Located Eighty-four kilometres from Hobart, almost halfway between Hobart and Launceston, Oatlands, Tasmania,
is a wonderful Georgian era town with the largest number of colonial sandstone buildings in Australia.
Palawa/Pakana People
About 35,000 years ago during the Ice Age, the sea was low and, a land bridge formed allowing Aboriginal people access into Tasmania.
With the end of the Ice Age, 15,000 – 10,000 years ago, the climate warmed, and the sea level rose as the ice melted. Tasmanian Aboriginal people became isolated from
the mainland as the land bridge was submerged by water. Bass Strait was formed.
Following the formation of a land bridge, the megafauna of Tasmania were rapidly eliminated. Hunting and the use of fire to manage the environment appears to have contributed this extinction.
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| British Library digitised image from page 982 of "De Aardbol. Magazijn van hedendaagsche land- en volkenkunde ... Met platen en kaarten [Deel 4-9 by P. H. W.]" 1839 |
Stone tools were used for making spears and when hunting animals and grinding ochre. Wood was used for spears, clubs and waddies. Bark-bundle canoes were described by French Navy officer, Louis Freycinet in 1802 when he circumnavigated the globe on Baudin's expedition.
The French Baudin Expedition artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas-Martin Petit painted portraits of Aboriginal people of Tasmania in 1802.
Baskets were made of rushes and water containers from fronds of giant kelp.
Various Europeans, including William Bligh and G. A. Robinson,
recorded that Tasmanian Aboriginal people did not eat fish and appeared to disgusted by the idea.
Aboriginal sites in Tasmania (Lutruwita) include shell middens, rock markings, stone quarries, stone arrangements, rock shelters and fish traps along the coast.
The first Europeans recorded meeting Tasmanian Aboriginal people were sailors on Captain Nicholas Marion du Fresne's French
expedition of 1772. Du Fresne's party shot an Aboriginal person after being attacked with stones and spears.
European sealers
arrived in Bass Strait in 1798. In the beginning, these sealers would engage in barter for Aboriginal "wives". Later, a situation developed with clans raiding neighbouring clans to source more women for the sealers. This situation increased tensions and animosity between clans. By 1820 the sealers were abducting Aboriginal women themselves.
Many Tasmanian Aboriginal people are descended from Aboriginal women and sealers.
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| Tasmanian Aboriginal children, TAS, Leader (Melbourne, Vic. : 1862 - 1918, 1935), Saturday 16 November 1912 |
Due to fears of the French, who had a scientific and strategic interest
in the Pacific, the British began colonising Van Diemen's Land from 1803. Britain and France were at war at this time.
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| World's News (Sydney, NSW : 1901 - 1955), Wednesday 6 November 1935 |
A period called Tasmania’s Black War (1824-31) has been described as "...a clash between the most culturally and technologically dissimilar humans to have ever come into contact" (
1.).
Rhys Jones, Division of Archaeology and Natural History Research, recorded More than 50 sandstone Aboriginal shelters in his
analysis around Melton, Mowbray, Oatlands and Bothwell.
Oatlands
Governor Macquarie selected Oatlands in 1811, on the road between George Town and Hobart, to be a military post. Surveyor James Meehan listed Oatlands on a map in 1811.
Oatlands was named in 1821 by Governor Macquarie on his second visit
to the area when on the 3rd June, he stopped near Lake Dulverton.
James Weeding, of Surrey, England, arrived in Tasmania in 1823, and he obtained his grant known as. “Weedington”, soon after.
James Weeding's son described:
"....how his father had taken him to witness the corroborrees
of the aborigines that were held amongst the trees about
the spot where the Church of England
now stands."
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| The homestead of the Weeding family, part of it was built in 1833, Oatlands, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 13 August 1953 |
Bent’s Almanac (1825) describes Oatlands as an
undeveloped site.
The military garrison arrived in 1825. By 1828 several government buildings existed, including a small log-timber gaol for the convicts.
