Midlands Military Meet

A scattering of photos from the Midlands Military Meet at Campbell Town last weekend. Being the first one, it was a small event but we hope to grow it for next time.

There was a big metal shed that doubled as the Dealer's Hall and Exhibition Hall. Outside was a large dirt arena, where the live displays (enacting?) took place, and a scattering of displays around the outside (the Army and a collection of military vehicles). A small event is probably more social and relaxed than a larger gathering, but it puts extra pressure on those exhibitors that were there. I think both the WW2 group and the Light Horse did 3 displays each of the three days (or 2 on the last day) which was quite demanding, and it's hard being a dealer when it's quiet. (It's also hard being a dealer when you have more customers can you can deal with at once, but that's the sort of hard one can live with.) It has the potential to grow though, especially now that there is material available (photos!) to promote the next one in 2010.

(And if anyone reading this is interested in taking part or knows someone who might be...)
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Uh oh, German invasion.



But the Allied forces are onto them.



Yep, definitely dead.



The problems with boots...



Barbarians should not eat blueberry icecream. It's just wrong.



The dealers' tables were very interesting in their own right.















These are what you call specialist books.





That is a colour photo.




The Light Horse re-enactors frustrated me. They were far enough away the camera couldn't pick them up well and they sun was beside them, so the darker horses came out particularly badly. Sunday morning was overcast though, so I managed to get some usable photos (which I will put in another post).



In the big, metal shed pavilion, there was a corner of displays.







Anti-aircraft gun.







BANG! Setting off the 6-pounder


It can play games with your head though. On the Saturday morning, I came out of the pavilion while everyone was setting up, and saw two medievalish characters walking past some Word War II soldiers. I'm used to one twist on reality -- whether it's an old house or a replica ship or people in period costume against a modern backdrop -- but multiple twists can be jolting at first.

One very obvious thing missing from the photos is sound. The running commentary, the bang of the big guns, the pop-pop-pop of the smaller guns. You'd be standing in the pavilion talking with a dealer and suddenly World War II erupts outside :)

Light Horse re-enactors

Interesting to see in the photos the things the eye missed.

There are three skill tests being demonstrated here: lopping the ball of the poles, skewering the ring hanging from the gallows and getting the wooden stake on the ground (tent pegging). These are done competitively in places.

Ross, sheep paddock

Here we have a sheep paddock

with an empty house in it.



This is a short timeline of the site taken from Parks & Wildlife's web page

c. 1831 brick and thatch huts built for convict gang employed in public works

1833-5 permanent stone buildings constructed to house chain-gang employed on the Ross bridge

1841 site commenced use as male probation station and also housing chain-gangs working on the Hobart-Launceston road

1847 expansion of buildings for female convicts

1853 end of convict transportation

1854 closure of female factory

1855 factory handed over to Police Department

It's the period from 1847-1854 that is the main focus of the displays and most material written about the sight.

There is only one building still standing. Originally, it was two conjoined cottage, each of which consisted of two main rooms with a small room on the back. This is the rear cottage, with a room on either side of the door


and the little room at the back.


The front cottage has been enlarged.


The rooms on the right are the original two roomed cottage (same as the one shown earlier). Two rooms have been added on the left, with a central hallway joining them to the original part, making a four roomed house.


This is the side of the house, originally the back of the cottage. I hadn’t noticed until I was editing this photo, but you can see the doorway that must have led to the little back room (there's a sandstone doorsill at the bottom, and the a vertical line above it shows where the doorway was filled in with stone).

Inside the house is a small museum, but I'll leave that for Mr Squirrel. Anything I write about the site that will be duplicating what has been done better elsewhere on the web, in particular the Parks & Wildlife site and the Female Factory website


Inside, there is a model of the site, the two cottages are at the bottom (the addition is shown with clear walls).


On the Parks site, there's a map that shows the present day remains related to the demolished buildings.

Ross, more stones

A side trip, to the hill behind the older part of town.

Through a gate

Penalty For Not Closing Gates ?10

across the railway



and through another two gates




is the Anglican cemetery, with the smaller Catholic cemetery to one side (not visible).




It's an interesting cemetery in its own right, but today's destination is further up the hill.



Also known as the soldier's or military burial ground,



because there are a number of redcoats buried here.

Philip Maher
who departed this life
on the 31st March AD 1817
and served as Quarter Master Seegeant
in the 51st K.O.L.I
during a long campaign on the
Peninsula and? Waterloo
and later Barrack Sergeant
at Ross
aged 56 years




There are not a lot of headstones up here though.



(This is a guess)
Isabella Ann
the beloved wife of
Mr Henry Valentine

Many of the surviving stones are also too worn to read.


Herbert is responsible for carving many of the headstones here, including his own (this one). Presumably Colbeck did some too but he rarely gets mentioned.



Sarah Ann Ellis
October 13th 1836 aged 1 month

In the background there is the next, and final, destination


at the bottom of the long path that runs alongside the newer cemetery (looking back up here).