Hello everyone,
Happy New Year to you all, this is my first blog for the new year.
Late last year l finally got my wings back, & let me tell you it was such a wonderful feeling. With this wretched China virus we have all been very restricted with our movements as far as any travel is concerned. However just recently the government has started to ease their hard line approach due to very low numbers of positive tests, thank heavens.
ln early December 2020, authorities lifted restrictions for us New South Wales folks to travel to Tasmania, l immediately took advantage of the situation & booked a flight to Hobart in Tasmania to visit with Pam, an old friend of mine. Pam and I travelled the world for 3-years in our VW Camper van 51-years ago (read about it here). Not knowing how long this travel window of opportunity to Tasmania would exist, l jumped at the chance.
l departed Sydney on the Qantas morning flight to Hobart on board a Boeing 717-200, after take off, looking out the window l said to myself "how good is this?" l felt like l had been released on parole, that is how wonderful it felt.
Our flight landed into Hobart early afternoon, Pam was waiting in the terminal at the baggage carousel for my arrival. l must admit that l was nervous, after 50-years, it had been a very long time between drinks, l had no idea why l was nervous, however l was.
Friday morning I departed her residence a 0600 for the 3-hour drive to check out the Port Arthur Historic Site. Pam could not join me as she had pre-arranged plans & what's more she had been there on numerous occasions.
Upon my arrival at Port Arthur l decided that l would engage a personal guide, it turned out that it was the best decision l made all day. Lyndon (below) turned out to be a walking, talking encyclopedia on the history of Van Diemen's Land & especially Port Arthur Historic Site, we really hit it off together.
On Sunday, 28th April 1996, a tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur's history when a gunman took the lives of 35 people & physically wounded 19 others in & around the Port Arthur Historic site.
Saturday, 12th December, Pam had organised a luncheon for me to meet 15 of her friends, Wow!!! what a spread, the 'Squire' sure does not get looked after like that here in the Shire.
l can assure you, Pam & her friends made me feel like a Maharajah (an Indian Prince) the company & food was absolutely magnificent, & l would like to add that most of the food & fruits came out of Pam's garden. How good is that?
Saturday evening we attended a fundraising event for refugees in a Town Hall in another village approximately 30-minutes from her residence in Cygnet. The weather was still hanging in there.
My good friend Steve Core that spends quite a bit of time in Tassie & is also my personal Tour adviser here in Australia & the USA, recommended that if l have enough time to drive up the East Coast of Tassie on the Tasman Highway towards St Helens l could also drop in & visit a friend of his in Scamander Beach.
Monday morning we departed Scamander at around 0800 because l knew we had a huge day ahead of us because l wanted to check out the Cataract Gorge in Launceston & also l wanted to visit the town of Longford where the famous motor racing circuit is & that was only just a starter for the days sightseeing as there was more to come.
Here's a tip from the 'Squire'. The drive up the Tasman Highway is truly magnificent passing through wonderful small towns along the way especially the highway from Scamander to St Helens & then onto Scottsdale, you won't see any better scenery anywhere in the world.
We arrived at Cataract Gorge in Launceston late morning, Pam had never visited the Gorge & nor had l. The weather was really hot so when we entered the Gorge there were loads of people swimming in the river cooling themselves down. ln one of my photographs you can see the Alexander Suspension Bridge first built in 1904.
We're talking about the Longford Street Circuit, set on public roads. In its day the biggest Motor Sports event in Tasmania. Drivers and bike aces who came across Bass Strait from the mainland on the Princess of Tasmania ferry enjoyed not just the challenge of the circuit, but also the unrivalled hospitality of the locals.
l wanted to check out the Lex Davison Bar that is situated inside the Country Club Hotel. This Hotel is famous because in its day it was the place to be seen & it's where thousands of photographs were taken at this 90-degree corner with the Hotel in the background and the speeding race cars negotiating that tight corner around the Pub's façade.
