Twin Bridges

No, not twins, as one is forty years older than the other, but they have the same design.

The first span of the Kings Bridge over the South Esk River in Launceston was manufactured in Manchester and brought out to Tassie, where it was floated into place in 1863. The trouble was, it only had one lane so, forty years later when traffic levels had increased considerably, the authorities decided to commission another similar span. They gave the work to a local company who copied the design of the original and put it into place beside the original in 1903.

Jean

The Huon Pine

The huon pine tree is not actually a pine but a podocarp, an evergreen conifer found mostly in cooler areas of the southern hemisphere, especially Tasmania. It is a slow growing, but long-lived tree, which was and is highly prized fine grain, golden colour and the fact that it does not rot easily due to a natural oil it contains. It was over-logged and, as it grows so slowly, it s numbers have been dwindling. It now has protected status within Tasmania.

This boat, which we by-passed today on our cruise, is built from huon pine and our captain informed us that it is likely to outlive all of the boats around it.

Jean

A sting in the tail

An hour before heading to Launceston airport to return the car and catch the flight to Melbourne there was a nasty surprise.

I had parked in a street near the river while we caught a 50-minute pleasure-boat cruise which took in the port and the nearby gorge.

When we returned there was a 50 dollar parking fine on the windscreen, not for overstaying our time, but for allegedly parking out of the designated bay. To us this looked nonsense and we intend to dispute it. We have pictures of where we were and the car, seen here in happier times, looks to be well within limits. Not guilty, m’lud. Dave

The nearly Royal yacht

In other circumstances this vessel Wyuna, moored these days in Launceston, could have been the Royal Yacht, instead of Britannia.

It’s a similar shape and design to the one that was finally chosen all those years ago but apparently not quite big enough and Britannia got the nod.

Since then Wyuna has had a varied career including being leased for the period of Sydney Olympics in 2000 to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. - real royalty! Dave