BED OF ROSES

Beds and Beds of Roses!

I took a guided tour of the main house at Woolmers near Longford today and wondered, as I often do when I'm there, what those Archer ladies of long ago would make of things now? Clearly they would easily recognise the interior of the house because almost nothing there has changed - it's still just as it was - a microcosm of a bygone age.

Marjorie, who presided over the homestead in the 1930s and who was the last lady-of-long-ago to change anything, would most certainly have loved theNational Rose Garden, because roses were so obviously her passion. Indeed Marjorie managed to put roses on almost everything she touched. She introduced decorative roses (mostly in shades of pink) onto curtains, cushions and onto beds - the valances; the bedspreads, the pillows. Beds of roses were her thing!

Roses are to be found lurking on carpets and on china. This was not mere decorating, but serious decorating - with roses! And our long-ago Marjorie was able to indulge herself becase we know there was plenty of money at the time - it was the heyday of the wool industry and Woolmers did very indeed.

Fortunately, perhaps, there is much about the house that's clearly very masculine so she didn't manage to convert everything to her passion for decorating. And it's also probably fortunate for us that she didn't manage to change so very much, though she certainly put her stamp on some of the decor.

Fast-forwarding to the present day, and I notice that visitors were everywhere, and a large bus was bringing even more. And the National Rose Garden was looking absolutely wonderful. Every bit as wonderful as those long-ago ladies at Woolmers could possibly have wished for!

A CELEBRATION AT WOOLMERS

Several thousand people flocked to Woolmers Estate, near Longford, last Sunday to help celebrate the first opening of the Estate fifteen years ago.

Bands played; clowns clowned and sheep were shorn. Spinners spun the wool, followed in production line, by knitters knitting the same wool just spun.

Sausages sizzled and and cider and wine was tasted and savoured. I tasted a range of different (and delicious) ciders from Dickens Cider at Hillwood in the Tamar Valley.

The ABC broadcast interviews live from the venue and certainly added greatly to the success of the event.

Tours of the main house were (as always) popular and Woolmers had their very own antiques roadshow with Kay Pickett to help anyone identify and value their treasures.

The National Rose Garden was especially popular because it is looking simply stunning right now and in full glorious bloom. Tours of the gardens were conducted and Les Hodge, The Examiner's Garden Expert was there to answer questions and chat to gardeners.

The day could hardly have been more perfect - warm, but not too hot and just the slightest of breezes. It's an absolute knockout year for gardens and it was great to see the gardens filled with such appreciative crowds.

A primary school choir from Longford sang sweetly on the steps of the old Woolshed - appropriately their first song was 'Click go the Shears' and there was even a big birthday cake which was ceremonially cut and handed round for everyone to taste.

Period costume had been requested and there were some wonderful examples, which gave a lovely authentic touch to the proceedings, and a rally of vintage cars, all in a row and all splendidly polished, added interest and colour to a wonderfully relaxing day.

"A big vote of thanks is due to those many volunteers who worked so hard to make this occassion such a resounding success" said Damian Saunders, who is the CEO at Woolmers. "A great day was had by all!"

VISITING THE VEGGIE GARDEN AT WOOLMERS

Imagine a neat formal garden with a diminutive fountain at its very centre; this has two little bronze birds appearing to be permanently drinking in its reflective pool. And the fountain is flanked by four standard mandarin trees, all bearing fruit right now, with low hedges of vivid lavender forming an outer circle.

Then, spreading out from that central circle, are neat beds planted with rows of onions, chives and garlic in one direction and broad beans and celery in another. Neat pyramids support several varieties of beans, and tomatoes and cauliflower are promising a bumper crop. Pumpkins are just starting to send out their runners and will very soon bloom.

There's a large bed of rhubarb ready to be picked and a bed of lettuce of alternating colours and varieties has been planted to form a decorative square.

An enclosed raspberry cage promises a crop of fruit which is destined for jam making to accompany the Servant's Kitchen speciality of scones with cream. (Don't miss this treat!)