Inside the current Country Club Hotel is the Lex Davison Memorabilia Bar (below). As a young apprentice motor mechanic Lex Davison was a regular visitor at Ray Morris Motors in Taren Point where l was employed. Lex Davison was tragically killed at Sandown race track in Victoria in 1965. (at that time l was only a young 18yo whipper snapper).
My visit to this famous Longford motor racing track bought back many wonderful memories for me during this Golden Era of motor racing in Australia during the '50s & '60s. Unfortunately, a list of former Longford Event winners like, Jack Brabham, Bruce McClaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark & John Surtees - all are no longer with us.
Displayed in the front window of the famous pub is a former Targa Tasmania race car No.53 (above). Are you bored yet?
Once we departed Longford heading south on the Midland Highway towards Hobart, Pam suggested that we check out a beautiful little town named Ross, which is just a short distance off the highway. Pam has friends there, so we dropped by & enjoyed a cuppa tea & home made scones with fresh cream & jam. Simply delicious.
The stunning Colonial charm of the Ross main streetscape cannot be ignored. Uniquely, you can stroll amongst the splendid buildings erected in Australia’s earliest years or walk across the sandstone carved bridge that was finished in 1836.
We managed to miss a few Wallabies & Wombats on the highway heading home to Cygnet, arriving home around 2100 safe & sound. We were exhausted after a very eventful & satisfying couple of days on the road collapsing into bed for a good night's sleep.
Tuesday, 15th December, was my last day on the Apple island, however l had one more adventure before my departure from Hobart back to Sydney at 1800 this evening.
St Ayles skiffs are a kit built to a 2000 design by Australian Ian Oughtred, based on the Fair Isle style & similar skiffs that have been in use around Britain for hundreds of years. There are now around 200 of these vessels world-wide. Measuring 6.7 metres long, with four rowers & a cox, they are a fast, stable & dry boat. To keep costs down, the design is simple, non-sliding seats or feathering oars.
Guess what? A couple of days after l returned home to Sydney the authorities in Tassie closed the border again, so how lucky was l that my adventure was fulfilled.
Cheers for now, from the 'Squire from the Shire'.
Warbo
Happy New Year to you all, this is my first blog for the new year.
Late last year l finally got my wings back, & let me tell you it was such a wonderful feeling. With this wretched China virus we have all been very restricted with our movements as far as any travel is concerned. However just recently the government has started to ease their hard line approach due to very low numbers of positive tests, thank heavens.
ln early December 2020, authorities lifted restrictions for us New South Wales folks to travel to Tasmania, l immediately took advantage of the situation & booked a flight to Hobart in Tasmania to visit with Pam, an old friend of mine. Pam and I travelled the world for 3-years in our VW Camper van 51-years ago (read about it here). Not knowing how long this travel window of opportunity to Tasmania would exist, l jumped at the chance.
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| Pam and I enjoying a cuppa on the Tassie road at the Blowhole in Bicheno on Tasmania's east coast. |
l departed Sydney on the Qantas morning flight to Hobart on board a Boeing 717-200, after take off, looking out the window l said to myself "how good is this?" l felt like l had been released on parole, that is how wonderful it felt.
Our flight landed into Hobart early afternoon, Pam was waiting in the terminal at the baggage carousel for my arrival. l must admit that l was nervous, after 50-years, it had been a very long time between drinks, l had no idea why l was nervous, however l was.
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| Pam's homey cottage in the picturesque village of Cygnet, in southern Tasmania |
Fifty years is a long time especially after the long & winding highway of life that we have both been on, she has had her life & so have l. Anyway, to cut a long story short everything turned out perfectly, we greeted each other then hopped into her Honda Jazz for the 2-hour drive to the southern tip of Tasmania to a little village called Cygnet, in the Houn Valley, where Pam lives.
Pam lives in a beautiful home with a superb cottage garden (see photos) that she has built & manicured herself over the past 10-years. Luckily for me, the weather upon my arrival was near perfect & they had forecast the weather to be most pleasant for the next week. Looks like l already kicked my first goal right there & then.
