Oatlands, Tasmania

There is a lot of history in Oatlands, Tasmania, Australia and the town with Australia's largest collection of sandstone Georgian buildings.  There are 150 of them, mostly convict built, including 87 along the main street.

Oatlands is named after the English town in Surrey.

The most prominent building in the town is Callington Mill, Australia's third oldest windmill (1837) and the centrepiece of the Callington Mill Distillery.

Oatlands developed around a military precinct in the late 1820's and it's impressive courthouse was the only Supreme Court in regional Tasmania, which meant it could deliver death sentences. Eighteen convicts were executed inside the town's large gaol, and the walls and archway are still standing.

Callington Mill the second photo taken the other day, the top one taken a few years ago.

The house (was the hospital many years ago) where I was born, in the right hand back corner was the room according to my late mother.

Below are some of the houses and centre's related to the council these days.

Interesting how the homes are built next to the footpath, out the front door onto it.

The Police Station above, the Chemist shop below.

On the map Oatlands is above Hobart with the red marking around the area.

Kentish Hotel, Oatlands, Tasmania

Oatlands is 166km from Launceston and takes about 1 hour and 14 minutes if you get a good run as in driving.  Husband and I went there the other day for lunch, made up our minds and off we went.  Oatlands is in the country just off the highway to Hobart down south and Launceston to the north.  Oatlands is the most intact Georgian town in Australia and it's the town where I was born but never lived there.

The Hotel we went to for lunch is the only one there, called the Oatlands Hotel once, now called The Kentish Hotel and is a heritage listed country pub, was built in 1832 and is considered a community hub, offering a bar, restaurant, cafe, and accommodation. 

The first photo is of the Hotel which has been made a little more modern on the inside. It's been given a coat of paint on the outside.  

2nd photo is part of Lake Dulverton where we once used to stay overnight in the caravan, sometimes. 

3rd photo is of the dining room and cafe.

There will be more photos in another post of the buildings.

Oatlands on the map has the red dots around it and is above Hobart.

Dingoes

Dingoes are believed to have been introduced into Australia by Aboriginal peoples between 4,600 and 18,300 thousand years ago and may have come from ancient domestic dogs in East Asia.  The dingo's status as a native or introduced species in Australia has been a controversy.  According to Miike Letnic of the University of New South Wales, the dingo, as Australia's top predator, has an important role in maintaining the balance of nature.  Where dingoes had been excluded by the fence dingo fence, Letnic found reduced biodiversity, with fewer native mammals.   Wikipedia.

There are no dingoes in Tasmania.

A few facts about Dingoes, they do not bark like a dog but howl, chortle, yelp, whine, growl, chatter, snort, cough and purr.

They have a broad diet including fresh meat, fish, eggs and carrion.

They have a strict social hierarchy and regularly mate for life.

Their breeding cycle, March to June.

They bite humans sometimes and have been known to take babies.

These photos are borrowed.  I have photos of dingoes, but they are not as good as these.

The Dingo Fence.

The Dingo Fence

It's hard to believe that Australia has the longest fence in the world, the Dingo Fence and it's 5,614km long, 15 km from Coober Pedy.  It was built in 1885 to protect the sheep in the southern states of Australia by keeping out dingoes and other wild dogs.

The idea for the dingo proof fence emerged in the late 19th century, with the first rabbit-proof fences being built in the 1860's and 1870's to protect crops from the introduced rabbit populations.

The construction of the fence began in the 1940's with the idea of joining existing fences creating a continuous barrier which goes through 3 States of Australia.  Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia.  

The fence is 180 cm or 6ft high and of wire mesh.

While designed to protect livestock, the fence has had significant impacts on native wildlife, including increased kangaroo populations inside the fence due to the lack of dingo predation.  There are still ongoing debates regarding the fence.

At the Edge of the Desert.

 At the edge of the Desert in Western Australia we went looking for Wildflowers near a place called Carnarvan in that State.  How delighted we were to come across the flowers that I'm showing.  Somewhere there is always a flower in bloom.  These were taken in the springtime.

The Painted Desert.

Mother nature is the painter of this beautiful desert landscape in the State of South Australia.  It is 120 klms north-east of Coober Pedy, in the Arckaringa Station pastoral lease, not far from the homestead.  It is notable for its distinctive mesas, mountains, and geological formations.

The Painted Desert was seabed 80 million years ago.  As the land rose, some of the rock has eroded away, leaving the Arckaringa Hills in many shades of orange, yellow, and white shale on the slopes.

We have been to The Painted Desert a few times. It only seems like last year we were there the second time around however it's been 10 years!  These photos were taken then.

Two maps of the area, a long way from home and a closer map showing a few Stations, these ones have cattle.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

 St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in many areas of Tasmania due to so many past and present immigrants from Ireland including many of my ancestors at the time of the potato famine in Ireland.

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon, and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave.  It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to become a priest.

According to legend, Saint Patrick used the three-leaved shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to Irish pagans.
In 432, he again said that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to Christianize the Irish from their native polytheism. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of evangelism, he died on 17 March 461, and according to tradition, was buried at Downpatrick. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish church.

A popular legend is that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland.