Stanley to Campell Town via the Tamar

Beaconsfield mine head

View from our window, Elizabeth River, Campbell Town

Tree Sculptures, Blackburn Park

The convict-built Red Bridge, Campbelltown

Mutton birds anyone?

Having left Stanley reluctantly, we spent one night free camping at Sulphur Creek on our way east.  On our last visit we saw penguins, but this time it was just too cold to leave the van on the offchance of seeing any.  We were camped only a few metres from the rail line which runs along all the northern beaches - very picturesque, but also very noisy at night.  It's amazing how much in advance you can hear/feel the train coming along the line.  Luckily there's only one per night!

The next day we set off once again for parts unknown - vaguely in the direction of Bicheno, but ended up for 2 nights at Green's Beach, parked in a vast paddock with only one other caravan each night for company.  The camping area was excellent and at only $20 per night, quite a bargain, especially with its excellent washers and driers at only $2 a pop.  The van was turned upside down for used items and I very quickly emptied my collection of $1 coins!  According to the guidebook, Green's Beach is a relatively(!) undeveloped beachside hamlet 60km north west of Launceston and at the mouth of the Tamar River;  that just about sums it up - one small general store and a long, seaweed covered beach.

On the way to Green's, we passed through the town of Beaconsfield which most of you will remember as the place where on 25th April 2006, a small earthquake triggered an underground rock fall, trapping 17 people.  Fourteen escaped immediately following the collapse, one man was killed, and 2 men were found alive, but then spent 2 weeks awaiting rescue, trapped nearly a kilometre beneath the surface.  The Beanconsfield Mine and Heritage Centre is a fascinating place to spend an afternoon, and some of the story is told in the form of the ABC nightly coverage of the rescue, which most of us would remember vividly.  They have a small cage set up among rocks, into which you may crawl if you feel so inclined - just to get the feeling of what it must have been like to be trapped so far underground.   If you are not familiar with the story, Google it - it's one of the really good news stories in the history of mining.  

Thanks to Favourite Daughter our mail had at last arrived at Ray's cousin Dianne and Martin's place, so we called in to Epping Forest for a cuppa and to retrieve our long-awaited bank cards, without which we cannot continue to enjoy all those lovely treats!

Our progress to Epping Forest, however, was routed through Launceston where we spent the morning at their excellent hospital, investigating the reason for Ray's red and swollen left foot/toe.  The answer - Gout!  Having lived the life abstemious almost since leaving Brisbane (it is Ocsober after all), and Ray not fitting the generally-held description of a gout sufferer, he was more than a little miffed to discover this new affliction.  However, in record time he was diagnosed and had a prescription filled at the hospital pharmacy and we were on our way again.  Can you believe that we found a parking spot (2 actually) right outside the hospital - try that in any other city!  Thank you for asking, but he's now on the mend, can walk on the foot once again, and is in distinctly better spirits.

We were on our way again by lunchtime (partaking of a little light refreshment at Aroma's on the nearest corner to the hospital - well, Ray really did deserve a little treat this time!)  I noticed, on my forays in and out of Emergency while Ray was waiting to be seen, that all the local bike riders were massed at Aroma's, and that's always a good sign.  Right on - one of the best lunches we've had.

It was only a hop, skip and jump from Epping Forest to Campbell Town, where we are now parked for the second day by the Elizabeth River (both Campbell Town and Elizabeth River were named for Governor Macquarie's wife, Elizabeth Campbell).  Campbell Town was established in 1821 as one of four garrison towns and probation stations between Hobart and Launceston, and contains some lovely heritage buildings, and the 1838 convict-built Red Bridge, built with over a million red bricks.  There is also a Convict Brick Trail set into the pavement on both sides of the road running from the Bridge to the Hospital.  Each red brick has a convict's name, age, crime committed, punishment and name of their transport ship - salutary reading!  Campbell Town's annual June show, founded in 1838, is the oldest in Australia, having run every year since then - 175 years!

Blackburn Park, alongside the Red Bridge, contains three large carved macrocarpa trees, which have been turned into works of art by Eddie Freeman, and depict various features of the natural and human history of Campbell Town and the regions around.  The first shows a British soldier overseeing a convict working on Red Bridge, the second, rather incongruously, depicts Governor Macquarie and his wife Elizabeth, the bushranger Martin Cash(?), Dr William Valentine, (a noted local doctor who was involved from 1839 in all aspects of the town life), and Harold Gatty, who as a navigator for Wiley Post, took 8 days, 15 hours and 15 minutes to fly around the world in 1931.  Harold Gatty was also the instigator and designer of the navigational system used by the USAF in the WWII.  And last but certainly not least, Eliza Forlonge (1784-1859) who left Scotland in 1826 with her 2 sons, and was granted land near Campbell Town in 1829 where she established the original bloodlines of a sheep flock whose descendants still produce some of the world’s finest wool. There is a large statue to Eliza in the park in the middle of town, and an amazing woman she must have been.  She walked(!) Saxony several times in 1828-29 selecting fine-wool merinos for her flock, using a locking tag on each one, to be collected later.  They were then taken to Great Britain and later transported to Van Dieman's Land.  Again, it's too long a tale to include here, but Wikipedia has some very interesting history on Eliza and her family.

On our way to Campbell Town, we diverted through historic Evandale which is known for its annual Penny Farthing Championships at the end of February each year.  If you’re game, it’s possible to rent one of 4 penny farthings (along with lessons naturally) and then, given that you have learned to stay upright, you can tour Evandale atop it.  I can fall off my own bike too easily - the idea of falling twice as far on a penny farthing was not to be contemplated!

So, tomorrow it's off east again on our way to Bicheno (perhaps).  Tasmania provides so many interesting side trips that it's often difficult to decide which road to take.  Perhaps the only sensible way would be to toss a coin at each cross road!

Sally and Ray

PS  We've been told that replying to the blog is quite complicated, and we've found it so ourselves in trying to reply to the Replies, but we'd welcome any communication, good or otherwise, via email - rayroth@tpg.com.au or salroth@tpg.com.au.  It's lovely hearing your news when we're so far from home.