Sheffield - town of murals

We spent a three day weekend in and around Sheffield Tasmania. We decided to travel from Swansea to Campbell Town, Ross through Oatlands where the highway came to a T-intersection at Melton headed to Bothwell, Miena and the great lake area up to Deloraine, Railton (town of topiary), Sheffield. The total distance was 336 km.
View Larger Map Starting out our day in beautiful sunny conditions, we headed to Campbell Town inland from Swansea on the East Coast, travel through Lake Leake which is a lake full of trout or so the locals say and we are living on an island which has so many trout fishing areas. Continuing our journey through Campbell Town, Ross and through to Oatlands where we stopped to take a look around where we found a working Dutch style flour mill near the Tourist Information Centre. Oatlands is an important historical village on the shores of Lake Dulverton in the centre of Tasmania. Oatlands has population of 540. It is considered to have the largest number of colonial sandstone buildings in any town in Australia, and many of them were built by convict labour, it is one of Tasmania's oldest settlements and was named by Governor Macquarie after an English town in the county of Surrey in 1821. There are a number of unique landmarks in Oatlands, including the Callington Mill. The mill was built in 1837 and was restored to working order during June/July 2010. Oatlands was generally a relatively prosperous town in the 20th century but by the 1990s the Tasmanian economy slump, the highway bypass and a Tasmanian Midlands rural drought had a very negative effect on the town. Oatlands is home to the world renowned Casaveen Knitwear. Oatlands has the largest collection of sandstone buildings in a village setting in Australia. The town’s authentic colonial character is reflected in 87 original sandstone buildings along the town’s main street. Some of the more significant buildings include the Oatlands gaol (1835), Commissariat’s store and watch house (1830s) and officers’ quarters (1830s). The Callington Mill (1837) is the only working example of a Lincolnshire windmill in Australia. Then we found the Pancake & crepe Shop 110 High Street, Oatlands, Gerard & Danny will serve you and you will not be disappointed, and would recommend the seafood pancake, it is soooooo very delicious. After spending a couple of hours looking at the sandstone buildings it was time to hit the road again. We followed the Midland Highway through to Melton-Mowbray, heading for Bothwell which have a golf museum and several antique shops. Heading for Miena at the bottom of "the great lake".
View Larger Map The countryside was very barren, the lake nothing spectacular to write about as we travelled on dirt roads (lucky we have a 4x4), no just joking we did not need it. Not pretty at all, but I did like the heath like or could we say tundra type landscape. This is where we not only one very big lake but many little water holes everywhere this helps to run the Hydro electricity system. More photos on that at a later date. As driving out of that area we found funny looking mountains which has what looked like shale cascading down the mountain, all I can say it looked like a landslip from the mountain top. I don't think our photos showed it as great as the eye can see. It actually was sheer pieces of granite. Quamby Bluff is a mountain situated in the Great Western Tiers, Northern Tasmania, Australia. It is located 23 km from Deloraine and is one of the easier peaks to ascend in the Great Western Tiers. The walk to the summit of Quamby Bluff is a popular day walk and can be easily completed in an afternoon. Travelling the Bass Highway we drove into a lovely town called Deloraine, very attractive. The town won the State Tidy Towns award in 1992, 1993 and 1995, and the Australian Community of the Year award in 1997. The town is also considered a cultural centre and hosts the largest craft fair in the southern hemisphere, attracting around 40,000 people annually, During the craft fair, there are 13 venues and over 200 stalls operating around the town. The town was bypassed by the new Bass Highway in the early 1990s. However the town has not suffered from this, and is a popular rest location for travellers. It also serves as a base to explore areas such as Cradle Mountain, the Great Western Tiers, Mole Creek and the Central Highlands. All along the main street strategically placed are small sculptures, a lovely park on the river is a nice place for a picnic. Someone did not stop so I could take photos - but when I go to the craft fair I can take my own photos! Deloraine is a delightful rural town set in the foothills of the Great Western Tiers mountain range in Tasmania’s north. Take a leisurely walk through Deloraine’s streets, lined with Georgian and Victorian buildings, many which have been carefully restored. The bridge, Bonney's Inn and the Baptist Tabernacle are just a few of the historic features that give this riverside village its charm. It is a popular weekend coffee trek and is home to nationally awarded bakeries - yes, Deloraine is one source of Tasmania's famous scallop pies. Deloraine's resident population of around 2,000 swells by 30,000 around November each year when Australia's biggest working craft fair comes to town. We headed to Railton (home of topiary) - some lovely topiary in front yards, on council verges etc. Railton is a town situated 20 km inland from Devonport on the north-west coast of Tasmania. Railton had a population of 900. It was first known as Redwater Creek and became known as Railton after the construction of a tramway line in the 1860s. Railton was first surveyed in 1853 and a railway line through the town from Deloraine to Latrobe was completed in 1885. Early settlers who were mainly farmers and timber workers lived in slab huts. The wide main street was built to make life easier for the bullock teams making their way to the railway station. By the 1900s Railton had a flourishing timber trade with 2 sawmills. Railton promotes itself as the "Town of Topiary" After travelling through some beautiful dairying country with freisian cows being more popular. Seem's to have been a good year as loads of feed in the paddocks. We drove into Sheffield (town of murals) where we have been booked into Silver Ridge Accommodation - cabins under the great Mt Roland, very awesome looking up at it from the back of our cabin. Our hosts John & his son in law Brendan were great the place has a heated swimming pool and 1 or 2 bedroom cabins with a fire box. The first mural in Sheffield was unveiled in December 1986. Since then over sixty murals depicting the area's rich history and beautiful natural scenery have been painted on walls scattered throughout the town and buildings along the roadside. The murals attract an estimated 220,000 people to the town annually. One of our meandering trips we found Lake Barrington where it has a International Rowing Course and events are held here for the run up to Olympics, Comm Games etc. Lovely outlook as the picts show. We called in to a taste test of fruit wine liqueurs made by an old German man where we learn't that if the wine is too sweet, just add three drops of lemon juice. Drew purchased Blueberry & I purchased Mint yes mint wine - tastes great. whilst driving back we found a maze where stopped and had a late lunch. We had a memorable extra long weekend, we love just finding our way around places it will not be long before we are off again.

