January 2019 - Aussie Destinations Unknown

Springfield Amish Tea Room, Tasmania

by Miriam | Jan 31, 2019 | Adventures, Adventures Couples, Destinations, Destinations Couples, Miriams Moments

Check out our short video here

‘Would you like to stop by the Amish Tea Room?’ Mum asked me. The what? 🤔

We were heading along the Tasman highway on our way to the mountain biking Mecca of Blue Derby when we passed the area where the ‘Springfield Tea Room’ was.

This is a real working Amish farm that has a cute little tea room where they serve homemade goodies.

Mum had read about it online and wanted to go. And now so did I! Dad and Chris both seemed keen and so it was decided. We would stop in for some scones on our way home.

After an action-packed day at Blue Derby we punched the address into the GPS and wound our way though the lush green countryside until we reached the little crooked sign on the side of the road that read ‘Tea Room’ and pointed to the right.

We turned down the little lane and slowly passed white goats and brown cows, a house with gardens filled with flowers, a couple of stables and we soon pulled into into a tiny car park.

We wandered over to the door with the sign on it and slowly pushed it open.

It was quiet – one other couple was just finishing their cups of tea and a lovely older lady with white hair and the clearest eyes I have ever seen was sitting quietly behind a table that was next to the door.

The table was filled with baked goods and as she peered at us from behind, she smiled and welcomed us in. She was wearing a white bonnet, long purple floral dress and an apron.

We took a seat after choosing what we would like off the menu which was written on a chalk board and paying by bank transfer. There is no eftpos here! No lights or light switches either.

The room was light and airy with large skylights in the roof and windows lined with blue and white check curtains.

Unfortunately we hadn’t read enough online and had no idea that they served meals as well! So we had stopped by a cafe in Scottsdale (Rhubaba which was insanely good!) and only had room for something small here at the Tea Room.

The walls are lined with all sorts of craft and the shelves are filled with fabric and clothing and all sorts of homemade produce for sale. It’s just gorgeous!

We could hear her making everything in the kitchen and we started wondering … how long had they been here? Where were they from? How did they make the ice cream that I’d just ordered? How did they keep it cold? How did they keep in contact with the world? How many lived here? Did they meet with other families? Did they get away much?

So instead of coming up with our own imaginary scenarios, we asked questions and shared our stories and listened to hers. It was fascinating! She was blown away when I explained Apple Music to her … and was very interested when I shared about Aussie Destinations Unknown and the whole concept of social media.

They keep in contact with their son on the mainland by snail mail, printed photos and the occasional phone call made on an old turn dial phone.

They have been self sufficient for over 30 years and – well – you’ll just have to go and see for yourself!

While we were there a stunning young lady came in a collected a bonnet (we all guessed it might be for gardening) and when she mentioned it was for gardening, we all smiled and mum knew she had to have one! She has ordered a fabulous black bonnet that will be ready for her to pick up when she returns. It will keep the sun off her face and neck while she’s gardening – and gosh she looks good in it! 😁

I signed us into the visitors book and Mum enjoyed it so much that she’s going to go back with a friend (and to collect her bonnet).

As the others all piled into the car I chose to walk down the driveway to have a closer look at the garden, and visit the goats. She noticed me down there and came down for a bit more of a chat.

I can’t recommend this place enough. It’s not fancy, it’s not lavish but it’s real, it’s homemade and it’s most definitely something you don’t see everyday.

I’d share their website – but they don’t have one. 🤔😁

Punch this into your GPS and go for an adventure of an entirely different kind!

👉🏼1139 Ten Mile Track, Springfield TAS 7304

Sarah Island Tasmania

by Miriam | Jan 31, 2019 | Adventures, Adventures Couples, Adventures Family, Destinations, Destinations Couples, Destinations Family, Miriams Moments

We love old stuff! And boy is Tasmania full of it 😁

An isolated penal settlement established in 1821 known today as Sarah Island was a huge hi light of the Gordon River Cruise for us. In fact, when making up our mind as to the cruise being worth both our time (which we were running out of rapidly!) and our money, this was the decider.

