20th October 2009

We went to the Stanley genealogy centre where the woman
tried to help me with my research but she didn't have much information, however, she was very impressed that my 4x's
Great Grandparents John & Ann Heaton and their 5 little girls
all aged under 8 years came to Circular Head in 1828 aboard
"The Caroline" as indentured servants of the Van Diemen
Land Company.


I took a picture of a picture of Stanley in 1858.







The genealogy centre is attached to St. Paul's church (Est. 1842), the lady told us there are only 4 members left in the
congregation including herself and a 90 year old woman who plays the organ.











We then went to ride the chairlift to the top of "The Nut". The Nut is the core of an ancient volcano which was discovered by Bass & Flinders in 1798.

We walked around the top of The Nut for a couple of hours, it was very windy and very cold.







View from the chairlift coming down.


We then went to the post office to mail a postcard.

Glenn loved this old phone box.


Started back to Somerset to take the road south to Zeehan. Stopped in at Table Cape to see this old lighthouse dated 1888 and a tulip farm.





We arrive in Zeehan at about 5pm. It is hard to believe that Zeehan was once a thriving town with over 10,000 residents, today it is like a ghost town with a population of only 845. We found the caravan park which was very average. The lady said we could light a fire which Glenn did but the wood was wet and the fire sent smoke all over the park, tsk tsk tsk, it was kind of funny, only Glenn could do that! Had a beaut hamburger for tea and slept like a log.

19th October 2009

I am now 50 years & 1 day old. This morning we went into Burnie and checked out the Pioneer Museum, this turned out to be very disappointing as they were moving and had everything packed away. Gave up there and went to the library which wasn't any better, I actually got the old "I don't usually work in this department" excuse. After I took a picture of the monument to the Van Diemen Land Company we decided to give Burnie the flick and head up to Wynyard. The people at the Wynyard visitors centre were terrific, they couldn't do enough to help me with my family tree research.

Whilst we were there we checked out the veteran car museum. My favourites were the 1905 Model F Ford and the 1913 Indian, Glenn just loved them all. If you are ever in Wynyard and you like old cars and bikes, don't miss this exhibition, it is well worth a look.

1899 De Dion Bouton Tricycle

2.25 HP / 300cc.
1 forward gear,
no clutch, pedal start.




1903 Model A Ford




2 cylinder horizontally opposed
8 horsepower engine with
chain drive to rear wheels.




1904 Cadillac




8.25 horsepower,
single cylinder engine.





1904 Darracq



Cruise control system,
steering column gearshift,
and a multi-speed gearbox.





1905 'Flying 15' Darracq



3 litre engine, can
travel at a speed of
50 miles per hour.





1905 Model F Ford




Flat twin engine, the last
of Ford's 2 cylinder cars.





1906 Model N Ford



15 - 18 horsepower.
The first of Ford's
4 cylinder cars.





1907 Model K Ford




40 horsepower.






1908 International Harvester
Motor Buggy




Twin cylinder 5" (127mm)
bore and stroke.
Designed to fit into the ruts
made by horse buggies.



1908 Model S Ford




Mechanically the same
as the Model N Ford.





1911 Brush



Single cylinder
8 horsepower
engine which ran
anti clockwise.




1913 Indian



The Indian weighs only
100 lb's, and is the first
motorcycle to have electric
start and electric lights.




1915 Cadillac




V8.






1915 Ford Model T Roadster



4 cylinder, 20 horsepower,
top speed 40 mph.






1916 Model T Ford




4 cylinder, 20 horsepower.






1917 Oldsmobile




V8.






1922 Raleigh





2 cylinder.





1928 Model A Ford




4 cylinder, 40 horsepower,
3 speed gearbox,
4 wheel brakes.




1938 Brough Superior 11-50 Special



1100cc
Original & unrestored.
Hand made in
Nottingham England,
1 of only 23 made in 1938.




After lunch we headed for Circular Head.


We arrived in Stanley at about 4pm, took a couple of pictures from the lookout and went to the pioneer settlement called Highfield House.