At the time, it was proposed that Oatlands
might develop into the central capital of Van Diemen’s Land.
A military barracks, commissariat, gaol, and officers’ quarters were commissioned in the area bounded by High, Barrack, Church Streets and the Esplanade, which developed as the town centre. Thomas Anstey was the Police Magistrate of the Oatlands who organised the streets and initial buildings. The Oatlands Gaol and Court House still exist within this precinct.
The Oatlands Supreme Court House (1827) is one of the oldest Supreme Court Houses in Australia.
In August 1827, Surveyor William Sharland made the first
formal survey of Oatlands. Sharland was of the opinion that Oatlands, located half-way between Launceston and Hobart Town, would one day be the capital.
Anglican services began at Oatlands in 1827, when William Pike was appointed as the first paid clergyman.
The April 15, 1828, Proclamation
officially divided Van Diemen’s Land into the Settled and the Unsettled Districts, after intense conflicts between Aboriginal people and settlers.
At first the Proclamation appeared to work, with few Aboriginal people coming into the Settled Districts during the winter of 1828. However, by the spring, Aboriginal people were said to have killed 13 colonists in 11 separate incidents. In one attack near Oatlands, the wife
of a settler, her daughter and servant were killed, and two other daughters were badly injured.
William Widowson of Quamby Bluff described Oatlands in 1829 as:
"The original road runs through the township of Oatlands, a few sod huts mark the site of the place. Only a few soldiers are to be seen, and a miserable gang of prisoners working in chains."
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| HOBART TOWN CHAIN GANG, 1926 |
However, in the same year of 1829, James Ross of the
Hobart Town Gazette claimed that at Oatlands:
"Several cottages are already erected, also an excellent soldiers’ barracks and officers quarters. These were built by the Royal Staff Corps, and a church and gaol are in progress".
A brewery was being built by 1829.
1830s
The Kentish Hotel was built in 1832 and was originally known as the lnverary Castle.
The first coach service between Hobart and Launceston began in 1832, operated by John Cox who owned the Macquarie Hotel in Hobart, the York and the Albany hotels at Oatlands, and the Cornwall Hotel at Launceston. Cox died in 1837 and his wife successfully operated the business.
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| Colonist and Van Diemen's Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1832 - 1834), Friday 28 September 1832, |
Lieutenant Governor Arthur visited Oatlands in May 1833.
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| Tasmanian (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1827 - 1839), Friday 19 June 1835 |
From 1830-37, George Augustus Robinson, who had been given the job to try to
bring an end to the conflict between the Settlers and Aboriginal people, was assisted by Tasmanian Aboriginal (Nuennone) woman, Truganini, to relocate Tasmania's Aboriginal people to a mission station, Wybalenna, on Flinders Island in Bass Strait.
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| Mr Robinson's first interview with Timmy, painted by Benjamin Duterrau, who emigrated to Tasmania in 1832 (1840) |
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| Truganini (c. 1812 – 8 May 1876) was a woman incorrectly considered by European colonists to have been the last Aboriginal Tasmanian, Herald (Melbourne, Vic. : 1861 - 1954), Thursday 11 June 1936 |
The December 1835 census showed that Oatlands had a free settler population of 598, along with 695 convicts.
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| Colonist and Van Diemen's Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1832 - 1834), Tuesday 25 March 1834 |
John Lee Archer, the Civil Engineer and Colonial Architect in Van Diemen's Land serving from 1827 to 1838, was responsible for Oatlands Gaol 1834-6 (combined Chapel and Police Office) and the hospital (1936).
By 1836, the larger freestone gaol was built with a capacity to hold 300 prisoners and operated for 26 years. This site is
now occupied by the municipal swimming pool.
The first Presbyterian minister at Oatlands was Thomas Dove, who was appointed in 1837. It was not until the 1850s that the building of a "Scotch" church commenced.
About two hundred, mostly stone buildings,
were constructed at Oatlands during the 1930s.
