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Travelling
Australia with Wayne & Pam BENTLEY |
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THE
DAILY JOURNAL Sunday 28th March 2004 to Wednesday 31st March 2004 |
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Today was another domestic Day and the washing was one of the first things that had to be done. Also some rearranging within the caravan was required, particularly in respect to the location of the computer to create easy access to the computer controls. This entailed getting out of the wood saw and hacking a hole through the plywood under one of the seats. This sounds dramatic, however the end result worked out okay. we also rearranged some of our storage draws and can now claim some sort of organisation within the caravan for the time being. This renovation rescue took most of the morning so it was sandwiches for lunch before we left on a short sight seeing trip back up the West Tamar Highway. We traveled north through Exeter and then through Sidmouh before crossing the Tamar River at the Batman Bridge. This breach is rather unique they tell us has it is only supported on one side, this may be a little misleading as it appears what they mean is that there is only an overhead support on one side of the wide expanse of the bridge whilst on the other side just sits on upright mental pylons. From the same or bridge we continued to travel north on the East Tamar Highway to Bell Bay and Georgetown, where we found ourselves outside another Chickenfeed shop. This meant that we had to investigate what goodies this shop may be holding for us, so after spending about a half and hour browsing through the shop we left with our arms full of essential items that we must have (and we were out of pocket by about $42.) We then continued up the Tamar Highway until we reached Low Head lighthouse where we stopped and took a view more photographs. We then returned to the caravan park via the East Tamar Highway through Dilston and Launceston. Tomorrow we shall be moving from Lagana to Ross, so we are currently packed up as much as we can to allow us to get away on time without having to see the sun come up in the morning. As daylight saving has now ended in Tasmania, we will have to re-schedule our drinks time and right now that must be a priority to sort that out. |
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And we are on the move again, however it didn't require an early start as we were only moving about seventy kilometres to a small historic town called Ross. After packing the last items into the caravan we moved out and 'on the road again' by 9:40am. We drove through Launceston and Perth before turning off to the east for a visit to the historic village of Evandale. This is a small village that consists mostly of heritage buildings that appear to still be in use and promoting tourism in the area. After having to travel a distance past Evandale before being able to turn around with a caravan on the back of the Patrol, we drove back through Evandale., onto the highway again and continued south through Epping Forest, Cleveland and Campbell Town before arriving in Ross at about 11:30am. Campell Town appears to deserve another visit and the main street of Ross itself looks like a place that we could spend quite some time wandering down tomorrow. At about 3:30pm a very strong wind blew up and then eased to a moderate gusting breeze and although no rain has fallen, it does look as though that is a possibility later this evening as that has been forecast. Tomorrow our plans are to return to Campbell Town as they profess to have a Convict Trail and many other interesting historic sites. |
 Evandale. Post Office A historic village South of Launceston |
Today was one of those day's that started last night! Prior to dinner we decided to stroll down to the local hotel and have a drink before dinner however that drink extended to having dinner there but definitely not sweets, well not until the main course was finished and a list of available sweets was noticed. Needless to say we ended up having a very nice apricot crumble with ice cream and cream, this was after a true pub meal of fish and chips for one of us and chicken parmegana for the other. This morning we took a drive back north to Campbell Town where we walked the street along the convicts trial. This trial is made up of bricks laid end to end and each one has the name of a convict, the ship they were transported in, their age and the offence they were transported for. While walking in this convict trial we discovered a brick with the name John Grundy on it. This created great interest as Pam new that her Great Grandfather Samuel Grundy was a lighthouse keeper on Bruny Island and that her Grandmother is believed to be the first white baby born on Bruny Island, however was not aware of any details of her Great Great Grandfather. As there appeared to be a connection in this case we followed up by speaking to the person who has established this convict trial. From this we ascertained that the brick was sponsored by a person with the name Sue Adams and he was able to give us the telephone number to contact her. We rang Sue and ascertained that her Great Grandmother Henrietta and Pam's Grandmother Martha were sisters and were John Grundy's granddaughters. The information of the brick about John Grundy being a Lighthouse Keeper on Bruny Island appears to have been misinterpreted when the information for the brick was collated and is incorrect, as it was John Grundy's son Samuel that was the Lighthouse keeper on Bruny Island, not John. We have now made arrangements to meet up with Sue when we arrive in Devonport just before we leave Tasmania to exchange greetings and maybe learn a little more about Pam's family tree. After this bit of enlightenment, we continued our walk around Campbell Town and 'one of us' needed a chocolate fix from the local chocolate store and a pie from the local bakery before we could move on to the little cemetery that we had passed on the way into the town. We visited most of the old headstones in this cemetery but could not recognise any of the owners of these plots, so we returned to Ross for the afternoon. We then walked up the street into Ross and visited another store that sold antiques, souvenirs and lollies before returning to the caravan for the evening. Tomorrow we will have a much closer inspection of Ross and all it's attractions. |
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Last night it was time for me to take a stroll a short distance from our caravan to view and take some photographs of the local Ross War Memorial and the Ross Bridge (the third oldest bridge in Tasmania and was built by convicts) which are both lit up at night. As one might expect, there was not very much traffic on the road and I was able to take some time exposure photographs without car lights interfering (or running over me either!). The results may not show the full effect of lighting on the structures, however for a small country town they were quite impressive. On my return to the caravan, I was able to clamber into the caravan, load the images into the computer, clatter around while I had my shower and climb into bed without disturbing 'one of us' who was making like sleeping beauty. Considering she is always chatting up old blokes around the caravan park (and anyone else that stands still for long enough) it was a good thing it was me returning - it could have been anyone (or maybe that was the plan). Today was a quiet day and was used to catch up with all the accounting and data entry that hadn't been done over the past month. Then we took a walk around Ross and up to the 'Female Factory', but there is no need for the blokes to get too worried (or excited for that matter) as it is really just the remains of a women's detention centre that was in operation during the convict transportation years in the mid 1800's. There is not a lot left of the actual detention centre but the remains of it can be seen and there is one building still standing as it used to be all those years ago. We believe that it was called the 'Female Factory' because the inmates were taught domestic skills to encourage them in to employment when they completed their sentences. It does not relate to the number of babies that the inmates produced and were cared for by the detention centre nurses. Unfortunately the season changed to winter while we were out walking and it started to rain, so we made our way back to the caravan where it was dry and the heater was warming it up for us. Tomorrow we move on to Richmond, which is only about thirty kilometres north east of Hobart. |
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