2 Geckos Travelling Australia: Thurs, 15th Jan, 2015 Geeveston RSL Memorial Park (Geeveston sightseeing)

Woke to overcast morning but no rain.

Had a wander to check out the creek on the other side of the park.

It is flowing well. I noticed a van it was our Qld friends, Rick & Leanne, we met in Gordon. They are still here. They said it was a great base to explore all this area from. They are heading off today to go back over to Bruny Island with friends. They only did a day trip on the Bruny Cruises and decided they needed to go back to explore it. I gave her my map and the info brochure on Quarantine Station.

As everyone moved out we found a better spot next to the creek. Apparently it was only half this height yesterday. They were getting worried it might break the bank. The resident platypus was seen struggling to swim upstream. Something bloated floated down past everyone – glad it didn’t stop here!!

Great view from our camp spot.

Overcast but hasn’t rained again. Headed off to check out town. Followed the creek down to the road. Geeveston has a strong apple growing and forestry heritage. It is the gateway to the Hartz Mountains National Park. Early 19^th century settlers laid the first track to the Hartz Mountains and the area quickly became one of Tassie’s earliest popular bushwalking spots.

I wonder if this is the Ark – needs a lot more water to get it in the creek!!

Across the road from the creek are information boards about the Huon Timber Company and John Geeves that the town is named after.

There are heaps of this carved timber sculptures throughout the town. They were carved by Bernie Tarr.

John built this house in 1870.

Huge Swamp Gum. The rest of it is still in the forest as it was too big to move.

Another info board about the house and the Swamp Gum.

Timber info board.

This one is to celebrate the planting of the first fruit orchard in Geeveston by William Geeves in 1851.

Followed the circuit passed the community garden.

Lovely carving of a local woman – Jessica Hannabury.

He has done amazing work to get such details.

Info board about Geeveston outside the Forest and Heritage Centre.

Inside this large building was lots of information and old machinery to check out. A couple more carvings as we head in.

Interesting information about the seeds of the eucalypt Swamp Gum (as known as mountain ash in Victoria).

Lots of great old photos.

Hey Griffo – found another Band Saw for you!! No engine to run it though!!

Another style of apple sorter. The timber board is angled to sort the different size apples.

Big posters showing the Giant trees. The Centurion is now the flowering plant in the world.

Icarus Dream held the title of Tasmanian’s tallest tree (97m) before they discovered Centurion. It is located in the Styx Valley, which is home to five of Tasmanian’s ten tallest trees.

Arve Big Tree is 87 metres high and one of Tasmanian’s most massive trees. Unfortunately they are doing repairs to the boardwalk so we won’t be able to go there and see it.

The Bluegum is Tasmanian’s floral emblem and Rullah-Longatyle, located in the Southern Forests, is the tallest bluegum of all at 82 metres tall. A group of aboriginal women from nearbyCygnet bestowed the name on the tree – it means “strong girl”.

On the TV there were 3 shows – the first one was about a girl being trained to work with the Tassie Devil’s at a sanctuary and about the facial cancers that have been killing off the Devils.

A huge burl – ‘lumps’ that grow on the side of a tree as the result of an insect attack or injury to the tree. They can be carved and turned into bowls and other pieces of art.

A map of the area out to Tahune Forest Airwalk (owned by the Forestry Tasmania) – it is $27 to enter – there are three walks, Huon Pine one, the Airwalk and a walk to two suspension bridges. For another $15 you can do hand glider ride.

This old mangle was one of 6 found at a secondhand dealer in Salamanca Place in Hobart in the 1930s by a sawmiller. He wanted the timber rollers for the run-off section on his saw bench. Most were used except this one which was used to do the family laundry until about 1950. Since then it has been stored in the family’s shed. A lot of the machinery here is on loan from families etc.

Education about driving with logging trucks etc on the road so they have a truck to sit in to see what it is like from their viewpoint.

Info about veneers and displays of the timbers. The veneers on the post are Bird’s Eye Huon Pine, myrtle, sassafras and “Tasmanian Oak”. The Huon Pine has a high oil content that makes it resistant to rot and it was prized in the 19^th Century for ship building. These qualities were also well suited to the piners’ preferred method of transport: floating the logs downstream. Some logs remain in our rivers to this day, in perfect condition.

A big section of Huon Pine showing the growth rings.

We went upstairs where there is a tool shop displaying lots of old tools and many more around the floor area to look at.

Treadle driven woodworking lathe.

Foot powered saw bench.

The saw versus the chainsaw.

Shacks and houses in Lightwood Bottom 1849/50 which is now Geeveston.

Interesting info about Anti-hail rockets to protect the apple orchards.

Information about the forest.

Apples and Timber.

