MOT Tour Day 20 - Launceston

Museum day today.

The drive into the city was a bit hectic. Actually, it was the bit in the city that was difficult. Not knowing that the centre of the city is a grid of one way streets didn’t help. In the end, we turned into the Woolworths undercover car park and bought ourselves two hours.

We walked the few blocks to the Queen Victoria Art Gallery on Wellington St. The building originally housed the QV Museum as well but it has since moved across the Tamar to Inveresk.

Maybe it’s because of the museum roots of the building but a lot of the exhibitions weren’t art. They were really good but, they weren’t art.

Just as we were pondering that, an alarm started up and increased in intensity and in the seriousness of the warnings being spoken. By the time we got to the main door, it was obvious it was a drill. The smiling firemen gave it away.

The exhibition of aboriginal life from the early days of the area was excellent. Lots of interesting detail which I didn’t know. For instance, did you know that it was aboriginal women, in the main, who did the diving to hunt sea creatures?

In another room, the making of chairs as household furniture - called Jimmy Possum chairs - was fascinating. The origin of these homemade chairs is unknown, although much is guessed at. If Jimmy Possum actually existed, he’s a shadowy figure at best.

We returned to the car and drove across to the Queen Victoria Museum. This was a brilliant experience. So well curated. So much information. Such brilliant exhibits.

The natural history section was fabulous, although you do realise all those fabulous exhibits were once alive. The display of the Tasmanian Tiger included video footage of thylacines in captivity and the news that many were given away to foreign zoos before the danger of extinction was fully realised.

One of King's motor bikes

The shipwreck of the Sydney Cove had oodles of items salvaged from the wreck and information about how they went about it. In 1797, she sailed from India bound for Sydney and off the Tasmanian east coast, started taking on water. Her captain decided to ground her on Preservation Island. In order to be rescued, 17 set out for Port Jackson in a long boat, only to shipwreck themselves off Ninety Mile Beach. They then set out to walk the 900kms to Sydney. Only three made it. Two boats - the Eliza and the Francis - were despatched to Tasmania and picked up crew and much of the cargo. Would you believe the Eliza sunk on the return journey.

There were displays of trains: only fair since the site had been a railway switching yard. The Planetarium was shut for maintenance but the technical equipment on display and the story of Apollo was well told.

Our favourite exhibition was of the life of Herbert John King. Fabulous photographer who was so far ahead of his time. He was an adventurer, made and sold his own motorbikes and was one of the first to record Tasmania’s wilderness. He married Lucy when she was just 18 and they were a good match. King was a Christadelphian, not believing in war or hurting others and that’s how he loved his life. It amazes me that we have revered Damien Parer and idolised the work of Max Dupain but we have never heard of King.

Click here to see today's photos

Somewhere in there, we grabbed a coffee and visited the Tramway Museum.

On a whim, we detoured on the way back to our digs and visited the Cataract, a gorge the Tamar comes
through right on the edge of Launceston. We’ll return here on Thursday for some walking and a ride on the chair lift. Beautiful place. More later.