On our way from Bicheno to Launceston we stopped for lunch in the town of Ross. It’s a wonderfully well-preserved historic town on the Macquarie River. It also has a dramatic history — many of the beautiful stone homes and structures were built by convict labor. Convicts were sent here specifically to build this bridge, but it took five long years to complete because wealthy local people would use the sandstone quarried by the convict gangs for their own homes and buildings instead of the bridge! Finally, with some better oversight the bridge was finished in 1836.
Another remnant of Tasmania’s dark past is the Ross Female Factory. Don’t let the name fool you—they weren’t cloning or assembling women here back in the 1800’s. The factory was a women’s workhouse prison — it’s one of 11 convict sites in Australia that are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Hundreds of women served sentences of varying lengths here, before being released and likely hired on as domestic servants by other Tasmanian families. Many were unwed mothers, and there was a well-run lying-in hospital onsite (the equivalent of today’s maternity ward).
As we were walking from the bridge to the factory, we noticed an orchard full of what looked like ripe cherry trees.
There were so many and it didn’t look like it was private land, so we helped ourselves to a few. These yellow ones were particularly sweet.
On our way into Launceston, we stopped for a wine tasting at Josef Chromy vineyards. This part of northern Tassie is the gateway to the Tamar Valley wine region, which is known in Australia for its sparkling wines. We didn’t want to drink much, just try a couple sips of bubbles before heading on to the hotel. But as our server was setting the wines down, she accidentally dumped two glasses of sparkling wine right into my lap! I didn’t make a big deal out of it because my jeans were barely wet, most of the wine landed on my arm, and honestly I was just grateful that it wasn’t a ruby red pinot noir that got spilled. But she felt so bad that she kept bringing extra glasses of all the wines open for tasting (way, way more than what we’d ordered). Kevin had to drive, so he abstained, which meant that I ended up drinking the lion’s share of all these tasting glasses! All the wines were pretty good, but I would probably say I’ve had enough wine tasting to last me for a while!
The town of Launceston was fairly quiet since it was a Sunday evening. We walked through town for a couple hours before the sun set. I really liked this very Tasmanian mural— they seem to be very big on murals here in this north/midlands part of the island.
The must-see sight in Launceston is the Cataract Gorge Reserve. It’s literally a huge 5 kilometer gorge right in the heart of town. A bridge was built across the South Esk River in 1867, and tourists have been coming here to admire the gorge ever since. The walking path along the north side of the gorge was so popular with Victorian tourists back in the day that they built a toll booth to charge admission. The cottage in the photo below is where the tollkeeper used to live. Nice view, right?
Luckily for us, they no longer charge a toll to see this stunning scenery. It was a very pleasant way to end the day!
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