West Tamar - Beauty Point

Last one :)

Beauty Point developed as a port for Beaconsfield. It's seen a resurgence lately with developments like Seahorse World. The pub got upgraded to a swanky drinking place, which is where the first three photos are taken from.

The Australian Maritime College has a campus here (their other campus shares the site with UniTas just down the road from me) and moor their ships here.




There's a park that runs along the edge of the river.




That's Bell Bay, the industrial port on the other side of the river.


We actually went looking for the shopping centre, because someone said it tells you a lot about the town. We'd just about given up on finding it when we got to this street.

West Tamar - Beaconsfield

Gold was discovered at Brandy Creek in the 1870s, and it wasn't long before a substantial town, renamed to Beaconsfield, grew up. It was said to one of the biggest in the state at one stage. According to Town With a History, by Coultman Smith, in 1899, the population was "2,699, with 7 hotels, eight boarding houses, five bakers, four blacksmiths, two doctors, two watchmakers, a solicitor, a tailor, 15 general stores, six greengrocers, five drapers, a state school, and four private schools."



The mine closed in 1914 and the town soon faded away. I pulled out my books to get the dates the mine was operational and ended up with enough notes to make another post so I'll do that another day.


These days, the mine again supports the town (the new mine can be seen behind the right hand brick building), with a bit of tourism and some service provision for the local area, because up here it's far to run into Launceston all the time to go tot he shops.




An odd little junk shop, with most of the goods on the floor


and the adjoining fruit stall


Opposite the mine site, there is a relocated school house and miner's cottage set up so visitors can look through the windows. I'll put up some photos of them in a later post too.

West Tamer - Exeter

Exeter is about halfway along the West Tamar Highway, in away from the river. It provides services for the surrounding area and smaller towns.

A few quick photos, including the obligatory dog on the back of a ute outside the shops.

West Tamar - Gravelly Beach

Gravelly Beach, is another small riverside town.

These places have a lot of houses for the size of the town. They are close enough to Launceston that most people would go there for shopping and other services, or nearby Exeter for quick visits.

As you come into Gravelly Beach from the north, there's a long section along the river with newer houses, then the older ones and then this little shopping centre, if you can call it that.

There's a general store, which provides most of the local services, including the post office.






Opposite the shops, there is parking and the river.




Around the corner, there's a good park and playground, and the marina which is probably what brings most visitors, other than those driving through looking for somewhere to eat.

West Tamar - Deviot

On the long weekend just been, we went up to Deviot because there was a bunch of open gardens and a little market. Most of the photos I took are of the gardens, so not many to show.

Deviot is a little town on the edge of the Tamar, just below the Batman Bridge.


The first thing we noticed was a lot of houses for sale, almost every second one when we first entered. You'd think someone was going to build a pulp mill in the area or something.


There are a lot of older, turn of the 20th century houses,




and some representatives of each decades some. As far as I know, it's only been a resort town. For many residents of Tasmania, especially the female ones, its probably best known for this place. There's a bit of farming, a bit of fishing, and in recent years, a lot of vineyards.


Don't know what these are. I assume Pinot Noir, that's the common dark grape in the area, but it was only a small planting, so it might be something else.





It was only a small market, just a handful of stalls, but a nice selection of goods.





We left there about lunch time, and went through Gravelly Beach, to Exeter and then further up the West Tamar to Beaconsfield and Beauty Point.