Well I won't hold you in suspense any longer. Here it is, built in 1836 and the third oldest bridge still in use in Australia. It is perhaps the supreme masterpiece of all convict constructions in Australia. Now I'll admit that's a big claim, but later on in this series when we devote several days to studying this bridge closely, I hope to convince you that this is true.
This shot was taken late in the day as you can see by the long shadows and the golden light.
Tags: Luminosity7 Nikon D850 Launceston Tasmania Australia Ross Ross Bridge Sandstone Bridge Heritage listed 1836 Stone carvings Macquarie River Architecture Late afternoon sun
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Whether it be the magnificent old Methodist Church on the hill (which we looked at yesterday), or the outstandingly intricate stone carvings on the Ross Bridge, this photograph encapsulates the pride of Ross. It's fair to say this photograph could easily have been taken in the 1890s and nothing would have changed.
Tags: Luminosity7 Nikon D850 Launceston Tasmania Australia Ross The Pride of Ross The Old Methodist Church Ross Bridge, 1836 Reflections B/W Black and White Monochrome Tasmaniana
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A nice little feature on the Ross Bridge - the third oldest continually operating bridge in Australia - is the mile markers. On the north side it gives us the distance to Launceston, and on the south here, we see that it is "LXIX" miles to Hobart. 69 miles or 111 kilometres from Hobart Town, several days coach journey.
Tags: Luminosity7 Nikon D850 Launceston Tasmania Australia Ross To Hobart Town Bridge mile marker Stone carving Ross Bridge, 1836 Landscape Sky Clouds Late afternoon sun Tasmaniana
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We've seen the famous Ross Bridge before, but this time we'll take a look at it in monochrome. Once again, this photograph could have been taken in the 1890s (after the church was built) and nothing has changed. Even the convict-built bollards and chains can be seen at each end of the bridge.
But we are going to take a closer look at this bridge and its surrounds this week. I believe it is the supreme masterpiece of convict construction in Australia, and the secret stone carvings are simply unlike anything on a bridge anywhere in the world. They are very mysterious, and we'll not only take a look at some, but meet their maker.
[Enlarge the photo and take a look around.]
Tags: Luminosity7 Nikon D850 Launceston Tasmania Australia Ross Ross Bridge 1836 B/W Black and White Monochrome Tasmaniana Architecture Macquarie River Sandstone bridge Clouds Sky Late afternoon sun
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Today I will start to tell a huge story. It involves the Ross Bridge, convict life in a frontier colony on the other side of the world from the centre of the powerful British Empire, and the ways one man in particular used these circumstances to leave a lasting impression on the world.
I am hoping that some of you will take a little time to read through this historical account (and I thank you in advance for doing so). It is truly one of the most remarkable forgotten stories in the early history of Tasmania. Normally I will upload about four photographs for the day. But taking my cue from the serial writers of the 19th century I have deciding in this case I might upload it one picture and episode at a time. You will then be free to look in at any time and catch up on any episode you may have missed.
When we looked at the Clarendon Estate in the Evandale series, I did discuss some of the background to the policy of Convict Transportation and how it sped up the development of the fledgling colony of Van Diemen's Land. I'll attach that link below and that will save me a lot of background work here.
For the serious historical buffs there are three books in particular I would like to draw your attention to:
1. Robert Hughes, "The Fatal Shore: A history of the transportation of convicts to Australia. 1787-1868" (Harvill, 1987).
When I mentioned this story I'm about to tell was a forgotten one, I am not exaggerating. Neither James Colbeck or Daniel Herbert - the stonemasons who built the Ross Bridge - rate a mention. And the only reference to what is truly a masterpiece of engineering and the single greatest artistic stonemasonry in Australian history gets one dismissive line:
"(The convicts') mute tracings are everywhere...the earnest, slightly bizarre figures carved on the face of (the bridge) at Ross in Tasmania..." (p.589).
Now the late Robert Hughes was a masterful art historian, and in this book he presents a fascinating history of the convicts, but here he is simply ignorant of what (had he known the story at all) might well have been the making of another book entirely. [Sorry Robert, you would have written a great book had you known.]
2. Alison Alexander, "Tasmania's Convicts: How felons built a free society" (Allen & Unwin, 2010).
A very fine introduction to transportation in Van Diemen's Land, and Ross gets a mention for the Female Factory, Horton College and the celebration to end Transportation in 1853. But again, not a single mention of Ross Bridge and its outstanding creators. By now I'm astounded, because this is truly a story that must be told.
