MOT Tour Day 61 - Franklin

Just down the road from Huonville, on the banks of the Huon River, is the still thriving little town of Franklin. Named for its original benefactor, Lady Jane Franklin, it came into being because of both her adventurous spirit and her philanthropy.

The Melukerdee aboriginal people were the first occupiers of the land, moving seasonally from the river flats and its rich food sources, to the hills. The first white fella in the area was said to be a convict named Martin who had very strong ties and friendly relations with the Melukerdee and is believed to have absconded and arrived in this spot in 1820. During the 1920's, the cruel John Price, an overseer with a dreadful reputation from his time on Norfolk Island, took up land in the area, Price, believed by most to be the model for the cruel overseer in Marcus Clarke's For The Term Of His Natural Life, was known to the Governor, John Franklin, who held the job between 1937 and 1843 and it was this connection his wife, Jane Franklin would take advantage of to put in place her agenda of social justice.

Jane Franklin was a free thinking adventurer who adored the wilderness and paid little head to the regal life, believing it was her responsibility to use her husband's position to improve life for the disadvantaged, so in 1839, so bought 600 acres from John Price and allocated 100 acre allotments to free settlers of poor means, but honest intent, allowing them to rent and eventually buy the allotments at greatly reduced rates, as long as the lived on them and could show they could make a go of life. She personally interviewed settlers and would accept no one with government connections or positions.

Franklin was born, although in the early years it was known as "The Settlement". It didn't become Franklin until 1850, seven years after the Franklins left Government House.

We visited a previously unheralded Lady Franklin's Heritage Park, a series of information signs which have been placed in the grounds of St Johns Church, including the very old cemetery. With an interpretative signs every few metres, you can stand in history either by looking around your immediate surrounds or by casting you eye from this elevated place across Franklin and the Huon River. The pathway through the cemetery is ill-defined, despite numbers the information boards but the history is compelling. My favourite was the story of John Kellaway, an original pioneer settler at Woodstock, on the other side of the Huon from the "The Settlement", who built a flour mill in the years immediately following 1839. When he died, a flotilla of twelve boats sailed across to his riverside house, retrieved his coffin and then sailed back in a maritime funeral cortege and then a cart bought the him up to the original St Johns for burial. His grave stood in front of me as I read.

The current St Johns, built with sandstone blocks from Bruny Island, was consecrated in 1864 and has been twice added to. Although we didn't see it, the pipe organ inside the church was built in London in 1826! It has been the organ in St Johns Launceston, St Andrew's Presbyterian (also Launceston) and the Launceston Church Grammar School before coming to Franklin in 1965. I just love local histories. 

It was in the few hours before this experience on St Johns hill, that we had one of the best experiences of our Tour. On the shoreline of the Huon, at the base of the hill, we were led on a fantastic tour of the Wooden Boat Centre by our guide Richard. It was fascinating and Richard quite superb in explaining the different types of wooden boats and their painstaking construction. While we were there we watched the sudden hands on task of attaching a plank of timber - known as a straight - to the side of a clinker style boat. Its a process that takes days - measuring, steaming to shape, checking the fit, planing, sanding, refitting, drilling holes for the copper nails, then the final frenetic gluing and attaching the straight, before belting the roves in place on the points of the square profile copper nails in their round holes. Wow. After days of preparation, the call goes out and people come from all over the workshop to fit or hold or do up clamps.

We learnt the difference clinkers - panels placed in successive overlapping strips - and jointed hulls, with panels placed side by side and the gaps filled with cotton or similar material - called corking - and then sealed with wood putty. Wooden boats are planned using what are called half-models, as it sounds, a wood model of the intended boat. Those models then have planning lines drawn on them and are scaled up to form drawings. So from model, to drawing, building. This was so even for the winged keel on Australia II (although not a wooden boat).

A clinker style boat

Richard guided us through the best woods, of which Huon Pine was not surprisingly the most prized but also the most difficult and expensive to obtain. Many others serve a purpose, including Celery Top Pine, Sassafras and Blackwood. In more recent times, Blue Gum has become a popular choice, although its density and weight are a drawback, but a lot of boats can be made from a few lengths. A few years back, the centre received several lengths and they are still to exhaust their first one. They are stored on the riverbed just offshore because the water is the best way to preserve them. Being dense, Blue Gum sinks.

A feature was a special project being undertaken for the Tasmanian Botanic Gardens. Its a replacement for the Japanese water wheel. Its being constructed from Huon Pine, so it will never wear out and they are following the Japanese art of building which uses no nails. The plans for the wheel were requested from Japan.

This was a terrific few hours: so informative, so practical (walking through the workshop and seeing what was being described) and presented in such an inclusive way. Whether you knew your boats or just learned what a transom was, you came away with fresh knowledge and great appreciation for the art of what these specialised tradesmen (and women) do. 

To make sure they carry on into the future, they have a student training program every year to develop the skills in others. The program is open to all genders, all ages. We couldn't recommend a visit to the Wooden Boat Centre highly enough.

Morning tea was a precursor to the Lady Franklin Heritage Park and was taken at Frank's Cider House & Cafe. Frank Clark was the third generation since his grandfather, according to family legend, was the first white settler in what became known as Franklin (1836). He was born late in the 19th century and lived until late in the 20th. He was the first of his family to be an orchardist and more than 100 years ago planted the apple trees from which his grandchildren now make the famous cider which bears his name. Frank's occupies the church hall that Frank went to Sunday School in. It was built in the 1870's to complement St Johns Church. 

Click here for today's photos

We ventured further into town and had a nice lunch of roast vegetable  and a cold beer, fittingly at the Lady Franklin Hotel and then did some business at the Post Office. I succumbed to the need for a haircut and Sue had a coffee while she waited, oddly, in the post office.

By the time this was, it was time to wander off home.

Day off tomorrow to ready ourselves for the journey north and the last week of the Tasmanian leg of the Tour.