In Search of a Title

And I am woken up at 5 am by the radio beside the bed coming on. Arck. Of course, body insists it is Time To Get Up so know going back to sleep.

And no need to be anywhere before 9 am.

Still if I take it slow over breakfast, getting dressed, walking to train station...



( You know. )

I want to go on a trip, but can't really, so it'll have to be a virtual trip. The good thing about them, is everyone else can come too!

When we were kids, before the new Bass Highway was built, the trip out to Deloraine would take fifty minutes, or longer if the traffic was held up be a slow car or farm vehicle. Then the traffic would build up into a long snake winding back further than we could see when we twisted around to look out the back window.

Along the fifty kilometre stretch between Launceston and Deloraine there are five towns, Hadspen, Carrick, Hagley, Westbury and Exton. Each town originated a coach stop on the road west, or so we were told. I don't know if that's true, but this is the old coaching inn at Hadspen.


The Red Feather inn, built in the 1840s. At the time I took this photo, November 2006, it looks like it has fallen out of use, but according to the website it was refurbished and reopened late in 2008.

( Hadspen )

We look at this side of the building today. Note the building on the left that looks like a two-storey house, the very enclosed yard and the cut-off wall on the right.



( More photos -- bet you didn't guess that. )

We're doing the gaol thing again, sort of. An associated chapel anyway. That is, it was built as a chapel but for most of its life, only part of it was a chapel.

( More photos, but you knew that. )

Richmond Gaol was built in the 1820s as part of Governor Arthur's reform of the convict system. Have I gone over that before? I think not, so I might have to pencil that in for another day.


I cut the photos I included down to a minimum of 1 or 2 per room, with some of the contents of the display cases. I also took photos of the larger information panels, but I'm leaving them out too :)

( Still lots of photos though. )

You might remember this photo of Ross from earlier in the year. It was taken in February.



Now, here it is again, in August. Quite different.



Yes, there's no hay or sheep!

( Some more )

Here we have a sheep paddock


with an empty house in it.



( Read more... )

Before I do the final bit on Ross, a slight detour that I thought I could avoid doing but it seems simpler to pull this into one post.

Until recently, most focus on Australia's convict past dealt with the men. The women and children rarely get mentioned. Into the 1980s even, it just wasn't talked about. In the late 1990s, I was list-mum for the relevant Rootsweb genealogy mailing list, and the idea of women and children being transported was still little known. In the last decade, this has changed. The associated sites are better known, in some cases they've been developed for visitors and more research has been done and written about female convicts.

( Read more... )

Two noticable things about Strahan, firstly how tourist orientated it is. Down on the Esplanade, you'll find cafes, restaurants, accommodation cottages, the Visitor's centres and souvenir shops. All aimed at tourists. All right, that's not all there is. There are also the harbour cruise ships, the helicopters & light planes offering to give you aerial views and the yachts to charter.


( Rest after the cut )