Along one side of the garden are espaliered apple trees, planted as a reminder that there were once orchards of cider apples at Woolmers. And everything grown in this garden eventually finds its way into the Servant's Kitchen Cafe.

Separating all the vegetables from the National Rose Garden is a long row of ornamental cherry trees. And beyond that the roses in their thousands are all bursting into glorious bloom and wafting their delicious perfume over everything.

I love to visit the ever-changing veggie garden at Woolmers and I know many visitors enjoy the notice warning them to keep the gate closed so as to prevent Peter Rabbit from getting in!

Check out the website at www.woolmers.com.au

A note for your diary

A note for your diary (volunteers needed!)

Make a note for your diary for Sunday 21st November if you're anywhere near Longford. There's to be a special celebratory Birthday Party at Woolmers and that's when we also need volunteers - to help with the parking of visitors in the paddock behind the woolshed and to the main gate to collect the gold coin entry fees. The special day (intended to celebrate the creation of Woolmers Foundation) will be a great day of entertainment, heritage displays and a relaxing and enjoyable day for all the family.

Highlights will include a major historic wool display including traditional blade shearing; spinning and knitting displays, which include a "Learn to Knit" session for kids of all ages; lots of bands and a lively performance by the Longford Morris Dancers.

At 12.30 there will be a performance by the Longford Primary School Choir and the birthday cake will be cut and a taste handed around.

Everyone is invited to come and help us celebrate a fun day for young and old - soak up the atmosphere in the grounds of this great World Heritage listed Estate and, if you like, bring a picnic or enjoy some of the food on sale over a glass of great wine - Tasmanian of course!

There will be tours of the main house (not to be missed) and the outbuildings, as well as the National Rose Garden, which will be in full glorious bloom. A display of vintage cars and motorcycles - with owners ready and willing to chat - and a display of Red Cross memorabilia - these are just a sample of the fascinating things to see and do.

Entry will be by a donation of a gold coin for adults, but children and adults dressed in period costume will be given free entry - and we hope many will take the trouble to dress up for the occassion.

Come one and all! Help us celebrate our birthday on 21st November!
And if you can volunteer to help in any way please contact the office at Woolmers on 6391 2230 or enquiries@woolmers.com.au

See you there!

VOLUNTEERS - Woolmers needs you!

Do you have one or two hours a week (or perhaps even more) to help out at the National Rose Garden at Woolmers? Actually the Rose Garden at Woolmers needs volunteers to dead-head roses from mid-November until the end of summer (we prefer to call it summer pruning)! This is a lovely way to fill in a few summer-time hours - surrounded as you are by the sight and the heavenly perfume of so many millions of blooms.

Many, many words have been written about volunteering and I know from my own experience how enjoyable and sociable being a volunteer can be. I'm a volunteer at the National Rose Garden at Woolmers and also at Woolmers Estate, and less frequently, at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. The hours I spend doing a range of tasks, some more demanding than others, are enormously rewarding and have led me into a much wider social circle than I would otherwise have enjoyed.

There's also a small band of dedicated volunteers who help Gwen (the chief gardener) in the formal walled garden and there are others who help with guiding the public through the main house.

Many community organisations would simply not be able to function or even to survive were it not for the many hours donated by volunteers. Fortunately, volunteering is alive and well in Tasmania!

In fact, whatever your particular talent, even if it is riding a lawn-mower, if you have a few regular hours to spare, it's probable Woolmers would welcome your help - why not just ask!

Call Damian on 6301 2230 or email enquiries@woolmers.com.au

The Smoker's Hut

Little paths wind hither and thither almost aimlessely, enabling you to explore the charming old, formal gardens at Woolmers. Nestled in this beautiful walled precinct you'll come accross a strange little turret-like building - this is the Smoker's Hut.

It's a small building which was created specifically so that a Victorian gentleman or two, or even perhaps three, could retire there to smoke. And they did this presumably while their ladies were playing croquet on the lawn at the side of the house, shaded by a truly ancient mulberry tree. I can just imagine their long flowing gowns and picture hats.

