Sat, 9th May, 2015 Mayfield Bay Campground (Swansea sightseeing)

Lovely morning waking to the sound of the waves crashing on the beach. Just the swell as there is no wind and the sky is clear. Bit late getting up but the sun has risen over Freycinet and still makes a great photo. 7.15am 13 degrees in the van.

There is a thin layer of cloud coming over as we had a cuppa before heading into Swansea. It is only 12.5 degrees outside and the breeze has picked up so another layer goes on!!

Back up the road we stopped at Spiky Bridge. Amazing work by the convicts and we can still drive over it.

Some information about the bridge and the convicts. The Probation Station would have been on the hills above where we are camped.

We walked down to check out the tunnel but this one allows the water to flow through it. Note the road drainage hole at the top.

I found some of the rocks that they would have used as it looks like it splits off easily.

Interesting that they decided to spike the sides – some say it was to keep the cows and sheep from falling off the bridge.

The mortar was made from beach sand and shells.

It was the widest road we have seen in Tasmania too.

Drove into Swansea and stopped at the Info Centre and Museum. Swansea was settled in 1821 and is the oldest rural municipality in Australia, specialising in wool, vineyards, walnut orchards and crops.

The Museum was in the old school house which was built in 1860 using the stone and rubble from the old military fort on Waterloo Point nearby. There were knitted poppies along the fence for the 100 year celebration of Gallipoli.

Inside we couldn’t take any photos. They had ‘on loan’, one of the only two in existence, Tasmanian Emu eggs. They had it with normal mainland Emu eggs and it is lighter and more speckled. The lady was very proud of the fact they had it on display. The other one is in London, I think she said. There was the old school room to check out with a huge display of bird eggs – amazing the different sizes. The black swan egg was so huge compared to the tiny little ones of the Superb Fairy Wren. There were lots of general objects from days past. Some convict artefacts and an explanation about the three types of convicts – Assigned, Probation and Exile. A big military display too. It was very interesting.

I picked up the history walk map so we headed off to explore. Across the road was an info board.

Diagonally across was the Morris’ General Store, established 1838. The store has been operated by the Morris family for over 100 years. Certainly is an impressive building for its time.

We went for a wander inside – it now has an IGA attached to it for groceries. In the actual store was all manner of things for sale – clothes, shoes to fishing, camping and tools. Steve got a pair of plastic slip on sandals for $4 as his other ones are leather and when it is wet they take too long to dry.

In a separate room they had some old memorabilia to look at. Interesting story.

Walked down the road towards the jetty. It used to be about a half a kilometre long. The concrete and rock in the middle is from the old days.

An old cottage home – Tubby & Padman.

Walked out onto the jetty. The beach is very dark sand – not so inviting. Looking across to Waterloo Point where the military fort was, it is now a golf course. Around the edge of it is the Loontitetermairrelehoiner walk. Don’t ask me to pronounce it. It was the name of the aboriginal people here and is where lots of shearwaters (mutton birds) come to breed during the summer months.

Waterloo Beach with its accommodation units.

Walked around the path, listening to some golfers having an argument about whether they could move a ball that was in a bush!! Looking back over Waterloo beach to the jetty.

Stopped to read the info about all the different people who have been coming here from the beginning.

The point was covered in these Blue Gums once.

Great view across to The Hazards,

Freycinet Peninsula,

And Schouten Island with Mt Story high in the middle.

Looking south along the coast towards Maria Island.

Another info board about the Shearwaters nesting here.

Lots of burrows everywhere. No mention of penguins so they mustn’t nest here.

Around the point to overlook Schouten Beach. It is all tumbled rocks. The sound was amazing as the waves rolled over the rocks. I even took a video of it.

Sad story about the Large family in 1850. They lost their 6 children when the boat they were on tipped over.