The Callington Mill, Lincolnshire tower mill, was built in 1837 with convict labour. The mill was producing nearly 18,000 bushels of wheat. The stone buildings
at the site include the five-level windmill tower, a granary, steam mill, stable and miller's cottage.
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Wednesday 25 January 1933 |
There were also seven hotels, various stores, and two breweries in the town.
1840s-50s
Kevin Izod O’Doherty was born in Dublin in 1823. In 1848 he was convicted as a Young Irelander and transported to Australia. Five years later, O’Doherty was given a conditional pardon (not allowed to return to Ireland) and sent to settle in the Oatlands District, where he lived rent-free in a cottage belonging to a fellow Catholic (now Elm Cottage). O’Doherty secretly went to Paris to marry Mary Eva Kelly (Eva of the Nation) in London in 1855 and became a medical practitioner.
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| Kevin Izod O’Doherty, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW : 1871 - 1912), Wednesday 26 July 1905 |
The hangman, an ex-convict named Solomon Blay, lived at Oatlands. It is believed that Blay hanged over 200 people
in the period spanning 1837 to 1887. The following article appeared in a newspaper regarding Blay's marriage in 1853.
"A CANDIDATE FOR MATRIMONIAL BLISS.—Solomon Blay,
so famous in Tasmanian history, for tying a knot,
particularly round the neck of a criminal,
is, we perceive by the last Government
Gazette, about to extend his
practice, by tying the knot, "connubial,"
with a "Fairie Ladye" resident in Oatlands.
We learn with pleasure that the
hon. member for Oatlands accompanies
the happy couple to the (H) alter."
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE. (1853, January 29). Hobarton Guardian, or, True Friend of Tasmania (Hobart, Tas. : 1847 - 1854)
The Campbell Free Church opened in 1856. However, the church was damaged during a storm and rebuilt. Lachlan Mackinnon Campbell was the first Presbyterian Minister of the church.
1860sOatlands had a Literary Association and library in the 1860s, where plays and concerts were also held.
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| Callington Mill, Oatlands, Tasmania, circa 1860 |
The Court House in 1862, became part of the new Oatlands Municipality and it was used for Council Offices, Police Offices; the Council meetings, and the Lower Court cases.
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| Oatlands - Midlands Dispensary of F.S. Drake (later Doughty). c.1863, Tasmanian Archives and State Library (Commons) |
1880s-90s
The Oatlands Railway, a short branch of the Main Line from Launceston to Hobart, allowed rail access
to the town of Oatlands. The railway opened on 13 May 1885 and closed on 10 June 1949.
The new town hall opened in 1881 and the Literary Institute used a "back room for reading and other amusements". The Town Hall was also the location of Council Clerk’s Offices and a Police Office.
The Oatlands Community Hall was constructed by Fish Brothers Stonemasons on land sold to the Order of Rechabites (a friendly society founded in England in 1835), in about 1876. The hall later became the Church of England Parish Hall and in, 1982, was bought by a local committee for
a community hall.
From 1891, the Literary Institute took over the Old Court House until the building was sold to the National Trust in 1977.
