Towns. Photos. Photos of towns.
Not a lot of photos from here, because we just stopped to post something and get a milkshake.
In the years that followed, a settlement grew up at the base of the mountains and eventually became a town that took its name from the nearby pass. In 1857, the tourist information kiosk in the photo says.
The Fingal Valley was a mining area, tin, coal and one large gold area. Now it’s just coal, that I’m aware of. There are a lot of mineral deposits through here, but nothing substantial enough to support a large scale mining operation. Despite the name, the river that runs through here is the South Esk.
The Esk Highway (A4) runs through here, connecting the Midlands to the East Coast. There are three towns along the highway, and the first of these is Avoca.
Avoca was first settled in the 1830s. The population now is about 200 or less.
(Note: the paragraphs that start with bold text are from the town’s visitor information panel. I take no responsibility for errors of fact. Errors of spelling or grammar are probably due to my typing though.)
The town of Fingal was established in the 1820s. According to the census, the population in 2006 was 450. It is a town that has obvious signs of being bigger and busier in the past than what it is now.
When I went back to the car, I looked at the information board we’d parked in front of. (I took a photo of the information section but when I went to take a photo of the accompanying map, the camera decided it wouldn’t take photos when I’d zoomed in, so I had the information on me but couldn’t match it to whatever we were looking at.) Anyway, once I found the spot on the map, we found out it was:
Original Fingal Council Chambers c. 1882 Partially burnt down after being flood in 1929. Valuable municipal records prior to 1929 were totally destroyed. The building was the original Council Chambers with the Municipal Gaol being located underneath. It has been used as a Town Hall since 1974. The edifice is subject to rising damp.
[Especially when the river floods?]
The street that runs down the front of the damp council chambers leads to the railway and the railway station. When passenger services were stopped back in Tasmania in the 1970s, the stations were mostly removed. Those few remaining were converted to other uses. So I wasn’t expecting much when we went down there.
