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More Heritage

The promise of wealth at Adamsfield . . .

Card 411: Adamsfield Huts in 2017

Adamsfield was once a thriving mining settlement with a population of more than 1000 in Tasmania’s remote south-west. Osmiridium was the metal that drew hopefuls to this isolated part of the island. At the time of mining there, osmiridium was worth
FIVE TIMES the value of gold!
Today there is little left of this once booming township other than a quiet valley and scattered relics, which are gradually being reclaimed by the bush. The Adamsfield Conservation Area is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

An Adamsfield photo from the 1930s - showing the SAME main two huts as in the 2017 photo. Available as a special order.

More Heritage

126. Brick wall on Maria Island.

Convict-made bricks were used in 'important' buildings, as was sandstone. Sandstone is more lasting, but in some locations bricks were made using salt water - which guaranteed their destruction.

Elsewhere - where local stone was available -
it was used, mostly for farm buildings.

278. The convict-built bridge at Richmond - north side

295. Workers' quarters at Woodbury House, in the lower midlands - still sporting its shingled roof.

297. The Richmond bridge viewed from its southern side, with a glimpse of St John's historic Catholic church on the hill behind.

282. Remains of the church at Port Arthur, on the Tasman Peninsula. This photo is from a slide I took in the 1960s.

285. The notorious Penitentiary at Port Arthur - from a slide taken in the 1960s.

283. The Anglican Church of St John the Baptist built 1846 at Buckland, Tasmania. On the back of this card you'll read: Mystery surrounds the origins of the magnificent East window of the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist at Buckland, Tasmania, about 60kms from Hobart. While the Church was built in 1846, experts believe the window dates from the 14th century, and that it was possibly brought to Australia by the Reverend F. H. Cox, who was Rector of the church from 1846-48, when he emigrated from Sussex. It is even suggested that Lord Robert Cecil, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, gave the window to Cox before he left England. The graveyard is also of interest, with many headstones still in good condition. On one of these, the bereft parents of a 9-month old child who died in 1852 had these words inscribed on his tombstone: “Here lies the grief of a fond mother, and the blasted expectations of an indulgent father.”

302. Glenleith oast house - a hop drying kiln - in the Derwent valley north of New Norfolk.

301. Some of the original buildings at Valleyfield, just out of New Norfolk in the Derwent Valley. This is also the site of what is probably Tasmania's best-known round oast house, built by the Shoobridge family in the 1880s.

296. The Shot Tower, at Taroona, south of Hobart

Card 386. Ruins at Saltwater River, Tasman Peninsula

Further Afield . . .
The ruined remains of the Saltwater River penal settlement lie on the Tasman Peninsula, 23 km from Port Arthur and 106 km from Hobart. The area contained two penal settlements; one was an agricultural settlement which produced vegetables, wheat, and had a piggery. The other was a coal mine, known amongst convicts for its hellish conditions. It is now on the Australian National Heritage List as the Coal Mines Historic Site. Today, impressive sandstone ruins and underground cells are all that remain at the site.

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