1900s
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| Callington Mill, Oatlands, Tasmania, circa 1900 after the sails had been removed |
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| Oatlands, TAS, - New Norfolk football match - 8 September 1906, Tasmanian Archives and State Library (Commons) |
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| TAC reliability trials. Motorcycles at Oatlands, TAS, 1909. Spurling photo, Trainiac |
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| TAC reliability trials. At Oatlands, TAS. Spurling photo, 1909, 11 20 Page_2b, Trainiac |
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| Tasmanian Automobile Club reliability trials. G M Jackson's Austin 10hp at Oatlands, TAS. 1911, Spurling photo, Trainiac |
WWI
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| Studio portrait of 5622 Sapper (Spr) George Thomas Smith, 2nd Australian Tunnelling Company. A tanner of Oatlands, Tas, Smith enlisted on 18 April 1916 and embarked with the October reinforcements of the Australian Tunnelling Corps from Melbourne, Vic, aboard HMAT Ulysses (A38) on 25 October 1916. In May 1917 he was admitted to hospital suffering from mumps. He was killed in action on 27 June 1917 at Nieuport, Belgium aged 40 and Reverend Donald Macleod conducted the funeral service. He is buried at the Ramscappelle Road Military Cemetery, St Georges, Belgium. This is a black and white portrait, copied in colour to show the blue and white text and the Union Jack flag on the mounting board. AWM |
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| Studio portrait of 2nd Lieutenant Augustus Oliver Woods, MC, C Company, 26th Battalion, of Oatlands, Tas. An ironmonger prior to enlistment, he embarked from Brisbane, Qld, on board HMAT Aeneas (A60) on 29 June 1916. In August 1915 he was promoted to the rank Lieutenant and then in August 1916 to the rank of Captain. Woods was awarded the Military Cross 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. On the night of 1/2 March 1917 he rallied his men under heavy fire, and led them forward into the enemy's trench. He was wounded. He has at all times set a fine example of courage and determination.' He was then promoted to the rank Major (Maj) in late July 1918. A few months later Maj Woods was killed in action on 2 September 1918. AWM |
1920s
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| Oatlands, TAS, goods train derailment between Colebrook and Rhyndaston. Rex Winch photo, 1922, Trainiac |
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| J H Davidson's chaff cutter. Cutting 21.5 tons in 4.25 hours on J Wiggins property, Oatlands, TAS. 1923, C Maynard photo |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Friday 18 February 1927 |
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| Old house, Oatlands, Tas. 1928, SLVIC |
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| Municipal chambers, Oatlands, Tas. in 1928, SLVIC |
1930s
Most of the Oatlands Gaol buildings were demolished in 1937.
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| Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Saturday 23 January 1937 |
1940s
The musical theatre and radio star Diana Du Cane moved to Oatlands to be with her husband, Ian Gibson. Read
here |
| Diana Du Cane moved to Oatlands, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 27 July 1940, |
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| Oatlands, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 3 May 1941 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 25 February 1941 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Friday 15 August 1941 |
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| Oatlands Lawn Tennis, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 3 May 1941 |
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| Fire engine and members of the Oatlands Fire Brigade., TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 15 September 1942, |
WWII |
| Sgt.Trevor. M . Harris. A.I.F., whowas recently reported killed in action. He was the second son of Mr and Mrs. T. M.Harris of Oatlands and one of the finest young all round athletes the Huon has produced. He played football in the Huon Association and for New Town in the Tasmanian League. He was also a brilliant cricketer. He married Miss Daphne Walker of Huonville shortly before he left for overseas. Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 16 February 1946 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 15 November 1947 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 18 October 1949 |
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| R2 at Parattah with a Hobart to Launceston passenger service, R B McMillan photo, Trainiac. The rail to Parattah to Oatlands opened on 13 May 1885 and closed on 10 June 1949. |
1950s
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| Oatlands, TAS, Transport Commission Commer heads north, 1950s, Trainiac |
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| CWA Oatlands, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 17 October 1950 |
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| Watch House, Oatlands, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Thursday 6 July 1950 |
Tasmanian author ET Emmett wrote the following words in his book, “Tasmania by Road & Track”, first published in 1952.
“If Oatlands conducted any centenary celebrations they were carried out so quietly that I did not hear of them, and I trust they will make more of their two-hundredth birthday. I offer posterity some hints for the occasion. If I were Chairman of the Celebrations Committee in 2021 I should have a temporary axle placed in that old windmill, some sails in the original manner, and then (after prayers for wind) use the power to grind fresh coffee for the evening supper. The Gaol courtyard should be the scene of a pageant of old Oatlands, with Macquarie bestowing its name, bushrangers, aborigines, huntsmen, warders and all the personages of the day. Included would be a lantern or cinema show of the original Oatlands, the postal messengers passing through with their packs, McMahon’s lumbering wagon, Fawkner and his bullock dray of type and press, Cox’s first tandem arriving, the subsequent coach, the cricket team in top hats, and the train that will be an anachronism in seventy years’ time. I still have hopes that the Scenery Preservation Board will acquire that windmill and restore it. Tasmania has allowed too many historic landmarks to crumble into oblivion.”