One assumes too that the said gentleman would have smoked a pipe or a cigar since there's now quite a collection of pipes in the house and cigarettes were only invented at a much later date. The building was presumably conceived so that gentlemen would go out there in the garden to smoke instead of leaving the scent of smoke in the indoor furnishings.

This little building is quite picturesque and puts one in mind of a miniature castle - there's even a flag post on one side. I almost imagine a flag being run up when the gents were out there in residence!

The formal gardens surrounding our eccentric little building are looking simply stunning right now and are well worth a visit - small wonder that this is a present day favourite spot for weddings.

Clematis is in bloom over an arbour and wisteria climbs colourully along the verandas of the main house - and by the way, the personalised tour of the house is something not to be missed!

And while you're there do take a walk through the National Rose Garden at Woolmers which is at its peak from the end of October right through summer until the first frosts ...

What did those convicts eat?

Especially after I've enjoyed a wonderful (and often filling) meal at the Servant's Kitchen at Woolmers I get to wondering how different things were in days gone by. What, for example, did those convicts assigned to such an estate eat?

When I think about the abundance of wonderful food we can enjoy every day - especially in Tassie - I wonder how different it must have been in the early days of settlement.

It's possible the convicts who were transported here were actually better fed when they arrived than they were in the grindingly poor slums of Victorian England from whence they came.

Those who had originally lived in the country would have been better able to survive as their skills could have included knowledge of edible wild plants, such as nettles, dandelions and wild berries.

Starvation was always a prospect for the poor, especially in the urban slums of England and Ireland. Porridge made with boiled maize, oats or rye in water or milk and vegetable soup bulked out with bread - was what people ate if they were lucky - three times a day.

A family's entire diet might consist of no more than potato parings, vegetable refuse and rotten vegetables made into soup and eaten for want of other food. Or they might have lived chiefly off bread and cheese, with bacon two or three times a week, varied with onions.

At Woolmers there was a thriving veggie garden (just as there is today) and an orchard with many different fruit trees, and at one time there was a sizable apple orchard grown for making cider.

So, when convicts were finally assigned to work at Woolmers or Brickendon or any one of the other large pastoral properties of the day, they were at least much better fed than probably they had ever been before. And they would likely have been well able to produce nourishing meals from a wide variety of meat and vegetables.

Soup seems to have been almost a staple, which could be made from almost anything at all - animal or vegetable.

And the early settlers used wild animals and parts of aminals we would never dream of using now - for example I've seen recipes for stews and soups using wombat and echidna and even for sheep's head soup ..... the mind boggles!

Sunny Sunday

On a glorious spring morning, in wonderful bright sunshine, we gathered at Woolmers Cottage, out in the beautiful courtyard, the weather being so perfect. This courtyard is soon to be paved with flagstones made of sandstone to match those used in the verandas around the front of the house. Woolmers Cottage, hardly a cottage, is more a large graceful Victorian mansion with stunning veiws over the fields and hedgerows of the Norfolk Plains towards Longford.

But, I digress. There we were gathered (fifty or sixty people, mostly members of Woolmers Foundation Inc) to hear Barry Jones AO give his take on events leading to the lengthy process of assessment for World heritage Listing (which includes five Tasmanian Convict Sites) at Brazilia in July. He's an entertainng speaker and mentioned Kevin Rudd (remember him? Barry said) at one point because Mr Rudd became fascinated with the convict history of Tas as a result of finding out that he has five convict ancestors in his family. Barry mentioned how very useful it might be if we could find other helpful contacts in Government who also have convict ancestors.

The point being that so many of the sites now listed (jointly) will need some form of financial asistance going forward - and 'going forward' is certainly our intention. It was interesting to hear of the behind-the-scences machinations leading to these World Heritage Listings and to find that the process has taken more than twenty years. Talk about lengthy and complicated!

But now begins the challenge of marketing and promoting this World Heritage Listing in order to tell the fascinating Convict Story to as many visitors as possible.

Should any of my readers (and I hope there are many!) wish to join Woolmers Foundation (which is a not-for-profit organisation run mainly by volunteers) please contact: enquiries@woolmers.com.au or access the website: www.woolmers.com.au or telephone: (03) 6391 2230.

