Exploring the environs of Launceston and the Tamar valley was a real treat. We had no idea that the Tamar River was so large – 50km or so up to Launceston and hundreds of metres across. We also took the opportunity to visit 3 nice towns to the south of the City, and to get out to the ocean on the western side of the valley. It was a long but very fruitful day.
We visited Launceston & the Tamar Valley on Wednesday 9th October 2019.
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
Getting There
Shearwater > Exeter (55kms) > Cateract Gorge (24kms) > Perth (19kms) > George Town (68kms) > Greens Beach (53kms) > Shearwater (90kms) ~ some 309kms in total
We were staying at Shearwater so had a bit of drive to get over towards Launceston. We drove to Exeter, about half way between Launceston and the coast, then to Cataract Gorge, then to 3 of the outer villages, before heading down the eastern side of the Valley. We then crossed the Batman Bridge and travelled north on the western side to the coast.
History
A short history of Tasmania, from First Nation times to the arrival and growth of English colonial development, to the decimation of the First Nation Tasmanians, can be read here.
Shearwater to Cataract Gorge
It was another bitterly cold morning and we had a long day ahead of us. The drive across to Exeter is so typical of this area – lush green farmlands, occasional forests and with a backdrop of mountains in nearly every direction. We passed a lovely little church on the way.
When we reached the A7, we turned right towards Launceston and immediately were beside the Tamar River. We were both very surprised to see how big this river is – it is an enormous expanse of water. The road south to Launceston ran parallel and close to the river, so we got some very nice pictures along the waterway. There were also some lovely homes with great views across the river. It really is a very appealing area.
Closer to Launceston, we passed quite a large wetland, and then we came to Tailrace Park. As the name suggests, Tailrace Park is located next to a tailrace, this one from the Trevallyn Hydroelectric Power Station. This was a lovely little park with a boat ramp and great views along the tailrace. There are a number of boats at anchor and loads of ducks as always looking for a feed. One was a very unusual white duck with a black head.
Approaching Launceston we began to see some lovely homes. Then we crossed over the bridge at the end of Cataract Gorge, before driving up a couple of kilometres to get into the Gorge Reserve. There were more lovely houses on the way up to the Reserve and this part of town must be one of the best places to live. And so many stunning gardens.
Cataract Gorge is just an amazing place to have literally at the doorstep of a city. The earliest known European visitor to the area was William Collins, who discovered its entrance in 1804. A pathway was originally built by volunteers in the 1890s, and runs along the north bank of the Gorge.
This is a popular tourist destination. The original toll house at which pedestrians had to pay to enter the walk can still be seen near King’s Bridge. The chairlift, built in 1972, is the longest single-span chairlift in the world, with the longest span being 457 m.
When we parked our car, Kerry noticed a little Superb Wren with a brilliant blue and black head and a blue tail. The bird seemed to be playing with the windscreen wipers of the car parked next to us – maybe he was looking for squashed insects.
We walked down into the park and came to a beautiful looking rotunda. This was used for music back in the day – they would hold concerts there for people to come and enjoy.
There is a lovely garden below the rotunda in the area next to the cafe.
We walked along the trail high up above the gorge. This provided spectacular views up the gorge to the suspension bridge, as well as down the gorge, with the water cascading over the bedrocks and the rapids. You could see the remnants of where the water pipe used to carry water to the mill on the other side of the gorge.
Just below the suspension bridge is quite a large pool with a weir to hold back the water and control flows into the gorge.
We then went back to the park area and saw a great range of amazing trees. There was one stand of pine trees that were extremely rare and one massive Giant Sequoia. There were also many rhododendrons as well as large azaleas and some camellias…. Must be quite a spectacle when they are all in bloom.
We walked over to the Alexandra Suspension Bridge which was officially opened in November 1904. In 1929, the bridge was washed away by severe floods and reconstruction was completed in 1931. It’s hard to imagine this being washed away – it’s so high up.
We crossed the bridge with the usual spring in our step when on a suspension bridge, and were surprised to see that the gorge extended some distance up behind the bridge. There was one set of rapids right underneath the bridge and we could see other rapids much further up the gorge.
We walked a short way up the gorge. Unfortunately, as I took a photo, the camera told me that the SD card was full, so I ended up spending some time hand-deleting the oldest photos. I really should be more diligent clearing the card.
Cataract Gorge to Perth
From the gorge, we drove through a small section of Launceston to head further south to the surrounding villages. It looks a really nice city and its a shame that we didn’t have time to walk around and take a proper look. Interestingly, the City is the first one south of the equator to be lit by electricity from hydro.
We drove onto Perth as we had read that this was a very pretty town. We saw many lovely homes and buildings through the town, but we didn’t feel that it was a particularly special place. We went down to the river which provided a really good green space right along the bank.