"It was an historic occasion at Oatlands on Saturday the first women's football match in the Midlands was played by teams from Oatlands and Campbell Town. And one of the teams was captained by a grandmother."Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Monday 11 August 1952
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Monday 11 August 1952 |
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| Grandmother Mrs Ruby Bailey, Oatlands V Campbell Town, TAS, Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Monday 11 August 1952 |
Korean War
Colonel Nell Espie, AM, RRC, FRCNA, was born in Oatlands in 1924. She
became an Army nurse when the Korean War broke out.
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| Seoul, South Korea. 18 July 1953. Having his leg dressed by nursing sister Lieutenant (Lt) Nell Espie of York Plains, Tas, is Private Keith Toms of the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (2RAR), and Redfern, NSW. Lt Espie is a member of the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps (RAANC), on the staff of the Britcom Medical Unit in Seoul. Nellie Jane (Nell) Espie was born in Oatlands in 1924 |
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| Ambulance for Oatlands, TAS, Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Tuesday 15 December 1953 |
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| School at Oatlands, TAS, Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Wednesday 1 December 1954 |
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| Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Tuesday 21 December 1954 |
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| Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954), Thursday 18 February 1954 |
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| Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 26 January 1954 |
Around Oatlands
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Callington Mill, Oatlands, Tasmania, a working Georgian windmill built in 1836-7, by John Vincent
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| Miller's cottage at Callington Mill, Oatlands, Tasmania, a working Georgian windmill built in 1837 |
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| Oatlands, Tasmania |
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| The Oatlands Gaol and Gaolers residence was built 1834-6, Oatlands TAS |
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| Supreme Court House, Oatlands, TAS: Built in 1827, this Georgian-styled sandstone building is the oldest in Oatlands |
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| Stone cottage, Oatlands, TAS |
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| Rose Cottage is a self-contained cottage on the grounds of Kurrajong House B & B. The cottage is built in the original stables of the property (1879) |
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| The Jenny Wren Georgian workers cottage, built 1830, Oatlands, TAS |
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| Oatlands Manor, Oatlands, TAS, built 1854 |
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| Elm Cottage, a Georgian sandstone convict built cottage, constructed 1837, Oatlands, Tasmania |
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| Construction of St Peter’s Anglican Church, Oatlands, TAS, began in 1838 using a design by colonial architect John Lee Archer. In September 1844, Bishop Nixon officially opened the church although it had been in use prior to this |
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| Oatlands Lodge (c.1837), Oatlands, TAS |
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| The stables, Oatlands, TAS, built 1832 |
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| Callington Mill, Oatlands, Tasmania, a working Georgian windmill built in 1836-7, by John Vincent |
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| St. Paul's Catholic Church, Oatlands, TAS, first stone laid 9th April 1850 |
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| A team of bullocks pulling a loaded cart down the main street of Oatlands, TAS |
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| Part of the former Oatlands Commissariat, 1920s-30s, Oatlands, TAS |
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| High Street, Oatlands, TAS |
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| The Oatlands Commissariat, TAS, (1828) was once a store for convict provisions and the military |
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| Holyrood House, Oatlands, TAS, was built about 1840 for John Whiteford, the police magistrate |
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| The former Button Bros. General Store was established in 1881. A tannery operated originally from the rear of the premises. Later J R Green Hardware, Oatlands, TAS |
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| The Kentish Hotel, Oatlands. TAS, Built-in 1832 with a licence granted in 1834 |
Things To Do and Places To Go
Museums and Cultural Centres 