A plea was also made on Sunday for volunteers who are urgently needed right now to weed in the National Rose Garden at Woolmers - please, please do volunteer, even a few hours a week would be wonderful - contact details are as above.

Lovely Lamb Shanks

Simply the most delicious lamb shanks I've ever tasted! And where are these wonders to be found I hear you ask? Well, this is the most popularly requested meal to be had at the Servant's Kitchen at Woolmers Estate near Longford, and was what I enjoyed last week.

Accompanied by mashed potatoes and a most acceptable glass of red wine (Tasmanian of coures!) the lamb shanks were followed by a yummy sticky date pudding. Actually the meal was also accompanied by interesting and stimulating conversation - but that's another story!

Consumed in front of a roaring log fire, we were left feeling very pleased with the world and quite replete! All quite bad for the waist-line of course and now I shall need to be walking a little further and perhaps faster each day - but while I'm doing that I can be planning my next trip for lunch at Woolmers.

Now I wonder which of my friends I should round up for my next delicious (and perhaps equally wicked) expedition.....

The Punt

The picturesque Macquarie River flows between the two Archer properties of Woolmers and Brickendon and it quite often floods. The present vehicle bridge is a fairly recent innovation and in earlier times the river sometimes presented a difficult barrier.

A punt was originally used to take goods and people accross from one property to the other. the puntman was quite an important man and a gothic style puntman's cottage once existed close to Wolmers Lane and just above stream of the existing modern bridge. The puntman was kept busy ferrying men and equipment, grain and wool as well as livestock.

The Archers at Woolmers and Brickendon often helped each other out, though both properties were remarkably self sufficient. Even though the two properties are within sight of each other, one could not simply pop over for the odd forgotten item or to convey a message. Someone had to take the punt over the river and then actually walk all the way there, taking at least half and hour each way.

Now a new foot-bridge will be built downstream from where the punt originally made regular crossings. This will be part of a new walkway which is to be constructed so that people can once again walk - just as convicts did all those years ago - from one property to the other, adding a wonderful new dimension for visitors!

Dinner - 19th Century Imagined

The Archer family at Woolmers could occasionally entertain in grand style; and there was sometimes a visiting dignitary to be shown that; even here in this distant outpost of Empire, they know how to do things properly in Van Diemen's land.

And there were those rare and exciting occasions when visiting royalty was to be entertained, a circumstance involving lengthy and elaborate preparations.

Everyone on the estate was kept on their toes. Well in advance of the great day, teams of male convicts were put to setting the garden to rights. Mrs Archer probably supervised this work and later picked floweres from the formal walled garden herself, arranging them to her satisfaction for the occasion.

Housemaids were marshalled and set busily to cleaning and polishing and setting everthing to rights in preparation for the big day. Silver was polished and the best tableware carefully cleaned and set out.

That most important of convict servants - the cook - necessarily played a pivotal role in the planning of any dinner or luncheon party and, at one time Sarah Turton, originally from Wales, filled that principal function. The cook was in charge of pantry and the still room, where food was stored, so that hers was a position of trust. Sarah, we know, was a tall, strong woman which was just as well because she had to do plenty of heavy lifting of iron cooking pots as well as the baking for the family.

Cooking was done over the open fire in the servant's kitchen where the cook may also have slept after she had washed and scoured out those same heavy iron pots.

The lengthy meals customary at the time must have entailed plenty of advance preparation and Mrs Archer's recipe book was probably keenly consulted and a review made of available supplies of meat as well as vegetables and fruits from the extensive estate gardens.

When all was in readiness for the grand occasion one or two of the maids were detailed to serve the guests and Mrs Archer must have been at pains to discover who among her assigned female convticts was capable of this delicate task. Imagine the social disaster if one of the maids had spilled soup into the lap of one of the guests!

No sooner were housemaids trained in the ways of their social superiors than they wanted to go off and get married, particularly as it was easy to find a husband, there being far more male convicts than female. And then the Archer lady of the day had to start all over again training newly assigned convict women.