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| Pam (far left) and her merry band of friends gather in her kitchen to provide a welcome meet & greet luncheon in Cygnet for me. |
That evening we sat & chatted & tried to catch up on each other's lives over the past half a century. l really did not want to let the grass grow under my feet as time was limited & there was so much to see & do over the next few days.
Pam suggested that l could borrow her car, l jumped at her offer & decided that l would drive to Port Arthur on the Friday. That left the next day Thursday spare to discover the picturesque town of Cygnet & meet up with some of her local friends.
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| Pam's patio in Cygnet awash with the colours of Summer |
Friday morning I departed her residence a 0600 for the 3-hour drive to check out the Port Arthur Historic Site. Pam could not join me as she had pre-arranged plans & what's more she had been there on numerous occasions.
Upon my arrival at Port Arthur l decided that l would engage a personal guide, it turned out that it was the best decision l made all day. Lyndon (below) turned out to be a walking, talking encyclopedia on the history of Van Diemen's Land & especially Port Arthur Historic Site, we really hit it off together.
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| Me with my personal guide to the Port Arthur Historic Site - Lyndon (on the left). |
We rode around the site in his golf buggy as he explained everything about this former place of hardship and punishment in the broadest of detail. He spent 4-hours as my very own personal guide (because it was not very busy with tourists) & no one else had booked a tour with him.
Total cost including Site entry to Port Arthur & Lyndon's personal guidance services $70.00. Now if that wasn't a deal l have no idea what is.
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| Port Arthur Historic Site is a large site holding a great many stories. Places like the Penitentiary, which was originally constructed as a flour mill and granary in 1843, before it housed hundreds of convicts in dormitories and solitary cells. |
The Port Arthur penal station was originally established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, using convict labour to produce sawn logs for use on Government projects. From 1833 onwards, Port Arthur was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.
By 1840 more than 2,000 convicts, soldiers & civil staff lived here & Port Arthur was a major industrial settlement. With convict transportation to Van Diemen's Land ceasing in 1853. The penal settlement closed in 1877, tourism began almost immediately after the closure of the penal settlement.
Today, the site is managed by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority, which was formed in October 1987.
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| Port Arthur is now one of Australia’s most important heritage destinations, where the story of Australia’s colonial history is written in stone and brick. |
On Sunday, 28th April 1996, a tragic chapter was added to Port Arthur's history when a gunman took the lives of 35 people & physically wounded 19 others in & around the Port Arthur Historic site.
The memorial Garden incorporates the shell of the Broad Arrow Cafe, where 20 people were killed during the massacre. The garden has been created as a place of remembrance & quiet reflection. (below).
What a great day, l continued to explore around the Port Arthur Historic Site soaking up the atmosphere until late afternoon & then drove leisurely back to Cygnet arriving home before the sun had set.
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| Beyond the reflection pool is the outline of the former Broad Arrow Cafe - the site of the horrific 1996 massacre |
Saturday, 12th December, Pam had organised a luncheon for me to meet 15 of her friends, Wow!!! what a spread, the 'Squire' sure does not get looked after like that here in the Shire.
l can assure you, Pam & her friends made me feel like a Maharajah (an Indian Prince) the company & food was absolutely magnificent, & l would like to add that most of the food & fruits came out of Pam's garden. How good is that?
Saturday evening we attended a fundraising event for refugees in a Town Hall in another village approximately 30-minutes from her residence in Cygnet. The weather was still hanging in there.
 |
| Me outside Dale's Scamander Beach Surf Shop directly in front of the famous surf break at the Scamander River Mouth |
My good friend Steve Core that spends quite a bit of time in Tassie & is also my personal Tour adviser here in Australia & the USA, recommended that if l have enough time to drive up the East Coast of Tassie on the Tasman Highway towards St Helens l could also drop in & visit a friend of his in Scamander Beach.
We planned to overnight in that area so l booked accommodation in Scamander Beach on the Sunday evening so that l could kill two birds with one stone & say hello to Steve's friend Dale who lives right on the beach and has his Surf Shop in his driveway. As luck would have it Dale's house was only 500 mtrs from our Motel.
