from LJ

St Marys

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Not a lot of photos from here, because we just stopped to post something and get a milkshake.

Settlements were established in the Fingal Valley in the 1820s and 1830s for mining and farming, but access was unreliable due to flooding and there’s not much point mining and farming if you can’t get goods out (or in). So the government decided to build a pass through the mountains to connect the valley to the coast. In the early 1840s, a probation station was built near here, and another one on the coastal side and, from memory, about 400 men put to work building St Marys Pass. 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.

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Avoca

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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
I really should know more about this town than I do and I have lost my local history book so you’ll have to make do with looking at the pictures and making up your own descriptions.

Avoca was first settled in the 1830s. The population now is about 200 or less.

Hotel
The Union Hotel built 1842. You can see the typical Georgian hotel lines behind the additions.

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Fingal

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(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.

The town spreads out along the main road (the highway) so I thought I’d show it from west to east, starting here. So fire station and then an odd building on the corner.

This puzzled us. Mother thought it might be a lodge or something. I said my map just had it as ‘hall’ but looking at it now, it only has ‘War Memorial’ in that spot. Mother decided it looked like a council chambers, but I thought that was elsewhere.

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.

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Orford

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Welcome
Orford is just south of Triabunna. The population for most of the year is 400-500 people, but rises to something like 3000 over summer. Want to guess what sort of town it is?

Road
Coming in from the north, just after the bridge, the highway turns inland and heads towards Hobart and the towns of the south east. I guess that makes it the last town on the east coast.

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Sorell

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(That’s S’rell, not Sorrel.)

Photo 2
When the British settlers first spread out from their Derwent base, many of them headed east, into the Coal River Valley, and up along the east coast (encouraged by the settlement on Maria Island that needed supplies). The road to the east goes through Sorell, and when the settlement on the Tasman Peninsula was established, that road also passed through Sorell. The town is named for Lieutenant Gov Sorell, who inherited Davey’s mess and was replaced by Arthur, so prior to 1825. It’s a location that comes up time and time again in early records. And yet…

We went to the Information Centre. This is a place where tourists can go and get useful information (that is, brochures) about accommodation, tourist attractions and anything else that tourists might need to know.

Photo 7
The Sorell Information Centre (former church hall) is on the main street. It’s a nice big room with lots of brochures for all around the state divided up by regions. Nothing stood out for Sorell, so we asked the young guy at the counter. He looked a little… desperate. He did produce a leaflet that showed the locations of a couple of antique shops and a hobby shop. This obviously wasn’t what we wanted. Then he came out with a much-copied B&W map showing Interesting Buildings. That was more like it. Sort of. We assured him (I hope) that this was all we needed and we departed.

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Swansea

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This is Swansea, part historic town, part beach resort.

Main street, near carpark
The first British settlement in the area was a grant given to George Meredith in 1821. Actually, he was one of a group of partners who took up grants in the area. He was also heavily involved in early colonial politics, but if you’re interested in that, follow the link.

Beach
Swansea is on top corner of Oyster Bay, which is the large bay on the east coast that shows up on any map with some level of detail, with Freycinet Peninsula forming the other side.

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Derby

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I’ve never been to Derby before.

It’s an old mining town: tin, discovered in the 1870s. The town grew up — the population was about 3000 at one point — the mine went away, the town dwindled. The population at the 2006 census was 300. Although it is still a busy little town, except on Saturdays at 4 pm, because of the Tin Centre.

Street - pub
Like many small towns along the highways, Derby is strung out along that road. Unlike most of those small towns, there are not lots of back streets full of houses. What you see along the main road is pretty much it.

It also feels like the town is clinging to the side of a hill.

Pub
Dorset Hotel

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