It's all too easy to imagine successive Archer wives lamenting the perennial 'servant problem' common to those ladies of the colony who wished to entertain, in style, persons of note!

Our very own - "Living Treasure"!

We're in for a rare treat at Woolmers on 3rd October when Dr Barry Jones AO., who has been declared one of the National Trust's Australian Living Treasures, will be Guest Speaker at the AGM of Woolmers Foundation Inc. The talk will celebrate the Tasmanian Convict Sites being accorded World Heritage Status.

A former politician and renowned academic with a strong interest in education and civil liberties, Dr Jones has a string of letters after his name and is a prolific writer and passionate social activist. He is widely known because of his appearances on Television quiz shows and he's an accomplished and witty public speaker.

Named in 1988 as one of Australia's 'Great Minds', he is currently a Board member of the Victorian Opera and Chairman of the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority.

He is an eloquent advocate for Australia at the Brasilia meeting of UNESCO and very influential in gaining World Heritage status for eleven Australian Convict Sites, five of which are in Tasmania.

"It's just great to be able to celebrate this nomination, after the lengthy time it has been in the offing", says Woolmers CEO Damian Saunders, "And this is sure to be a fascinating talk, so do come along - the more the merrier!"

Starting at 10.30am on Sunday 3rd October, at Woolmers Cottage, and preceded by the AGM of Woolmers Foundation Inc., the talk by Barry Jones will commence at 11.00am.

Light lunch soup and sandwiches - $10 per person.

For catering purposes please RSVP by September 29th to enquiries@woolmers.com.au or telephone: 6391 2230

More about World Heritage

Another word about that UNESCO World Heritage listing of Woolmers and Brickendon Estates near Longford - and the word, or rather words, I give you are quoted from the actual nomination of the two properties. In other words these are the reasons behind that listing.

"The Estates are representative of the use of penal transportation to expand Britain's geopolitical spheres of influence, and to rehabilitate criminals and integrate them into a distant penal colony." And they (the two properties) are associated with "global developments in the punishment of crime in the 19th century."

That all sounds a long winded way of saying the Brits sent their excess crims to Tas (or Van Diemen's Land as it was then called) because their jails were hopelessly overcrowded. Transportation (which was automatically for life) was also held up as a threat and, supposedly, prevented people in Britain from becoming criminals - though clearly it didn't work that well!

Many so-called 'crimes' were no more than the result of extreme poverty and today would not be considered crimes at all.

There are many fascinating convict stories associated with Woolmers and Brickndon and research is being done to uncover some of their stories. Male convicts lived and worked mainly at Brickendon while the females lived at Woolmers and the two were separated by the Macquarie River (not that the river was a deterrent to them forming 'attachments'!)

Woolmers and Brickendon Estates represent the 'good' or the more positive side of the convict system, because many convicts were able to work toward their eventual freedon. For this reason there are no chains or prison cells to be seen at either estate, though the convict workers were sometimes punished or more frequently simply sent back to the 'factory' if they were disobedient or attempted to escape.

Of course, convicts were a wonderful source of free labour for settlers and thus all the buildings you can see today at both Woolmers and Brickendon (along with many other pastoral properties in Tasmania) were actually built by convict labour.

Port Arthur and other penal settlements are associated with the terrible cruelty that characterised the system - chains and narrow cells giving today's visitors a 'frisson' of horror!

But the fact is only a very small proportion of convicts (less than 10%) were ever sent to Port Arthur, the majority being assigned to work throughout the new colony.

The whole penal system was a complicated one and there were many ideas associated with the system that we find convoluted and often pretty bizarre today.

For example female convicts were considered automatically morally bad as a class and it was regarded as a crime for a female convict to become pregnant. They were then regarded as 'fallen women' and 'useless', though the morals of men were never judged in this way (how, I wonder, did they think women got pregnant in the first place?)

Contradictorily, producing children was seen as a good thing (but preferably only ater marriage) and a way of providing more labour for the new colony.

Amazingly, it was also thought that if payment for work was withheld, this would cause workers to hope for a better life - imagine trying to make that one work today!

