Launceston

Today we headed from Swansea to Launceston. This is only a couple of hours drive straight through but we took our time and found a few interesting things on the way.

First stop was a small town called Campbell Town. One thing I have noticed about Tasmania is there is a lot of convict history and Campbell Town was a prime example. Originally there was a creek running through the town but they decided they wanted to change the direction so they had the convicts build a bridge and then dig a channel to reroute the creek so it ran under the bridge.

More recently the town established a convict trail of bricks that showed the name, ship, and crime of Tasmanian convicts. The trail ran up and down the Main Street. There were a number of convict era buildings in the town some with cells in the basement.

After Campbell Town we headed on to Evandale. This is a classified historic town and we just happened to be there when the Evandale town fair was on which meant they had penny farthing bike races around the town. Classic! They had speed races, slow races, slalom races, biathlon races, novice races, and lots more. There was a Japanese bloke there who is apparently a TV star in Japan so he had an entourage of camera people filming him in a couple of races.

The other thing to note was there were a lot of people with the surname McClintock who obviously live in the town as they were competing and seemed well known.

We then headed up to Launceston. Once again lots of old buildings and lots of hills. We quickly found our Hotel, had lunch, and went to find the big attraction in Town - the Boags Brewery. They run tours of the brewery with tastings so we were keen. It was an interesting tour and some nice beers with cheese.

After the tour we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant and headed back to the hotel.

We only have one night in Launceston, tomorrow we are on to Cradle Mountain.Read more