UNESCO World Heritage Listed Estates.

On April 15, we again travelled south to visit two World Heritage sites on Longford's outskirts: the Woolmers and Brickendon Estates. These estates were jointly added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2010.

 

W.H.D. Archer of Hertford was a miller from the English middle class. He ventured to the United States in search of opportunities but returned to England after finding it unimpressive, hoping to improve his milling business. Unfortunately, he eventually went bankrupt.

 

Four of his sons eventually settled in Van Diemen's Land. The oldest son, William, arrived in 1824, bringing merino sheep, rams, a cow, a bull, and horses. He joined his younger brother Thomas at Woolmers, established in 1817, before acquiring his land, which he named Brickendon after a village near his birthplace. 

 

Two other brothers, Joseph and Edward, settled nearby, making the Archer brothers among the colony's first and most successful settlers.

 

In 1827, at the age of 73, William Sr. joined his sons in Van Diemen's Land, bringing equipment to set up a mill. He passed away at the age of 78 after falling from a horse.

 

Thomas Archer's Woolmers property primarily focused on pastoral operations, raising sheep and cattle, while William Archer's Brickendon property concentrated on agriculture, cultivating crops such as oats, wheat, barley, hay, and potatoes.

 

Building these estates would have been impossible without having unlimited funds but the assigned convict labour system was the key to achieving their goals. The system was the key to the colonial economy providing cheap labour while the government shifted the burden of keeping convicts to the private sector. The number of convicts assigned amounted to how many acres the estate had and the cost of board, food and clothing was the estates responsibility. Although William and Thomas managed their estates independently, they shared resources, including their assigned convicts.

 

The following photos are from the convict-built farm village, while the Brickendon Estate's main house is one kilometre away.

The main house of the Brickendon Estate is still occupied by two families of Archers, now representing the eighth generation of the family living there. While you can tour the gardens and grounds, the house remains private.

The Woolmers' house was erected in 1820, with its entrance facing west and the Macquarie River below. It was only one storey with extensive cellars and attics. The house was only one room thick and surrounded by low verandahs under the main roof. It was not really the type of dwelling suited to Tasmania.

The new wing facing east was designed in 1838 by Thomas's son, who was studying architecture in Britain. It was built to impress and completed in 1845. We took a guided tour of the house but were asked not to photograph the interior. Thomas 1 stipulated in his will that all interior fittings, including imported furniture, paintings, china, silver, and glassware, were to be regarded as heirlooms and are still in the house today.

The new east-facing wing with the old 1820s main house attached:

The last Archer, Thomas William VI, was born in 1917 and passed away in 1994. He never married and had no children, and he bequeathed Woolmers and its buildings and contents to the Archer Historical Foundation.

Walking around the cemetery in Longford, we came across the graves of the Archers.

Towards Launceston,

With the school holidays starting on April 12, followed closely by Easter and Anzac Day, we have postponed our visit to the coastal fringe above St Helens until after the holidays. This means we will only have three weeks left before boarding the boat for our return journey to the mainland.

So, with that in mind, for this period, we will now head towards Launceston and include the Midlands with the towns of Ross, Oatlands, Campbell Town, Jerico and Bagdad.

On Monday morning, April 7th, we headed to the Iron House Brewery, which offers accommodations at White Sands Estate and allows camping up to two days. Mr. Goggle mentioned that the restaurant was open seven days a week, so we drove 54 km to find a camping spot. Luckily, we didn’t disconnect the van as usual because upon walking over to the brewery, we found a sign indicating that it was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Bugger, so off we went to the recreation grounds in St. Marys instead.

On Tuesday, April 8th, we experienced the coldest night in Tasmania. We didn’t run our diesel heater in the evening, and when we checked the van’s interior temperature at 6 a.m., it was only 3.8 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the outside temperature had dropped to  -1.5 degrees. We turned on the diesel heater, which remained on until we left St. Mary's. This brought back memories of the years I spent living in Canberra, where I would use a credit card to scrape ice off the windscreen, just like I did that morning.

We traveled through Fingal and Avoca on the A4 Esk Main Road for 119 km before joining the Midland Highway on our way to Evandale. It felt great to be back on the highway after a week of navigating narrow roads with steep drop-offs at the edges. After that, we took a minor road to our next campsite at Old Macs Farm. The fees are $20 per night for an unpowered site, and amenities include access to water, rubbish bins, and a dump point. We initially booked for seven nights, and depending on how much we get to explore, we’ll decide whether to extend our stay. 