You’ll find this little island in the remote reaches of the Macquarie Harbour and if you choose to cruise (😆)- you’ll be able to hop off the boat and explore the island for about an hour like we did.

The cruise itself seems to be suitable for most people, although we found the younger kids from other families were quite bored, some were seasick and others just didn’t like being restricted for so long. There was also a lady with a walking frame who managed quite well, even with the walks on Sarah Island and through the rain forest.

Short Video

Longer video (with tour guide talking – very funny!)

Upon seeing how beautiful Macquarie Harbour is, and Sarah Island in particular, it’s hard to imagine that back in the 1820s, this was the scene of unimaginable torture and despair.

After disembarking from our vessel, we were given the choice of a guided tour or to explore the island ourselves … we chose the tour and it was fascinating! We were led along the walking tracks around the island that link each site by a member of The Round Earth Theatre Company. These guys put on a nightly play in Strahan ‘The Ship That Never Was’ which kind of takes up where this tour ends, and it’s the longest-running play in Australia! Needless to say, our guide was pretty good at keeping our attention.

There were 7 puzzles which he shared enthusiastically and left us pondering as he led us around the tiny island. When at the last stop and all the puzzle pieces fell into place, there was many a ‘aha’ moment as people were calling out the answers.

At the beginning of 1822, the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station was established, with Sarah Island as its base. This island was intended to strike fear into the hearts of convicts and was where they worked usually in chains, under terrible conditions in the rainforest, felling huge Huon pines for boat building.

James Kelly named Sarah Island after Sarah Birch, the wife of the merchant who had paid for the voyage. Which voyage? The one in about 1815 where he sailed through Hell’s Gates and became the first European to visit Macquarie Harbour.

The island had a few other names as well such as Devils Island, and … um … a few other names that I can’t remember as there was so much information to take in!

This place was a banishment settlement for the worst criminals sent directly from the transport ships in Hobart, those who’d escaped and been recaptured or had committed further crimes while serving a sentence.

Here there was a constant lack of food, not enough space even for these inmates to sleep lying on their backs and as a result constant illness and despair was felt by these 500 men.

They were funneled from all over the Australian colony to this harsh, windswept and barren island. So harsh that execution was considered a mercy and ‘liberty or death’ was a common cry. This was a place filled with blood, brutality, and even cannibalism.

Sarah Island was also the most secure of the penal settlements as any convict who tried to escape not only had to get across the harbour but also had to slash their way through the dense rainforests of the west coast.

There were many escapes (about 160, although very few were successful) including one by James Goodwin who escaped (in a very clever way) and because he knew so much about the uncharted wilderness was promptly employed in the surveyors department!

Alexander Pearce was a prisoner who escaped not once, but twice. His story is fascinating and gruesome. You may have heard of cannibalism on the island – well… this is your man (one of). He escaped along with 11 others who due to extreme hunger drew lots and killed the loser who then became food for the others. This continued until Pearce was the last man standing. He was found with human flesh in his pocket and was tried for murder in Hobart.

At about this time Matthew Brady (now infamous although many (including me) had no idea he was held at Sarah Island) stole a boat and sailed to the Derwent River. Brady was convicted for stealing a basket and some butter, bacon, sugar and rice. During the time he was held he received over 350 lashes for attempts to escape and other crimes. He eventually managed to escape with a small group of men, and they spent 2 years roaming Tasmania as a bushrangers.

He was known as a bit of a gentleman as he always had lovely manners while robbing his victims and some people even helped him out. There are many stories verifying the fact that he only resorted to violence only in self-defence.

Eventually in 1826 he, along with others, was charged with stealing a musket and bayonet, stealing horses, setting fire to a property and murder. He was hanged on May 4, 1826.

There is a beautiful lookout ‘Brady’s Lookout’ on the West Tamar Highway, Rosevears, that offers sweeping views over the Tamar River and surrounding areas.

Sarah Island was a slave labour camp where good quality ships and boats were built on the slips. For a while it was the largest operation of its kind in Australia

with over 130 workboats being built and launched sideways on a slipway. 250 tonne was the largest of the big boats that was launched stern first down a slipway on rollers.

You can still see the large planks of wood under the water near the shore if you have a good pair of polarized sunnies. I couldn’t see anything until I put Chris’s Oakley’s on!

