally sending a text—we received a reply confirming that a site would be available.

However, unbeknownst to us, we found thousands of people dressed in medieval costumes and streets lined with cars when we arrived in town. Check-in time was strictly at 12 p.m., and we could only secure an unpowered site, as most of the park was occupied by festival attendees.

We were promised a powered site for Sunday, April 27, and Monday, April 28th.

We arrived at 10:30 and while waiting to book in, we wandered down to take photos of the Ross Bridge, built in 1836. John Lee Archer, an architect and engineer famous for many buildings around Tasmania, designed it. We'd previously seen examples of his works in Stanley, Bothwell and Hobart.

The Ross Uniting Church, built in 1882, overlooks the town. However, the caravan park manager informed us that it has been sold.

It's rather surprising that, apart from two bakeries and the hotel, there are no other facilities in town. Everything else that might be needed is located twelve kilometres away in Campbell Town.

Fortunately, we secured the last table in the dining room for lunch at the Ross Hotel on Sunday. Given the festivities the day before, we expected a quiet afternoon. For our appetiser, we shared Korean popcorn chicken with gochujang dipping sauce. Ros enjoyed her beef and guinness pot pie, made with chunky Cape Grim beef, and I enjoyed my yearling steak, which was perfectly cooked.