Freycinet and Maria Island

After staying in Geeveston for over a week and seeing the sights, we had to contend with a few days of inclement rainy weather. On Wednesday, April 2, we headed north along the Huon Highway towards Kingston and through Hobart.

The drive through the Huon Valley was easy as we descended into Hobart and crossed the Tasman Bridge. Although traffic was busy on Macquarie Street through the city, we stayed in the middle lane without any issues. 

We continued along the A3 Tasman Highway as far as Sorell before turning off toward Buckland, where we initially planned to stay behind the hotel. However, since we were making good time, we decided to keep going, passing through Orford and on to Triabunna. We thought it was early enough to secure a spot at the RV Park across the road from the Spring Bay Hotel and the boat harbor. The fees are $10 per night, paid at the local takeaway shop. There are no facilities—just a piece of ground. Currently, there are ten vans here, with probably room for another five.

We booked a boat cruise to circumnavigate Maria Island (pronounced Muh-rye-uh). The tour lasts eight hours and includes a two-hour guided walk of the Darlighton UNESCO World Heritage-listed convict precinct.

After waking up the following day and checking the weather forecast for our boat trip on Saturday, we saw that wind speeds were expected to exceed forty kilometres per hour. Considering that Ros is prone to seasickness, we decided to cancel the trip even though she has medication from the doctor. We then booked the ferry to Maria Island on Friday.

On Thursday, April 3, we drove the 112km to Freycinet National Park to hike to the Wineglass Bay Lookout. Although the weather forecast predicted some showers, we had a lovely day with no rain and scattered clouds. We left later than planned and didn't reach the car park for the walk until 11 a.m.
The walk is a 3.1 km round trip, including approximately 400 steps, and is 1.6 km to the lookout. Unfortunately, our photos cannot truly capture the beauty of the view below.

After the walk, we drove to the lighthouse and walking platform at Cape Tourville before heading into Coles Bay to refuel. 

The 226-km drive and the 5-km walk left me quite tired, so we turned in early that night, as we had an early start the following morning.
Maria Island is a thirty-minute boat trip from the harbour at Triabunna. We departed at 8:30 a.m. and took the return ferry at 2:30 p.m. During the day, we walked over 10 kilometres to explore several sites, including Historic Darlington, the convict station established in 1842, the convict-built reservoir circuit, the Painted Cliffs, the Oast House, and the cemetery containing the first burial from 1825.
The Commissariat Store was built by convicts in 1825 as the penal store.

Sitting above the bay is the Darlington Probation Station. Built in 1830, the penitentiary is one of the few buildings remaining from the first convict period, which occurred between 1825 and 1832.

The Oast House was used to dry hops for beer—even convicts were allowed to drink beer.

In 1886, a Parliamentary party visited the Island. The Island had been leased to an Italian, Diego Bernacchi, for 10 cents per year provided he established specific industries. One of his enterprises was to build The Grand Hotel, which opened in 1888 and was advertised as the 'Riviera of Australia'.

The remains of The Grand Hotel:

The remains of the hospital site from 1843.

The cemetery's first burial was in 1825.

We were surprised to only see a  few Cape Barren Geese and no wombats. When we first arrived, the overcast weather may have caused the wombats to stay in their burrows.

We decided not to cook that night and went to The Fish Van in Triabunna. Ros ordered a hamburger with the lot while I thoroughly enjoyed my Blue Grenadier, which I had never tried before. The panko-crumbed scallops and calamari were simply divine.

We left Triabunna just after 9 a.m. on our way to the Pondering Frog, 84 km away. This café serves delicious Chinese food, and we enjoyed lunch there on our first day. We planned to stay two nights, exploring Bicheno and visiting the Devil's Corner winery for lunch on Sunday. 

The Pondering Frog allows camping for up to seven days at $10 per night. According to Wiki Camps, potable water is available. However, it looked fine after checking the water quality in a bucket. Even though I used an inline filter, I was surprised later when filling our bathroom sink to find the water was slightly coffee-colored. Thankfully, I only filled one and a half tanks for showering.

During the night, the forecasted gale-force winds arrived, shaking the van with the stronger gusts, even though we were tucked away behind some shrubs. Rain also began as predicted just after lunch, but thankfully, the winds have decreased.