Port Arthur and surrounds

Our long weekend started with getting away a little too late to go to Salamanca markets in Hobart like it was planned. So we headed straight to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at the Tessalated Pavements - which is a inter-tidal rock platform a common enough sight on the coast, but here an unusual set of geological circumstances has resulted in a rare land form. The story of the Tessalatated Pavement began in an ancient, cold sea. A tessellated pavement is a rare erosional feature formed in flat sedimentary rock formations lying on some ocean shores (most of the Tasman peninsular. The pavement bears this name because the rock has fractured into polygonal blocks that resemble tiles or tessellations. the cracks (or joints) were formed when the rock fractured through the action of stress on the Earth's crust and subsequently were modified by sand and wave action.

It all started on 3/4th January 2013, a heat wave which became known as the Angry Summer and covered most of the southern and eastern portion of the Australian continent, caused a number of fires to spread across the country, the most devastating was travelling through communities in south-east Tasmania and on the Tasman and Forestier Peninsulas were forced to flee as fires came down from the north, cutting the only road out and destroying much of Dunalley. A seaborne rescue operation described as "huge" was launched for the thousands of people sheltering on beaches, in boats and at the Port Arthur historic site. More than two thousand people were ferried to safety by police and private volunteers, and another two thousand people took refuge at a community centre. More than 20,000 hectares of bushland were burnt out. While driving into Boomer Bay through blackened trees, new buildings being built - levelled ground, For Sale signs as people leave before another fire could do the same thing. While standing where the jetty stood, we stood in silence just looking at trees which had their regrowth collar around the bottom, the houses which had been spared from the wildfire just reflect how pretty a small fishing town could be, time heals all. We noticed a building over on an island - with a driveway to it looked like a castle. Some research done and I found it belonged to reclusive German businessman Gunter Jaeger who built the castle on an isthmus for his retirement. Below.
View Larger Map We pulled in to see the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park on the way into Port Arthur. They have a great breeding program so the devils will not become extinct. The park also took care of Quolls (cute), wild birds which includes owls, eagles, parrots. We happened to be there when the smaller birds needed feeding and some of their tricks. Our journey took us to Safety Cove where our overnight stay was. As we were driving on the road into the Cove all of us were saying how we hope that the view will be the same from the house which we booked into - around the corner and there was our cottage ...... hmmmmm and the view. Cape Raoul on the right & Cape Pillar on the left. The first scene is from the back yard of the cottage. The Tasman Peninsula lies south and west of Forestier Peninsula, to which it connects via an isthmus called Eaglehawk Neck. This in turn is joined to the rest of Tasmania by an isthmus called East Bay Neck, near the town of Dunalley (about 60 kilometres or 37 miles by road from Hobart). Population around 2317, which rises to around 8000 in summer months, mainly due to Port Arthur. The area is named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman. The first European settlement of the Peninsula was Port Arthur in the early 1830s. It was selected as a penal settlement because it was geographically isolated from the rest of the colony but more easily reachable by sea than the other place of secondary banishment. It also had excellent supplies of timber for shipbuilding and general construction work, and a deep sheltered harbour where visiting British warships could be repaired. Its inaccessibility was enhanced by having Eaglehawk Neck lined with guards and guard dogs, to prevent the escape of any convicts. The penal settlement of Port Arthur is now a tourist attraction. As in most of the rest of the state, tourism is a major industry. We (Drew & I) were up to see the beautiful sunrise from the viewing deck in the back yard of the cottage.

The high cliffs of dolomite. A short walk and very very steep steps down into the Remarkable Caves, well that was our exercise for the day. The day ended with a cooked meal at the local pub, a bottle of wine and bed ready for the next day. Day 2 saw the viewing of Port Arthur ruins. A trip around the island where they the boys prisioner/convicts were held. Our days here were filled with excitement of the scenery, the depressing scenes of where bushfires blackened acres & acres of land. To the somber silence of the ruins of days gone past, where our first white man to this land - convicts where treated badly It is now time to go home. Totally enjoyable couple of days.