We were too late to go in and see everything so we just took some pictures of Highfield House,

it's out buildings and the ruins of the convict barracks.

We then went to find the caravan park. Stanley caravan park was great, modern, clean and situated right on Tatlow beach.





In the camp kitchen we met lots of people from all over the country who were happy to tell of their adventures and give us some tips of where to go and what to see. It was here that we learnt that Dismal Swamp, the place we were going to tomorrow was closed because of storm damage and wouldn't be opened for at least another week :-(

We went to watch the penguins come in but we must have been too late because the only penguin we saw was walking up the road on our way back to the caravan park.

18th October 2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
We paid our $22 to get into the World Heritage Listed Cradle Mountain Nation Park and drove down to Dove Lake.


The weather was crap, light misty rain all day and we couldn't see much of the Cradle, but we didn't mind because it was so great. We took what was meant to be a 2 hour walk around Dove Lake, but with my sore feet and wonky knee's it took 3 hours. After only walking unaided in September for the first time in 22 months I was stoked to finish the 6.6 kilometre walk.

The first part of the walk was pretty easy going, nice boardwalks to walk on but the last part of the walk was tough going, even a mountain goat would have had trouble with the rocky gravel climb.

Cradle Mountain still had snow on it, we got a great view of the lake from the top of glacier rock. There's a bit of everything from forest to beaches to waterfalls. The Honeymoon Islands are in the middle of the lake. A beautiful place and a must to see. I would love to go back again on a sunny day. We had lunch at the Cradle Mountain Cafe, here I paid for internet access but it was dial up crap and wouldn't move off the homepage grrr! Glenn fed the raven twisties.....bad boy! Cradle Mountain was a great place to spend my birthday. We left for Burnie at 3.30pm. When we got about 2 kilometres from Burnie my phone started going off with birthday messages, it was great!

If you don't have Telstra in Tassie then you only have reception in the major cities. By this time we'd had enough of paying $4.50 every time we wanted a cuppa, so we went to Woolies and bought a camp stove, canisters of gas, a pot, coffee, tea, milk and sugar. It only cost $36 and the way Glenn drinks coffee it paid for itself in 2 days. We lashed out on a cabin at the very nice Burnie caravan park, watched some tele (choice of 2 very blurry channels), spoke to Rachel on the net, took a shower and slept like a log, well worth $95!

17th October 2009

After the car had conked out when we were about to board the ship, we worried all night that it wouldn't start in the morning, luckily it started no worries.

We started our trip by heading south to Sheffield and followed the signs to Promised Land to visit Tasmazia and the Village of Lower Crackpot.

In the distance we could see Mt. Roland.


We saw a sign to No Where Else, and we just had to go and see for ourselves.














It was still early when we got to Tasmazia and it hadn't opened for the day so we took a drive down to the International Rowing Course at Lake Barrington, I'm not a rower but it was something to see, it was huge and very impressive.

Tasmazia and the Village of Little Crackpot is well worth a visit, it is a fun place with 8 mazes to master and a very cute model village to wander around. My favourite was the witch crashing into the lamp post.









We then went to find Paradise because my Uncle Donny had said it really was 'paradise', I was disappointed and thought it was average, on the way we stopped off at Mt. Round Lookout, beautiful view.


Then it was back to Sheffield for pies and vanilla slices for lunch.

Off now to Cradle Mountain, along the way we stopped at Gowrie Park and took the O'Neills Creek nature walk, we walked as far as the creek and back. We saw a gorgeous pink robin, I wish I had my camera. Beautiful scenery all the way to Cradle Mountain except for the area's which had been burnt out. We arrived too late to go to the lake so we booked into the Cradle Mountain caravan park,$27 a night. It's a lovely caravan park and great showers too! We had dinner at the lodge and set up the bed in the stationwagon for our first night on the road.


It was surprisingly comfy. I didn't realise how tired I was, I fell asleep at 6.30pm and slept for 14 hours!