The island was fairly self-sufficient with all of what you’d expect to see in a small town including an open cut quarry where they ground their own wheat.

Wandering the well-defined paths past what remains of the penitentiary, bakehouse and solitary cells, you can’t help but imagine how bad it truly was. And while not much remains in the way of buildings (don’t expect Port Arthur!) it is still hauntingly beautiful. I actually prefer the crumbled bricks and stories of Sarah Island.

The Sarah Island penal settlement was closed in 1833 after the establishment of the penitentiary at Port Arthur.

If you tour the island as part of the Gordon River Cruise, you will have an hour to explore. We couldn’t believe how quickly the time flew by! And yes, we could easily have spent more time there.

This is one place you MUST see as it gives a chilling insight into the horrors of convict life and is especially unnerving given how incredibly beautiful the surrounding wilderness is.

To book your Sarah Island adventure (which is just part of the amazing Gordon River Cruise), head over to https://www.gordonrivercruises.com.au/

Return to Williamsford

by Miriam | Jan 16, 2019 | Adventures, Adventures Couples, Adventures Family, Destinations, Destinations Couples, Destinations Family

This is a very special post written by my mum, Karen.

Karen Mace

Facebook

In a blog post about ghost towns of Tasmania, Andy, the blogger, writes two paragraphs about Williamsford. In the first couple of lines he dubs Williamsford ‘an embarrassment, as if it was a mistake best left forgotten…’. I returned to the now non-existent town recently-the first time I had been there since I left in 1961. On and off over the years I thought about going back but it just never happened. One time I mentioned it to my aunt who grew up, married and had her children there. She shook her head and told me not to even consider it, “there’s nothing there Karen. It’s all gone. There’s nothing to go back to.”

But we went. It was a spur of the moment thing. We were sitting around the table chatting about our plans and the words just popped out of my mouth “We could walk to Montezuma Falls. I did it once when I was about four.” And that meant going back to Williamsford because that’s where the track to Montezuma begins. So, we went. My husband, my very family-oriented, warm-hearted and history loving daughter, her fiancé and I bumped and bounced over the roughly paved road, an improvement on the dirt road I remember rattling over in the old school bus as a child.

We came to a stop right where the Co-Op used to be, on the corner of the road where our house, well, my grandparent’s house, once stood with a flourishing rhododendron in the front yard and a huge pussy willow tree out back. That pussy willow tree was my haven when I had done something that merited punishment. I was pretty good at shimmying up to where grandma couldn’t reach me. I searched with my eyes and Miriam and I walked around a bit hoping to find some evidence of my life in the once thriving little township but whatever might have been there is now lost in the lovely native bush that has reclaimed pretty much all of where we lived, loved and played.

It was an odd feeling being in a place that had so much meaning for me and not being able to see, hear or touch anything that made it special. Across the road from where we stood was where my cousin and I often played happily in a clay patch, but the clay patch didn’t seem to be there anymore. At the beginning of each week grandma ordered our bread for the week and every couple of days, after school, I walked to the Co-Op to pick it up. I remembered fossicking through the rocks surrounding the petrol pumps hoping to find dropped change but even the rocks had disappeared.

Further down the hill we came across the remnants of the Send-off where grandpa worked for so many years and I remembered grandma telling me I was never to go down there. I pressed her for a reason and in few words, grandma told me that my uncle and a couple of friends wandered down there one day and sat on the bank watching grandpa work, “and the bank caved in and buried them alive,” she said, her hands not missing a beat as she creamed the sugar and butter.

I guess it’s different for someone who just breezes in and breezes out of somewhere like Williamsford. There are so many towns like it in Tasmania and its possible to look at them as old, uninteresting ghost towns with nothing to offer. For me though, it was a journey back in time, a place where memories came to life. I heard the echoes of laughter and shouts of glee and saw flashes of me and others in our homemade billycarts careening down the hill. Whispers of voices I’ll never hear again floated around me as my mind reached back to childhood days. The Williamsford I knew was no longer, but for those of us who lived there it could never be an embarrassment or a mistake that should never have happened because that would trivialise all that it once meant to us.