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).

Ross, the bridge

So I lied :)

The Ross Bridge is on the southern access road, although once part of the highway. It was built in 1836, at the request of Lt Gov Arthur, and is another design by architect by John Lee Archer (maybe I should add a tag for his creations?). The two men responsible for building it, as both stonemasons and overseers, were highwayman Daniel Herbert and burglarJames Colbeck. Herbert's name is still well known Colbeck though has faded into relative obscurity, and when he does get a mention, he's often called John. Both did get a pardon a few years latter though.

The stone isn't standing up to elements very well and many of the 186 carvings that decorate the bridge are badly worn. (The also don't photograph very well from the riverbank.) There is, or was, a project under way to create replacements from moulds, and put the originals somewhere safe.

In the photo below, look for the face in the bottom left corner.

Ross, some more of the town

Some photos of buildings today, and then I'll get onto the interesting stuff. :)

Along Bridge St, being the street leading from the Bridge. Military Barracks.


War Memorial at the intersection of Bridge & Church St (from previous post). I started adding a few notes about this, but it got long. Next post :)

Looking south up the hill. The Uniting Church is up there on the right.


The Uniting Church (formerly Methodist) was built in 1885 to an older 1838 Chapel. On the site of the chapel, there is an early Sunday School buildings and apparently some old headstones. One of the things I didn't get to look at.


The Council Clerk's House, from the back.


South along Church St are the shops and many of the old buildings.




The pub again.




The Scotch Thistle was a coaching inn, built about 1830, licensed about 1840.


Not all stone :)




Post Office