The sign says “This anchor was recovered in 1982 by John Bostock of Orford from Waterloo Point (Swansea) where the ‘Resolution’ was wrecked in 1850 with the loss of the lives of 6 children. It was donated to the Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society by Rex Kube of Triabunna in June 1998.”

Beside it was a plaque commemorating the exploration and charting of the coast by French navigator, Commodore Nicholas Baudin.

Walked up to one of the three cemeteries here with great views of the sea for its inhabitants.

Further down the road was the home of the Large family who lost their children. He was going to start a brewery when they all perished. Schouten House was formerly the Swansea Inn, established in 1844. It is now a Bed and Breakfast.

Heading back towards our truck we pass ‘Plas Newyd’, established around 1834. Lovely place with lavender growing in the garden.

On the corner was the Anglican Church, All Saints Church, established 1871.

Shame it is closed as the stained glass looks lovely.

Meredith House was established in 1853. I should have bought the book on the history of each of these buildings.

Another lovely old cottage.

Drove down the road to Morey’s Bark Mill, bakery, tavern and museum.  A load of wattle bark in the front yard.

In the entrance was a cider press, believed to have been brought out from the UK by the original Lyne family in 1826. The upright timber is English Oak. The press was built out of Huon Pine from the ship 'Guiding Star’ which was wrecked at Swanport River in 1880.

The smell of the bakery got us so we went in for a pie – Lamb with tomato and herbs and a hot cup of Mocopan coffee and yes she made a perfect cuppa. Supporting the business, Brian.

After lunch Steve got a newspaper to read and I went off to explore the museum. It is normally $10 but as we had eaten there it was only $6. The Wattle Bark Mill was built firstly on a wagon to be moved around then set up and expanded in this shed. The bark was crushed and the tannin removed to be used in tanning skins. It was very interesting and there were lots of other information as well.

Great photo to start of the portable bark mill in 1918.

Another local, William Arnol, constructed these precast concrete dunnies.

A lot of other machinery on display.

This hut was dismantled and moved here after it was donated to the museum by the family of the chap who owned it. He was Claude Press and he was the foreman on road and bridge construction in this area many years ago. He also did some blacksmithing and general repair work. This is his shed he used along with the bellows etc.

Some great old photos. A photo of Swansea jetty and Waterloo Point behind it with Freycinet faintly in the background.

Morris’ General Store.

William ‘Bill’ Arnol also had a land or sea boat called a Hydroglisseur in 1926.

Behind glass windows was two rooms filled with old things and set up like an old home.

The old dear was putting the kettle on.

Some more of the little house.

Glamorgan Municipality was formed officially on 23^rd January, 1860, and is the oldest rural municipality in Australia. The first councillors – handsome bunch.

In the next room was the France to Freycinet exhibition by the Government. Lots of hanging posters about the French explorers etc that the area has been named after. These are from Schouten Island area - Taillefer Rocks was named after a medical officer on the Baudin expedition. Cape Faure was named after the geographer who surveyed this area. Cape Baudin of course named after the Commodore.  Freycinet Peninsula was named after two brothers on the expedition, Henri and Louis. There was more about Maria Island too and a 1.5 hour video to watch which I skipped.

Into the Museum proper was a display about the whaling and sealing industry around here. In August 1791 the first reference to whaling in Van Diemens Land (Tasmania) waters, is of the English whaler, “Matilda”, sailed by Captain Weatherhead. The ship is recorded as anchoring in Oyster Bay for three days. The first account of whaling in Oyster Bay was on 8^th Sept, 1803. Captain Bunker of the ship “Albion” stopped over in Oyster Bay to take three whales on his way south. He had on board the first pioneering party to settle in Risdon Cove on the Derwent River. They landed on 12^th Sept, 1803. 

The whale oil and other by-products were shipped to Hobart. Whale blubber was cut up and put in the small ‘try pot’. The fire underneath would heat the blubber and extract the oil. The oil was then transferred to the large pot with the ladle for cooling. In the 1820’s whale oil was used for lighting etc.

Some whale bones.