Next we went onto Longford – a town with greater character. There were many lovely buildings through the main street, as well as some lovely homes. Probably the pick of the buildings was the “big store” that was built in 1839.
We went out to the convict world heritage area of “Brickendon”. This is one of Tasmania’s oldest farming properties, settled in 1824 by William Archer, the farm has been continuously operated and lived on by his direct descendants, now in their 7th generation. It consists of a village and manor house, as well as a 465ha working farm. The main manor was built in 1829-1830 in a Georgian style. We didn’t get to see this.
In July 2010, Brickendon Estate, along with its neighbouring property Woolmers Estate, were listed jointly as a World Heritage Site being part of the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage Property. The two Estates are regarded as the most significant rural estates in Australia having the second largest number of convict workers and still retaining a living history from early English settlement.
The farm has a very impressive entry-way with an avenue of large bushes and hedges – very striking.
We visited the farm site and there were quite a few very old convict-built buildings – some of them very big. We went in through the main entry barn which had some amazing timber work up in the roof.
Out in the farm area, we saw some very different turkeys – being shades of brown and white rather than the more traditional colours.
The Pillar Granary is a very unusual building and is the only one of its type in the Southern Hemisphere, designed and built to keep rodents out of the grain. The building sits on sandstone staddle-stones designed with their height and mushroom top to form a barrier to the vermin and to keep the grain dry by allowing air to circulate underneath. However, this wasn’t completely successful, so they had to put cat-holes in the doors so the cats could chase the rats away.
We went into the little stone-built chapel. Inside was a lovely bright area with headlight windows – not religious scenes, just lovely patterns. We also looked at a number of the other buildings in the farm area.
There are many other buildings around the farm area, many set up as they were back in the day.
The third village we visited was Evandale, and this was probably our favourite of the three. Evandale is famous for having an excellent range of Georgian buildings, and we found quite a few. Following are some photos of the better examples of what we saw.
Perth to George Town
We then headed back to Launceston to drive down the eastern side of the Tamar Valley. Again we were impressed with the feeling of the city and probably should come back and spend some more time here.
We quickly left the city and were once again driving parallel to the river. However, on this side, the road is quite a distance from the river so you seldom actually see it. The suburbs quickly turn into rural farmland and there are places offering activities such as berry picking – especially around Hillwood.
We were very surprised to see how much industrial activity there is at the northern end of the valley approaching George Town. There are at least 2 power generation stations and a range of other large industrial complexes.
We made our way into George Town and again we were impressed with some of the buildings of this historic town. There were many lovely homes with beautiful gardens. We took a photo of the historic “Watch House” built in 1843. But a car did get in the way. George Town is Australia’s third-oldest settlement after Sydney and Hobart and has a rich maritime past and industrial present.
We found a nice little cafe which did Turkish with ham, avocado, cheese, tomato and red onion grilled which we took away to eat in the park by the river. Best lunch we’ve had in Tasmania so far. We had walked away from 2 take-aways where you could get anything as long as it was deep fried.
The park was right on the river and it was a bit weird, with some very strange looking statues up on tree stumps. Carved from a dead tree by chainsaw and chisel artist Eddie Freeman in 2013, he used the branch as a whale and calf and the trunk for three cable men and five penguins. Not my cup of tea.
Across the river, we could see that there was a fire of some kind with lots of black smoke pouring out across the river.
Leaving George Town heading south, we turned up to the Mount George lookout, just a few kms out of town, which provided great views of the valley and the river.
George Town to Greens Beach
From there, we headed further south before crossing the Batman Bridge Not Batman as in Batman and Robin – it is named after John Batman (21 January 1801 – 6 May 1839) an Australian grazier, entrepreneur and explorer.
We headed back north again close to the river, passing some more orchards and berry farms. Berries are a big thing down here.
We drove through Beaconsfield, famous for that terrible gold mining accident in 2006.
Next stop was Beauty Point – which has a very large port and marina facilities – it looked quite impressive. There are many pleasure-craft at anchor off the large marina. The sandy beach is also quite impressive.
Finally, we made our way to Greens Beach which is right on the coast near the mouth of the Tamar. It is a massive beach, but very flat, so that at low tide you would have to take a long walk to have a swim.
We then drove out to West Head coastal track and I walked up to the lookout. This was only 270 metres from the carpark, but was uphill all the way. The views over Badgers Beach are quite stunning and especially looking at the headlands in the distance. The colour of the water is amazing.
We finally headed back to Shearwater. But Kerry had found a dirt road through the NP that would take a lot of distance out of our drive. So we took that. The dirt road was pretty good which was just as well as our hire car is pretty basic. So glad I found this road – it wasn’t marked on the paper maps, but Siri found it thankfully – it knocked a considerable time and distance of our return journey.
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