Xenith

Richmond is just north-east of Hobart, in the Coal River Valley. In the early days of British settlement, as settlers moved out looking for places to farm, this is where many of them went.

With the bridge over the Coal River, Richmond was on the road to both the east coast and the Tasman Peninsula & Port Arthur. These days the highway to both goes more to the south, bypassing Richmond. With its large collection of Georgian and sandstone buildings, Richmond is very much a tourist town now, lots of traffic, lots of people, lots of galleries and cafe, and things to look at. You could spend a day here, easily.

We only had an hour and fifteen minutes though, which was supposed to include lunch (I ate mine on the bus), so I didn’t have time to do much more than take a lot of quick photos 🙁

Alluvial gold was discovered near Queen River in the 1880s. From “Let’s Talk About Queenstown, put out by the then Tasmanian Visitor Corporation:

The news of the rich gold reef was welcomes by Pieman River diggers who found it hard to make a living from the worked out creeks, and many walked down to F.O. Henry’s store at Long Bay (Strahan) to get stores and mining implements before going up the King River.

The going was very rough. After reaching the navigable part of the King River there were rapids to be negotiated at frequent intervals, and often the boat had to be towed from the banks. The land journey was worse — through almost impenetrable jungle, packs had to be carried on men’s back. Incessant rainfall soon turned tracks in quagmire, stinking with rotten vegetation — a trap for man and later for horses used on the trail.