There was never a tannery at the bark mill but they created this display to show the process and what you would need to do your own tanning. This drum was filled with the furred skins and rotated slowly. The tumbling action softened and cleaned the skins. This drum was homemade and was used for this purpose for many years.

A brief description of the tanning process is:

1. The skin has all the flesh and fat removed using the beam and fleshing knife.

2. Then placed in the tannic acid solution in the tanning tubs till tanned.

3. Washed thoroughly with soapy water.

4. Most of the water is extracted using a squeegee or similar tool.

5. Rub in neatsfoot oil.

6. Peg skin out to dry.

7. Soften by rubbing the leather side over a stake or similar rounded edge.

Lots of other machinery for chaff cutting etc was on display too.

A peg drum thrasher was used to separate the grain from the sheaf. It is amazing to think of the ingenuity of the men back in the days to create these machines. Nowadays they are just refining what these inventors started all those years ago.

A winnow machine used to separate the grain from the husks.

“Mangold” and “Turnip” cutter made by Ransomes and Sims, Ipswich , Suffolk, England about 1859.

When the Morey’s set up the permanent bark mill the son spent a lot of time improving the mill using anything he could get his hands on. He made a filtration system by using jam tins with sacks hanging from them to catch the fine dust.

This is the remains of the original “mobile bark mill” used on site during the period 1885 to 1920.

The photos show it working between Triabunna and Cranbrook.

A pile of wattle bark.

1933 newspaper article about the Wattle Bark Industry.

A wool press and wool sorting table from a nearby property “Piermont” which was settled in 1826. It is now accommodation and a restaurant.

In 1826 William and Sarah Lyne arrived from England with their five children and they settled on land near Swansea and called the farm “Aspley”. William built a log cabin as a temporary home for his family. These logs are the few remaining ones of the cabin.

On 1^st Feb,1919 shooters killed 700 swans.

The old road over Rocky Hills – we are camped over the hill. The convict probation station was up on the hill.

Looking back to Swansea and the jetty from Waterloo Point about 1880.

I then headed down to where the bark mill was banging away. The Marshall steam engine was first registered with the mines department in 1916. It is a portable engine and could be towed to other sites. I tooted the steam whistle then took a video of it working and me tooting the whistle.

The exact date the Swansea bark mill was set up here is not known, but it is thought to be in 1893 by William Morey. Black Wattles (Acacia mearnsii) which grow fairly prolifically in Tasmania, are considered the best trees in the world for tan bark, yielding up to 45% more tannin than any other tan barks. The ground bark from Swansea was particularly suitable for tanning heavy leathers. During the Depression years, the Swansea Bark Mill kept the town alive when the bottom fell out of the wool market. Many people living in Swansea can still remember going wattle bark stripping and earning sixpence a bundle. On a good day, an expert stripper could earn 10 shillings. The Mill would have handled about 50,000 to 56,000 tons of bark during the time it operated – that is about 2,240,000 bundles. Stripping wattle trees was a rough and punishing job. When the bark was stripped it was made up into bundles and tied with wire. Each bundle weighed about 40 kilos and often had to be carried hundreds of metres on the stripper’s back to a horse and cart. Some strippers even humped their bundles all the way to the mill from the surrounding hills. The Mill is unique because most of it grew from the inventive genius of Frank Morey, the son of the builder. Using almost anything he could get his hands on – jam tins, packing cases and odd pieces of timber and metal – he ‘refined’ the Mill to the stage it is now. Because it was such a dusty process he even stuffed wool into cracks. In 1960 the Swansea Bark Mill stopped work and fell into disrepair. Final agreement to purchase it from Mr Rex Morey, the grandson of  the builder, was reached on October 1981 by East Coast businessmen, Mr Tony Turvey and Mr Peter Lewis. Work began on restoring it immediately and it was almost a family affair with Peter’s father, Mr Ray Lewis, restoring the Mill and his uncle, Mr Doug Lewis, concentrating on the steam engine. After more than 1,800 hours of concentrated work, the Mill machinery was finally ready to open on April 2^nd, 1982.

