Wed, 28th Jan, 2015 Sorell RV Stop to Premaydena Recreational Ground (Convict Coal Mines & Lime Bay State Reserve)

Wet cold morning. Glad Mum & Dad were getting a taxi to the airport. They head home this morning to the heat!! Rang Brian and he said it was going to be 36 degrees. We are expecting a top of 18 degrees!!! Back into the shirts, jumper and extra jumper as the wind is biting as we packed up. Ducked out to check out the signs on the causeway over the Pitt Water area as we had missed them each time we drove in!! It was about the bird reserve on this section which is Orielton Lagoon.

Back into Sorell and we stopped to take a photo of this great carving of an existing dead tree near the playground.

Mr Seagull decorating the owl.

It started to rain so didn’t get to check out why the eagle is a different colour. There is a walk below it so might check that out when we come back.

Had a cuppa with Rick & Leanne. Penny & Pete had headed out already, we might catch them Port Arthur way. One good thing going our way is the price of diesel is dropping, got it for 125.9 at Coles Express.

Turned onto the Arthur Highway, up and down hills again with open grassy pastures. Lovely view as we enter Dunalley -  a narrow neck with Marion Bay on our left and Dunalley Bay on the right. Didn’t get the camera out in time.

Passed the grassy camping area beside the Dunalley Pub that most people stay at. Will stop there on the way back to explore this area.

Dropping down the straight range to Eaglehawk Neck – another narrow strip.

Pirates Bay on the left – the open seas out there.

Eaglehawk Bay on the right flows out to Norfolk Bay – tide is out and it is very shallow.

The Blue Seal Café.

The sun is out now but wind is still cold. Lovely old buildings as we head for Premaydena.

Drove through Premaydena, well past a couple of houses and the General Store and found the Recreational Reserve. It is an oval with a club house for the cricket club. Parked the van and had some lunch. Premaydena was established as Impression Bay Probation Station in 1841 and was later a quarantine station.

I rang the Tuckshop girls for a chat. They had a huge week last week selling uniforms to the two lots of new students, grade 7s and 8s and as there was a new shirt design all the school was in to get the new shirt. I decided to leave at the right time by the sounds of it. They were flat out. Only 3 grades at school yesterday but all there today so they were kept hopping. Do miss the girls a lot and loved working there, but this life is great too.

Headed off to explore the area around the Convict Coal Mines. Lovely view over Norfolk Bay.

Passed some interesting houses along the way.

The Coal Mines Historical Site includes the ruins of a penal station dating 1833 to 1848 and colliery dating 1833 to 1901.The ‘worst of the worst’ Convicts were sent here to endure the most severe punishment that the system could devise.  The mines were developed to limit the colony’s dependence upon costly imported coal from New South Wales. By the late 1830s the mines produced most of the coal used in Van Diemen’s Land. Stopped at the first car park and wandered down to the interpretative display of the mine area etc.

The chain showed the timeline of the site:

1803 First European settlement in Tasmania at Risdon Cove on the River Derwent.

1830 Establishment of Port Arthur Penal Colony.

1833 Surveyors discover an outcrop of coal at this site.

1834 Government begins coal mining using convict labour from Port Arthur.

1837 Mining expert Dr Lhotsky surveys the mine and reports dangerous faults.

1838 Semaphore in operation on high ground behind the station.

1841 Government introduces the probation system.

1843 New jetty and Commissariat Store built at Plunkett Point.

1845 Peak of population and production. 576 convicts, 27 military personnel, 125 civilians (including 14 women and 90 children) live at the station. 11,375 tons of coal are produced.

1846 Building of new solitary cells and private apartments to separate the men’s sleeping quarters.

1848 Government closes the mine because of low quality coal, production inefficiency and concerns about ‘the moral state of the station’. Mines leased to private operators, Clark & McShane.

1851 Military guard removed from Coal Mines station.

1870s onwards – Mining continues under a succession of private leaseholders. The buildings fall into disrepair.

1880 Jacob Burden runs sheep on the site.

1901 Last recorded leasehold of the mine workings.

1920s Stone and timber from the ruins are taken to be re-used in apple sheds and farmhouses.

1938 Four hectares gazetted as Coal Mines Reserve under the Scenery Preservation Act 1915

Mid 1960s Local identity Jack Little worked as curator until mid 1980s.

1971 Over 25 ruins and dozens of mining features are dotted across 214 hectares which was proclaimed a Coal Mines Historical Site under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1970.

On the wall was information about some of the convicts etc.

Explaining the coal mining terminology.

Wandered down to the Convict housing area. Amazing these structures are still here after all these years.

Headed down to the jetty, passed the site of the Coxswains Launch Quarters  and Clerks Quarters circa 1842.

The tramway from 1834 coal audit to 1837 jetty.

Surgeons Quarters circa 1838.

Down to the beach area – very rocky, where the jetty would have been.

Another info plaque about Joseph Lacey.

Back to the quarters area. It is huge area.

