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Richmond
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RICHMOND
, on the Coal River about 25km north of Hobart and surrounded by undulating countryside, is one of the oldest and best-preserved towns in Australia. Settlers received land grants in the area not long after the fledgling colony had been set up in 1803, and in 1824 Lieutenant Governor Sorell founded the town, on the route between Hobart and the east coast. Soon, traffic to the new penal settlement at Port Arthur began to pass through, and Richmond's strategic location made it an important military post and convict station; by the 1830s it was the third-largest town in Tasmania. In 1872, however, the
Sorell Causeway
was opened, bypassing Richmond, which became a rural community with little incentive for change or development. Most of the approximately fifty buildings - plain and functional stone dwellings - date from the 1830s and 1840s, and many are now used as galleries, craft shops, cafes, restaurants and guesthouses. Attractions along Bridge Street include the wooden
Richmond Maze
(daily 10am-5pm; $3.50) and the
Old Hobart Town Model Village
(daily 9.30am-5.30pm; $7.50), a large-scale outdoor model of Hobart in the 1820s.
Richmond's most authentic attraction, however, is the sandstone, slate-roofed
Richmond Gaol
(daily 9am-5pm; $4.50), an intact example of an early prison. The prison's function was mostly to house prisoners in transit or those awaiting trial, and to accommodate convict road gangs working in the district; the east wing was designed to hold female convicts, who could not be accommodated at Port Arthur. Informative signs explain the various features of the jail, which now seems incongruously pretty, set around a leafy central square. Richmond also has the distinction of having both Australia's oldest Roman Catholic Church - that of
St John
, which dates in part from 1837 - and its oldest bridge.
Richmond Bridge
was constructed in 1823 under harsh conditions using convict labour; legend says that it's haunted by the ghost of the brutal flagellator, George Grover, who was beaten to death by the convicts and thrown into the river during its construction. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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Australia,
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