There are notes on all the bits and pieces. There were so many belts running it. There are 10 main drive pulleys to work the mill. There are 17 belts, 38 pulleys, 5 chain conveyors and two chain drives. There are 140 metres of belts. The machine is now turning over at about a tenth of its actual operating speed. The lighting wasn’t too good and it was hard to get it all in.

The bark is fed through the rough breaker then down the shaker tray to the grinder.

It was fed into the grinder by the two alternating posts. Amazing. Once bagged, the ground bark was stored and carted to Swansea jetty when the coastal ships called.

Bark milling was a dusty job and this is one of the two exhaust extractors.

There were two bagging chutes so as one was filling the other was being sewn up and labelled.

There was a rammer that packed the ground bark tightly into the bag (120lbs per bag).

The bagging needles in their original cow horn pouches.

The fine dust filter system and bagging chutes. This unique system used filter socks made out of bed sheets and fitted over IXL jam tins. (note the cam wheel agitator at the rear which prevented the socks and box from clogging.) This dust was also used in the tanning process.

The old chap was pedalling along with his knapsack and tools to collect the wattle bark.

The bark stripper’s tools.

A cow horn was used to tighten the wires on the bundle.

The Black Wattle tree – after the bark was stripped, the tree was left to dry then cut up and used in the steam engine of for firewood. The regulations restricting the strippers from taking trees under 3” (75cm) would give it several years seedling and ensure new trees. There are still large numbers of the Black Wattle along the coast.

The old Federal Truck (1929-30) that was used for the carting of black wattle bark and on early road construction on the East Coast. (Someone reported to the office that there was a man under the truck that needed attention!!)

Part of an old 1911 Hupmobile car engine.

Some photos of the restoration.

The Morey family – they also had a store and flour mill in town beside the Morris’ General Store.

There were some samples of the bark, then the crushed chips and the fine dust and then the liquid. Both the chips and the dust were used in the tanning process. To extract the tannic acid from the bark chips and dust, they would be soaked in water then in that solution the skins would be soaked till they were tanned.

It was a very interesting museum. Collected Steve from the café after he had ready the paper and the Women’s Day!! Headed off out of town to 9 Mile Beach. There heaps of houses perched in the sand dunes but not much beach access for visitors!!

Drove to the end to where the Swan River meets the Great Oyster Bay. We couldn’t see the actual mouth and the bay from here though. This is called Baggot Point. Only a narrow mouth to cross to get to Swanwick on Freycinet Peninsula. We read in the Morris’ store that they would take the wagon across on low tide or otherwise people would row across to get their wares.

Back down the road we found a fire trail that lead down to the beach. The sand is slowly covering everything up.

The houses here are in a bit more greenery on the dunes.

Looking east to the mouth of Swan River and Swanwick.

Then west.

Across to Swansea.

The sun was shining on the Hazards.

Back up the road and we turned off to the Swan River boat ramp. Certainly lots of water here.

Upstream then downstream.

Nearly back into town and we turned off to check out where the Meredith River meets the Bay at the western end of 9 Mile Beach. But it doesn’t.

A kiteboarder cruises by.

Back through town and we drove down the Esplanade which is beside Saltwater Creek – it doesn’t make it to the bay either, though it looks like it might at a very high tide.

Heading back to the van we look over Ile des Phoques and Maria Island. More things named by the French.

Zoomed in on Ile des Phoques and noticed a line of birds in the water again.

The sun is shining on Schouten Island.

Back to the van and Steve got the fire going. The kookaburras started laughing at 5.30 getting ready for the sunset. Nice evening by the fire enjoying our camp oven dinner. The chap near us joined us to wait for the space station to come over again. Unfortunately the clouds came too and we didn’t see it. 16 degrees in the van so not too bad tonight!!