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| The perfect natural settings of the Cataract Gorge located on the South Esk River near Launceston |
Monday morning we departed Scamander at around 0800 because l knew we had a huge day ahead of us because l wanted to check out the Cataract Gorge in Launceston & also l wanted to visit the town of Longford where the famous motor racing circuit is & that was only just a starter for the days sightseeing as there was more to come.
Here's a tip from the 'Squire'. The drive up the Tasman Highway is truly magnificent passing through wonderful small towns along the way especially the highway from Scamander to St Helens & then onto Scottsdale, you won't see any better scenery anywhere in the world.
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Alexander Suspension Bridge - wander across the footbridge that links the two areas or take a chairlift ride across the expansive Gorge. Further upstream is the historic Duck Reach Power Station. |
From the Cataract Gorge our next port of call was to Longford about a 20-minute drive south of Launceston. Longford is situated just off the Midland Highway heading South. Now the reason why l wanted to go to Longford was for purely for automotive nostalgia purposes.
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| After our visit to the Cataract Gorge it was time to head south to Longford in my quest to uncover the old Australian Grand Prix motor racing circuit of the '50s & '60s |
This little story is for all you old petrol heads & those of you that can still remember this once very famous motor racing circuit of a now by-gone Golden Era in Australian motor racing history from the '50s & '60s.
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The local map illustrating the layout of the old Longford Circuit, many sections can still be driven on |
l wanted to check out the Lex Davison Bar that is situated inside the Country Club Hotel. This Hotel is famous because in its day it was the place to be seen & it's where thousands of photographs were taken at this 90-degree corner with the Hotel in the background and the speeding race cars negotiating that tight corner around the Pub's façade.
Inside the current Country Club Hotel is the Lex Davison Memorabilia Bar (below). As a young apprentice motor mechanic Lex Davison was a regular visitor at Ray Morris Motors in Taren Point where l was employed. Lex Davison was tragically killed at Sandown race track in Victoria in 1965. (at that time l was only a young 18yo whipper snapper).
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| The memorial plaque dedicated to Lex Davison in the Country Club Hotel in Longford, Tas. |
Many experts considered Lex Davison the greatest driver of his time. ln one of my Blogs when l wrote the story about Stirling Moss's brush with fame, yours truly, Stirling Moss told me that when he was here in Australia to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Australian Grand Prix he & his wife stayed with Lex Davison's widow.
My visit to this famous Longford motor racing track bought back many wonderful memories for me during this Golden Era of motor racing in Australia during the '50s & '60s. Unfortunately, a list of former Longford Event winners like, Jack Brabham, Bruce McClaren, Graham Hill, Jim Clark & John Surtees - all are no longer with us.
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The Country Club Hotel, whose very right-hand corner was once a 90-degree cornerstone turn on Longford's long lost GP circuit |
Even in '60s terms, Tasmania's former super-fast street circuit had it all. It featured flat-out blasts down straight country roads. It had a dramatic S-bend under a railway viaduct, a jump over a not-very-level crossing and bumpy trips across two narrow wooden bridges, with long & fast straights in-between... even its own trackside Pub.
I was very disappointed when l visited the former Longford track on this trip because there is almost nothing left of the original circuit, so don't waste your time & effort. Today it’s just open fields, the wooden bridges have gone, and there are no clues that anything of significance once stood here, apart from a single concrete block that once formed the base of a footbridge.
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| A former Targa Tasmania rally car on permanent static display in Longford's Country Club Hotel |
Displayed in the front window of the famous pub is a former Targa Tasmania race car No.53 (above). Are you bored yet?
Once we departed Longford heading south on the Midland Highway towards Hobart, Pam suggested that we check out a beautiful little town named Ross, which is just a short distance off the highway. Pam has friends there, so we dropped by & enjoyed a cuppa tea & home made scones with fresh cream & jam. Simply delicious.
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| Red Telephone boxes stand as potent symbols of the past on the historic streetscape in the town of Ross. |
The stonemasons and their apprentices who laboured on this sandstone bridge over the Macquarie River were all convicts.
