MOT Tour Day 70 - Lyons Home Hill

Tomorrow ...

It was back to Jacqueline’s this morning for a coffee to start the day before a drive to the southern suburbs and Home Hill, the married home of Joe and Enid Lyons. Earlier in the Tour, at Stanley, we had visited the birth home of Australia’s 10th Prime Minister. This proved to be something very different.

Enid had come from a small village near Smithton, about 40kms from where Joe was born. Her father was a devil-may-care drinker described as a “swashbuckler” at the time. Her mother was the opposite, insistent on her girls being competent musicians and conversationalists and to have an education.

When Enid met Joe, she was roughly half his age and a member of the state parliament - he would go to be Premier before the move to Canberra - but they fell heavily for each other and would remain besotted throughout their quarter of a century marriage before Joe died in office of a heart attack at the premature age of 59. This only months after begging his party to let him stand down but being talked into another twelve months.

The house on Home Hill is almost all distinctly Enid. It not only has her unique decorating style but so many quirky structural innovations that she not only thought of herself but in almost all cases, did the actual work. The Lyons had no domestic staff, despite Joe’s seven years in the PM’s chair or the seven years Enid sat in the House of Representatives in Canberra (the first female to do so) and despite raising eleven children.

There are four places in the house where Enid decided she wanted to change the traffic flow or purpose of a room. Rather than wall the doorway up, she converted into a glass doored cabinet. There are windows in the most unusual of places, such as a long narrow window above a bookcase to change the lighting in the library. One of the bedrooms has an entire wall converted to cupboards but it’s the wall the doorway is in, so that from the doorway, the room appears to have no cupboards. Outside, dry stone walls have been erected around natural ponds. The stone, made from the bedrock basalt, has been chipped and split down to size. Enid did all the work herself. Same with the second hand furniture she populated the house with. She researched - in the days before Google - and did the work herself.

The library with its repurposed door
in the corner.

They were close friends of America’s reigning Roosevelts and the King and his family in England. Whilst he was respected by other politicians, he was not particularly close with many. The ALP despised him for leaving the party when he was PM and the conservatives didn’t really trust him for the same reason.

All agreed that Enid was the powerhouse driving the more affable and forgiving Joe.

When Joe died, Enid - by then Dame Enid - was sat down to start the planning for his state funeral. Her response was to fly into a rage. “You’ve had him for the last seven years. Now he’s mine.” He would be buried simply, with his family around him. Soon after, her own “official” career started in politics.

Our guide, Derek, retold their lives well, using some facts but many anecdotes which gave the experience colour and a true reflection of how “ordinary” they both were. The house remains as it was when Enid died, not how it has been coloured up with facsimiles.

It was one of the better tours of significant houses in history we have experienced.

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The rest of the day was wasted but it’s of no consequence at this stage of the Tour. A visit to a steam train museum fell through when it was closed. A visit to an arboretum met a similar fate because the volunteers managing on the day didn’t have access to card readers for the day: plus we re-met a couple I wasn’t keen on. Sue went off to find some alleged platypus and believes she saw them … but no pictures were submitted in evidence. Doesn't mean she didn't see them. If I had a dollar for every spot we were guaranteed to see a platypus because yesterday the bloke on site 23 had seen one there ... I went back to the car to sulk.

Last day in Tassie tomorrow. We sail on the return voyage tomorrow night.

MOT Tour Day 68 - Devonport

Mersey River looking toward the 

heads, with the elevated walkway 

in the background

A deliberately slow day as we gradually switch off.

Late morning, I had a decidedly ordinary coffee at a well regarded cafe beside the Mersey River, right in town. Sue had a white hot chocolate … the chocolate was white … and enjoyed it.

After coffee we caught the lift up to the elevated walkway which is part of the Living City development. Its final cantilever passes beyond the banks of the Mersey and ten metres above it. Great views down river to the heads and up river, past the port, to the bridge which carries the Bass Highway. The Living City Development is the biggest urban renewal project ever undertaken in Tasmania and includes several stages. Certainly the waterfront and parks on the other side of Formby Rd have given the city heart a new face and greater energy. The new buildings which border the park area are very modern but most interesting in their use of different angles and colours.

The Art Gallery, contained in the old Council building was hosting a local art competition and there was quite a variety of media and subjects. We were both taken by a colour pencil drawing of a tortoise-shell cat which could have been a photograph. There were other galleries but none were interesting.

Across the way, in the newer building, a state of the art library would be enough to have any librarian as a melted pool on the floor. The most impressive library space I have been in.

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I had a hankering for a plate of hot chips. The search of the shopping precinct - including a well tooled, wide mall, involved half an hour of walking. Giving up, we returned to the car and went for a drive out to Mersey Bluff - ground we had covered back in early February. Just as time approached for our grocery pick up, there it was. A corner shop in the old tradition, with friendly hosts and the best plate of chips in Tasmania!

Groceries, a diversion to mail postcards to the grandkids and home. Just books and walks all the shore for the rest of the afternoon.

MOT Tour Day 7 - Devonport

Shore line, East Devonport

A pretty relaxed day started with a gentle stroll toward Pardoe Beach but didn't get that out of hand.

Actually it started half an hour earlier when we left our digs and got only to the end of the street and realised that the weather radar was about to be made foolish by Tasmania weather. Rain that wasn't going to happen, did. By the time we had hurried back, it was sprinkling with intent. By the time we put the jug on, it was raining. Half hour later, blue skies.

So on our real walk, the first half was easy as the southerly was at our backs. During that time we enjoyed the basalt rock beaches and the contrasting oranges and greens and yellow mixed in among it all. Bass Strait played a constant companion and the odd sea bird screamed complaints as they landed.

The highlight was sighting a Southern Brown Bandicoot foraging on the grassed areas near some thickets of low, ocean breeze-blocking trees and shrubs. The little fellow seemed to have been hungry because they are usually nocturnal. However, they have a people-friendly reputation and this bloke didn't disappoint. It was constantly pulling at the grass and roots. They are known to have a range of one to five hectares and you won't see two of them as they live solitary lives and two bandicoots don't have overlapping ranges. Their digging is essential for the ecosystem and one bandicoot will turn over 3.9 tonnes of soil in a year!

Given their nocturnal habits, this was lucky spot but not a fleeting one. He was happy to forage while we watched and took photos. 

Poseidon climbing from the sea.

A big chunk of the middle of the day was finally catching up with unreported days on this blog and especially the photos. The job of gathering photos to publish is a lengthy one as we take shots on two phone cameras, two Canons and a waterproof Nikon. I am compelled to write on any day I'm breathing and more so when I am experiencing so many different things when on a tour. Catching up today was a relief.

This afternoon we crossed the Mersey via the Victoria Bridge (ferry across the Mersey no longer operates) and picked groceries and a work around for broken Fitbit wrist bands. Snagged parking sports both times. We drove up to Aikenhead Point, on the western opening of the Mersey to Bass Strait, to see the big statue of Poseidon standing on his plinth and threatening anyone silly enough with his sceptre. Lovely muscular definition. The intention of the sculptors was to highlight the land's importance to the sea ... or maybe it was the sea's importance to the land ... maybe it was both.

A little further west we visited the lighthouse with the vertical red stripes at Mersey Bluff. The stripes are only on the seaward side. It was original a kerosene powered light, then gas and finally electrical. Like all of these grand old structures, men with family once had the job of maintaining them but now they look after themselves. Sad in a way.

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Weather forecasts don't look promising for our four day visit to Cradle Mountain but we'll take it as it comes.

Its just so great to be out here, the two of us, doing what we love so much.