3. Hamish Maxwell-Stewart, "Closing Hell's Gates: The death of a convict station" (Allen & Unwin, 2008).
This book is great background into the short history of the most feared convict prison on Sarah Island in the middle of the remote west coast Macquarie Harbour. It was the early 19th century equivalent to Alcatraz, only ten times more vicious.
The painting here of the Port Arthur penal settlement in 1842 was made by an unknown artist. It may have been a convict, we can't be sure, but it hangs in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. The quietude of this scene belies the real horrors behind it. Some of you may have seen a film or TV series of "For the Term of his Natural Life", the 19th century novel by Marcus Clarke about the terrors of convict life. That was closer to the truth.
In this story I will introduce you to two convict stonemasons, James Colbeck (1801-1852) convictrecords.com.au/convicts/colbeck/james/116492
and Daniel Herbert (1802-1868). adb.anu.edu.au/biography/herbert-daniel-12979
Neither of these men were sent to Port Arthur as far as we know, although both men suffered the harsh penalties of lashings, working in chain gangs and running the treadmill. For both these men, the Ross Bridge project rightly earned them pardons and it's where their legacy remains today.
The story has only been told once before in one of the most important books ever published in Tasmania:
Leslie Greener and Norman Laird, "Ross Bridge and the sculpture of Daniel Herbert" (Fullers, 1971). Long out of print and exceedingly rare.
Why is this story so important? Well for a start you have a sandstone bridge, hand built that is nearly 190 years old and still in use today. And then you have the carvings. Unlike anything else on a bridge anywhere else in the world. This is the sort of work you expect to see on Notre Dame Cathedral, not a stone bridge in the middle of a little town in Tasmania.
So what exactly were these stonemasons about, and how did they ever get their subversive work through the military overseers? And I do mean subversive! As we'll come to see Daniel Herbert was a follower of William Blake (1757-1827), with radical political and spiritual ideas like Blake. I will attempt to show you with my photographs how these men colluded to "stick one right up" the British Empire and they got away with free pardons. Good for them! This is truly an uplifting story of human redemption. That's why I want to take the time to retell it.
I'm giving you a lot of background information to the story here, and if you'll allow me one more important indulgence. I have already introduced the work of John Glover to you. Glover was a brilliant landscape artist who came to Van Diemen's Land as a member of the Gentry and a free settler. Daniel Herbert was also an artist (actually a sign writer), but from the working class with a history of poverty and crime. He was transported to Van Diemen's Land for highway robbery on the ship "Asia", arriving in Hobart Town in December 1827. We don't know whether these two great artists ever met.
But another artist of note was on that same ship as Herbert: William Buelow Gould (1801-1853). Gould was an incorrigible thief who was to spend time in both Port Arthur (above) and the dreaded Sarah Island. But he also went on to become a portrait painter of colonial society, and his story is immortalised in the novel by Richard Flanagan, "Gould's Book of Fish" (2001). One can only imagine what these two artists had to talk about on the six month journey from England to Van Diemen's Land.
So let me conclude this first installment with this observation. The era of the convict was extremely harsh. As it is said, "If you do the crime, you do the time." They did that with extra "lashings" if you'll pardon the pun. But, it was also a society that believed in redemption.
That so many of these convicts were released with free pardons for labours carried out diligently and then went on to contribute to the making of a free society, is also a credit on the society of the time. I only wish our contemporary society was just as forgiving and accepting of people who have "done their time." Prison reform groups today, including the Christian group Prison Fellowship, still lament how difficult it is for former prisoners today to transition back into our society.
Try getting a job with a criminal record today. So on that sober note, I will point out that for all the 19th century harshness, there is a hardening of the heart in 21st century society that would have condemned artisans like Colbeck and Herbert to be outcasts for the term of their natural lives.
Have we really progressed as much as we think we have? I think you know what my answer to that question would be.
Tags: Luminosity7 Nikon D850 Launceston Tasmania Australia Port Arthur Painting 1842 Unknown artist Convicts Transportation of convicts Daniel Herbert (1802-1868) James Colbeck (1801-1852) William Buelow Gould (1801-1853) Ross Bridge
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