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The Cenotaph in the main street features a Boer War era, 19-Pounder, 1896, Field Canon set on two wooded-spoked wheels with iron rims. |
Vintage red Telephone boxes & a Cenotaph slap-bang in the middle of a main road intersection in Tasmania's finest heritage village in the main street of Ross, plus this 200-year-old Ross Bridge (below) just on the edge of town.
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| Built in 1836, the Ross Bridge is an exquisite sandstone bridge, built by convict labour & quarried from local sandstone by chain gangs |
It was starting to get quite late in the afternoon, Pam was concerned that we should head for home because she didn't like driving at night because of the wildlife that came out at dusk.
We managed to miss a few Wallabies & Wombats on the highway heading home to Cygnet, arriving home around 2100 safe & sound. We were exhausted after a very eventful & satisfying couple of days on the road collapsing into bed for a good night's sleep.
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| Colourful flotsam and jetsam around the twin slipways of the Port Cygnet Sailing Club |
Tuesday, 15th December, was my last day on the Apple island, however l had one more adventure before my departure from Hobart back to Sydney at 1800 this evening.
One of Pam's friends is a member of the Port Cygnet Sailing Club that has a very enthusiastic group of rowing members, with two St.Ayles skiffs, 'The Swan' & 'The Cygnet', active six days a week.
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| With well over 100 registered moorings the Port Cygnet Sailing Club is a popular spot |
Our coxswain, John from the skiff 'The Swan' called Pam & asked if l would be interested in going for a row with his skiff crew because one of his team called in sick & he required another willing crew member.
In for a penny in for a pound, so l said sure, count me in. l walked down to the Port Cygnet Sailing Club & joined John & his crew. John is a 82yo and talks with a very stiff upper lip because he is British & was a Submariner in the Royal Navy in WWII.
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Here I'm acting as a replacement crew member, called out on stand-by to man the No.3 oar on our way to the Port Cygnet Sailing Club |
What an adventure that was, thankfully the wind was not howling in the morning. We rowed up the Cygnet Bay for approx 30-minutes then turned around & headed back to the Club for a well-earned rest.
St Ayles skiffs are a kit built to a 2000 design by Australian Ian Oughtred, based on the Fair Isle style & similar skiffs that have been in use around Britain for hundreds of years. There are now around 200 of these vessels world-wide. Measuring 6.7 metres long, with four rowers & a cox, they are a fast, stable & dry boat. To keep costs down, the design is simple, non-sliding seats or feathering oars.
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Me working hard on the No.3 oar of the St Ayles skiff, 'The Swan' and John the ex-Royal Navy Coxswain, yelling orders |
There are now several of these skiffs in Tasmania: three at the Living Boat Trust based in Franklin, Imagine, Billie & Freya, along with the Chiton at Taroona & they all often compete in local, interstate & even international regattas.
That my friends, is my adventure visiting Pam in Cygnet, Tasmania. l spent only six full days on the island, thoroughly enjoyed myself, my travels & all the people l met. We drove back up to Hobart so that l could catch my flight home to Sydney at 1800.
That my friends, is my adventure visiting Pam in Cygnet, Tasmania. l spent only six full days on the island, thoroughly enjoyed myself, my travels & all the people l met. We drove back up to Hobart so that l could catch my flight home to Sydney at 1800.
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| A Tasmanian Scallop Pie is chock full of fresh Tasmanian Sea Scallops in a creamy mild curry sauce and baked to perfection |
Along the way back up to Hobart Airport l could not help myself as I had one last personal treat in mind. We stopped off to purchase eight Tassie Scallop Pies. Believe me, these pies are full of fresh Tasmanian pristine Sea Scallops. Baked to an original recipe that started on the wharves & docks of Hobart in the 19th Century.
The spare pies I brought home for family & friends, as edible gifts from Tasmania. What a perfect way to end my six-day adventure to Tassie.
Guess what? A couple of days after l returned home to Sydney the authorities in Tassie closed the border again, so how lucky was l that my adventure was fulfilled.
Cheers for now, from the 'Squire from the Shire'.
Warbo
