Tasmania's Historic Towns
Elspeth Callender finds the Tasmanian towns of Richmond and Sheffield offer rich insights into Tasmania, past and present. Both towns have distinctly different appearances and personalities yet introduce travellers to genuine Tasmanian history, art, culture and quirk.
Richmond
The road into Richmond is lined with farms and vineyards, and the village jam-packed with Georgian buildings. In the early 1800s the British took possession of this cleared fertile valley from Aboriginal people to grow food for the new colonies, especially strains of wheat unsuited to NSW humidity. Richmond soon had 13 inns, a gaol, a courthouse and a bridge.
Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest road bridge, was built across the Coal River in the 1820s by gangs of convicts using local sandstone. It opened land communication between Hobart and the East Coast and Tasman Peninsula. The town’s prison remained in use after the convict era so “the gaol is arguably more authentic than Port Arthur; it’s totally intact”, says historian and Richmond resident Henry Reynolds. Although Richmond became a ghost town when colonial land, sea and rail routes eventually bypassed the town, its buildings never fell to ruin. Today there are galleries, shops, tearooms and accommodation.
The town is also home to what is considered to be Australia’s oldest Roman Catholic church. St John the Evangelist was built in 1836 at the instigation of Australia’s first Catholic bishop, John Bede Polding OSB, with funding provided by local residents.
Even older is St Luke’s Anglican Church, with its foundation stone laid in 1834 by Lieutenant Governor George Arthur. Like the bridge, the church was built by convict labour. James Thompson, the convict responsible for the original timber work, was granted his freedom for his work. The church’s clock -one of six manufactured by London clockmaker Thwaites and Reed for use in the colony’s public buildings -was originally installed in a Hobart church. The clock was restored in 2004, and is so dear to the hearts of locals that some 30 residents formed a Clockwinders Guild to schedule twice-weekly windings.
Sheffield
Further north in Sheffield, the locals have transformed their rural service town into a thriving arts community. One of the first Europeans to explore the area was surveyor Nathaniel Kentish in 1842 (leading to the area being nicknamed the Kentish district) but Sheffield wasn’t established as a settlement until the early 1860s. The 1963 Mersey-Forth Power Development Scheme saw the town grow rapidly until 1973, when the scheme was completed and the population plummeted.
Now, the town has been reborn as Tasmania’s mural capital. About 100 permanent murals around Sheffield depict the lives of settlers, historic events, wildlife and locals past and present. The late Alfie Rowe, considered the inventor of the self-serve petrol pump, is now immortalised on the side of his old garage.
The elevated historic centre of Sheffield has no overhead wires and its tall trees are limited to an LA-style row of palms -so it’s a big sky above and unobstructed views across to magnificent Mt Roland. Visit Richmond and Sheffield on your 10 Day Grand Tasman tour.
Images in this article courtesy of Claudine Van Massenhove and Shutterstock: 2018 donbarlone, 2019 Ramunas Bruzas, 2019 Steve Lovegrove
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Grand Tasman
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Grand Tasman
Launceston Return
from $3,295 USD pp
10 Days
17 Meals
Wonders of the South West
Perth Return
from $5,495 USD pp
14 Days
22 Meals