Surveyor’s Chain.

This is an interesting story by Celia Lendis told through pictures:

Many years before you were born, I was growing up in a different world. A world without television and telephones. Where people spoke through stories and kept in touch through post. I was only 11 years old when I began delivering mail to the town of Wielangta. It was a 6 mile ride after school on my old pony, Joe.

I was travelling through the thick bush, by gum it was thick back then. The tree trunks were as round at swimming pools and they grew so high you couldn’t even see where the eagles nested in their tops.

The bushies were still hard at it. They had hours to go before they knocked off. Old Connor was there waiting for me. I had a letter for him from his eldest daughter. She had just left Hobart to marry a young man in New South Wales.

The lads were tying up the last logs of the day and getting ready to make one last trip down to the mill. Some of them, my age they were, were getting the camp set up for dinnertime. They were peeling spuds, lighting the fire and dreaming of home.

Out on the spur-line, I stopped to watch the loco driver heave and roar as he tried with all his might to ease his engine down the steep winding gorge. Jimmy Rogers left off the front, quick as a rabbit, to pour mutton suet on the tracks as the loco screamed around the bend. I yelled out to him that his tickets to the boxing in Sorell had arrived.

Further down into the darkening forest went old Joe and I. We could have done it blindfolded, we knew it that well. As we reached the paddock, there was Ginger Mick rounding up the horses. He was the blacksmith’s assistant, and he fed and bedded the horses every night. Men always came second to the horses in that town.

I’ll never forgot the day that the blacksmith had all the horses out. Nearly 50 there were, all lined up for shoeing. What a sight! Fifty horses lined up in the sunshine, and as many lads trying to keep them still and make them wait their turn.

Next was the Big Mill. They always had more mail in and out than anyone else. While Mrs Cooper sorted the bags I stopped and watched the screws screaming back and forth, back and forth. They turned those huge trees into boards in no time at all. Then Billy Boiler would give me a mug of tea, and tell me a joke about something that happened that day. He’d stoke up the boiler fire and show me the scars he got from his days of chopping.

Sometimes I’d stop at the schoolteacher’s house. She had a sweet heart in Nugent, and would put a little flag on her fence when she had a letter from him. Her last letter was about the town picnic put on by the mill. It was held on the huge sawdust heap, and it was grand. The mill manager threw sixpences for us kids; there were train rides, sack races, dancing and loads of cake and lemonade.

As night fell on the town, the windows of the houses would light up and you could hear the men arriving home. The women would bring the last of the washing in, yelling for their kids to come and wash up for dinner. Alone with my pony, this time of the night always made me think of my own mother on the other side of the forest. But Joe and I had one more delivery before I could turn my mind to other things.

Ma’s Boarding House. It was the life of the town, but she kept it well ruled and the men in order. This was where I stayed the night, returning to Nugent with the mail at the crack of dawn. All the single men stayed here; the bushies, the axe-men, the track-workers and the haulers, when they weren’t camped out in the bush. The food was good, the yarns were long, the laughing loud, and as a wide-eyed lad I was witness to it all.

That summer was my last summer as the mail boy for Wielangta.

That was the summer the fire came.

The fire burnt down the mill, the school, the shops and most of the houses. It forced the men and their families to leave behind their homes, their lives and their dreams. It wasn’t long before there was nothing left.

Now the forest has reclaimed this place, and hardly any trace of the town of Wielangta can be seen. But it is still here – a rusted boiler, decaying tramlines beneath the moss, and daffodils still bursting forth, fifty springtimes on.

I can still feel those cold mornings when I rode old Joe back to Nugent with a saddlebag full of mail and frost crunching underfoot. I can still see the loco pulling its load of timber out to the end of Rheban Jetty to be shipped off to the other side of the world. Sometimes, it’s as if that world were never real at all.

Beautiful stained glass window as we head back downstairs.

Outside is another carving of a policeman and his children.

This one is of the town’s Olympian.

Little verses are carved and erected around the town too.

Under this tall tree is the carving of the local blacksmith.

Went into the Wall of Lollies shop for an icecream. Very tasty too. So many lollies to try!! The rest of the wall space was covered in plaques with great sayings.

Another verse at the Post Office.

At the bakery there was a wonderful slab table and chairs. The shop was only started in 2005 but the building is over 100 years old. The couple camped near us picked up a job there as a pastry chef and he was telling us about it.

A possum was carved into the chair.

The Heritage Couple – give them a kiss for good luck. When we walked up a little girl was giving them hugs and kisses.

On the way back through the Heritage Park – all the information plaques have had the info peeled off them which was a shame. There seems to be a few ‘bogans’ around here!!

Other caravanners etc are camped in the Park. A busy bumble bee. They are huge.