HERITAGE HIGHWAY
This Highway tells a thousand stories of convicts, bushrangers, farmers, writers and painters. The long open valley you travel between Tasmania's two major cities, Launceston and Hobart, was first used by Aborigines for hunting, then settled by European farmers within the first decades of colonisation.
You will travel through Georgian villages that were once overnight stops for travellers in horse-drawn carriages. The town names tell a story of homesick settlers and visionary explorers : English Town, Epping, Ross, Pontville and Jericho, Mangalore and Nile.
Today, the road follows the routes pioneered in 1807. Those first explorers took eight days to traverse the island. Soon afterwards, the fastest horse-drawn coaches completed the journey in 15 hours, changing horses every 10 miles.
These days, you can drive from Launceston to Hobart in a couple of hours - but if you do, you'll be missing some of Tasmania's most gently beautiful country scenery, and bypassing the State's best-preserved colonial towns and villages, where sandstone church spires overlook English trees of oak and elm, Georgian cottages line the quiet streets and stone bridges are reflected in leaf-dappled water.
You will hear the inspirational stories of people who went before, the convicts who shaped the enduring stone for bridges and churches; the bushrangers who swept down on unsuspecting travellers; and the farmers and graziers who opened up the new land, making their fortunes from bushels of wheat and bales of wool. You'll see their stories and their legacy, and you'll meet the Tasmanians who now proudly preserve the memories and heritage of the past.
Ross is a treasure-trove of colonial heritage. Settled in 1812, its bridge was built in 1836 by convict stonemasons who carved 186 figures into the arches, many caricatures of leaders of the day. Each corner of the key village intersection has its own heritage, tagged as Temptation (Man O'Ross Hotel), Salvation (Catholic Church), Recreation (Town Hall) and Damnation (gaol site). Superfine merino wool from the locality attracts record world prices.
On The Heritage Highway, Longford was settled in 1813 and retains original churches, colonial cottages and Georgian buildings, some with their stables intact and many constructed by convict labour. English-style countryside surrounding the town is dotted with working farms which date back to settlement, including Woolmers Estate, with its epic story of the rise and fall of a colonial farming dynasty. Gardens Brickendon are listed on the National Estate register.
Oatlands, on the Heritage Highway was named and selected as a township by Governor Macquarie in 1821. Oatlands is reputed to have the largest collection of sandstone buildings in Australia, and many are now antique shops and restaurants. Lake Dulverton has been restocked with fish and is a popular fishing spot.