Other buildings’ footings remain on the other side (machinery sheds etc).

Retaining wall up to the exercise area.

Looking into the small area which housed 8 cells. The ceiling has fallen in and the doorways have steel beams now for support.

 Steve begging to be let out. I was surprised how tall they were.

 In one that still has the roof over it. Would be very dark and no fresh area in here.

The roof over the cells. Amazing how they cut and lifted these slabs of sandstone into position.

The two rooms on either side of the cells have caved in. It looks like there may have been timber floors or supports in here.

The work on the sandstone with the etchings etc is fantastic. Some looks like it was just done.

Looking over three of the buildings. The building on the left where we went into the cells was the hospital with three rooms above the solitary cells below.  The middle building was the chapel which was also used as the school room. On the right are three more barrack huts and a bakery.

This maps dates back to 1842, some of the buildings are no longer here. 

Looking down into the cells.

Interesting info about the “moral” of the station.

Different workmanship on the buildings.

Even the doorway had decorations – this is the chapel.

Steve checked the fireplace, making sure no one stacked their gold up there!!

Over to the bakery and more barracks (circa 1838).

Looks like the bakery fireplace has seen better days.

Another building site and pathway.

These cottages were built 1850s to 1870s using red brick rather than the sandstone.

Looking back over all the buildings.

Solitary punishment cells (circa 1843).

 One half has caved in but the other side they have supported and we can wander through.

These were very dark. My camera made them light up.

 Again they are quite high and the roof dome shaped.

Walked back to the car and drove to the next carpark at the Mine site. It is fenced and of course caved/filled in.

No information about this old boiler/container.

It must have been horrific for them going down the shaft, but these were the ‘bad’ convicts and reading the info sounds like a lot of them didn’t improve their behaviour.

Lots of small pieces of coal everywhere.

Followed the path up to the site of the Semaphore Station.   

Info about Captain Booth.

Bigger pieces of coal here.

Back to the car and further north to the Lime Bay National Park camping area. Lots of campers here, maybe Tassie kids don’t go back to school yet.

 The clouds have come back bringing spits of rain. Had a cuppa overlooking the lovely bay.

Slabs of sandstone have fallen off the edge.

Wandered down to the beach.

Plenty of black swans at the end of the beach.

Back to the other carparks of the Coal Mine area – This one is between the Coal Mine and Plunkett Point. There is a straight line down from the mine where the tramway travelled, called the Inclined Plane. It was to be built 740 yards long, at a gradient of 1 to 11.  It takes advantage of an ingenious system of delivering coal via a double rail from the 1845 shaft (the fourth to be sunk) at the top of the hill to the jetty at Plunkett Point. The weight of the full cart travelling down the hill pulls the empty one back up the hill. Of course it was wider and the trees weren’t there!!

 This section was cut into the ground to keep the incline going at the correct angle.

 Then it went down to the Plunkett Point jetty (1841).

John Smee info.

There is coal everywhere.

Suppose to use this to look through to see the sites of the jetties etc.

Further along the cliff edge towards to quarry is another cottage (circa 1850).

Lovely view.

Down to the jetty area.

The sandstone looks lovely by the water.

The site of the Commissariat Store and jetty 1842-42.

 Steve found one side of the building.

Back in the truck and on to the next carpark (cheating as these are all walks from the main site which we were going to do another day but when we headed to Lime Bay we found that we could just drive to them). This is the air shaft. The logic behind the air shaft has died with its builders – it is a long way from the mine site. For its time the Air Shaft was an amazing engineering achievement.

 Sandstone bricks at the top then just the sandstone walls as they dug down.

 Can’t see any tunnels leading off it but of course it may have been filled in.

Heading back we decided to follow another road to the other side of the peninsula. Steve spotted a little wombat crossing the road. I got a photo and was going to get out for another but he ducked into the grass.

 He obviously thought that if he can’t see us, we can’t see him. As we waited to see where he would go he greeted us with a ‘deposit’ of both types!! With that, we left him to it.

Drove to the end of the road till Private Property sign turned us around. Back to Sloping Main where there is a few houses/weekenders. Some a quite modern and huge.

Noticed someone has stuffed up with the name – it is supposed to be Sloping not Slopen.

Lovely long beach. We are looking across the where Hobart airport would be and 7 Mile Beach.

I spotted some dolphins slowly travelling along.

Lots of open grazing land for sheep and cows. A lot of rabbits too.

And a winery I think.

A couple more old buildings marked with the convict symbol but no information.

Across Saltwater River.

Back to our van in the Reserve. A small tent has been erected on the other side of the cricket rooms.

Rang Mum and Dad – they had just got home from the airport at 5.30 (their time). Big day as they had to change planes at Melbourne, Sydney then Brisbane. They are glad to be home in the warmth though I said everyone I spoke to was complaining how terribly hot it was today. Hard to imagine as we sit here in jeans and jumpers still.

Another combi van pulled in. A few drops of rain and some wind but otherwise all good.