'POSTCARDS' the TV Show

On a glorious day - one of the very first glorious days of spring - I sat in the sun at Woolmers waiting to welcome a Television film crew from WIN Channel 7.

They came to film both Woolmers and neighbouring Brickendon for the TV program 'Postcards'. It's a half hour travel show which is normally screened late on a Sunday afternoon.

While filming took - well hours really - the actual segment will probably last only minutes when it finally goes to air. Such is Television land.....

So lucky that the weather had turned out great for us and everyone was excited that we had this wonderful opportunity to showcase our World Heritage status to the rest of Australia.

Woopee! Is what I say and I just hope the rest of Australia is watching for the show!

Fashionable Devonshire Tea!

"Of course the best Devonshire Teas in the whole of Tassie are at the Servant's Kitchen at Woolmers, near Longford." I said to the visiting food and wine journo. "And it's just amazing how scones and jam and cream are so, so fashionable right now!" said she.

Oh dear! I thought, and there I have been guzzling those very things at every opportunity for years and years without it ever occurring to me that I was showing myself to be completely out of fashion. And been spouting on too, about how delicious the raspberry jam is at Woolmers to everyone who would listen, thus spreading the word far and wide about my lack of fashion conciousness.

"But then everything old is new again." said the journo as she left me.

Whew, thank heaven for that!

So, I'm off to Woolmers right away, to order a round of warm, freshly baked scones with all that lovely home-made raspberry jam and lashings of thick real cream.

And I can be happy and secure in the knowledge that I'm right up there - so, so in fashion!


This blog written by Pixie Lowe http://pixielowe.blogspot.com/

Woolmers Estate World Heritage Listing

A total of eleven built sites (as opposed to significant natural areas of National Parks), in Australia have this week-end been declared by UNESCO to be World Heritage Convict Sites and five of those chosen are in Tasmania.

All are important places where the British Empire sent some 166,000 of its convicts over a period of eighty years from 1787 to 1868. British transportation of convicts to Australia was the first-ever attempt to use the labour of convicts to build a whole new society.

And - in the fullness of time - it worked! They could not possibly nave imagined back then how amazingly well it would all turn out.

The eleven sites spread accross Australia are listed so you can see just how important the ones chosen in Tassie really are, joining such places as the Sydney Opera House on the World Heritage list.

On the mainland the historic convict sites are Norfolk Island; Old Government House at Parramatta; Hyde Park Barracks in central Sydney; Old Great North Road NSW; Cockatoo Island Convict Site NSW; and Freemantle Prison in WA.

The five important Tasmanian Convict Sites are:

- Cascades Female Factory in Hobart
- Port Arthur Historic Site
- Coal Mines on the Tasman Peninsular
- Maria Island Darlington Probation Station
- And last by by no means least - Woolmers and adjoining Brickendon Estates which have been listed as one historic precinct. It's fantastic to get this international recognition of the importance of both properties.


These two beautiful 19th century estates, near Longford in the Northern Midlands, illustrate the 'good' side of the convict story, where convicts could be assigned to work out their sentence, eventually obtaining their freedom.

Port Arthur (which is now Government owned) and the Coal Mines Historic Site represent the opposite extreme of the penal system, in all its misguided cruelty.

Strangely, this cruel severity seems to hold the most fascination for visitors, Port Arthur attracting by far the biggest numbers.

Just to avoid misunderstandings, (of which I know there are some) Brickendon is still owned and operated by the Archer family as it has been since earliest settlement. Woolmers Estate, on the other hand, originally also an Archer property, is now owned and operated by a non-for-profit Foundation and is administered by a Board of Management, all of whom are volunteers.

Woolmers is open all year and it's well worth visiting to take the tour of the house and property. If you have not yet visited these beautiful and significant historic World Heritage Estates - it's surely time to do so!

Woolmers Estate

Here is the place to read all about Woolmers Estate in Longford, Tasmania, Australia.

Woolmers finds out at the end of this month about the World Heritage Status.

Exciting times ahead! Stay tuned!