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Now a new foot-bridge will be built downstream from where the punt originally made regular crossings.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!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
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
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
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
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!
"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!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
'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!
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!
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