Saturday 8th December – One family two very different outcomes

Today we visited two of the six sites in Tasmania that make up the World Heritage convict sites. The two sites are Woolmers and Brickendon Estates, these estates were built by two of four brothers that came to Australia to develop business opportunities, originally from Hertford the two brothers that settled here were Thomas and William Archer. Thomas was the older brother and the first to settle in the area, he had worked as a public servant and was eventually provided a land grant in 1819 and with his one month old son and wife he moved to the area and began building a house that was ‘worthy of his standing’. Both brothers made use of the Assignment system which was a system where transported convicts were assigned to free settlers who were then responsible for adequately feeding, clothing and housing them in return for their labour. Masters were also responsible for ensuring that their workers received religious instruction and they were not required to work on Sundays. The view was that through meaningful employment and the moral guidance of the masters the convicts could be reformed while the masters could access cheap labour and the Government was relieved of almost all expenses. Skilled workers were in great demand but on-the-job training meant that when convicts received their Ticket of Leave – at the end of their sentence they could engage in paid work. Most convicts received a Ticket of Leave well before the expiration of their original sentence. Convicts who began their lives on the Archer properties as ‘assigned servants’ the term convicts was seldom used often chose to remain after they were free to leave. The first house we visited was Woolmers, built by Thomas who definitely had designs on building a dynasty and using the house to help him be accepted in social circles, he very much took on the role of the Gentleman Farmer which actually worked against the family as although six generations of the family lived there, the size of the estate reduced significantly as the government in 1912 took back 2,400 acres as part of the Closer Settlement Scheme and again in 1914 a further 2,400 acres was reprocessed as part of the Soldier Settlement Scheme. The land was taken as the government in both cases were clamping down on absentee landlords. The final Thomas – the sixth suffered from an over protective mother and a weak heart and never married therefore never had children so set up a trust to make sure the house and remaining land could continue to exist. He lied rather as a recluse and because of that the house is very much a reflection of a bygone era, although Thomas VI died in 1994 there wasn’t any overhead electricity in the house, the central lights were still powered by gas! We arrived just as a tour of the main house was starting and as this is the only way you can see inside the house we joined that. It was fascinating to see the house probably much as it had been in the late 1800s. We went through the house with the guide explaining various things as we went then we were left to continue the tour of the estate on our own. The brothers apparently shared ‘servants’ who worked in the fields but as time went by something obviously happened as by about Thomas IV the two families hardly had anything to do with each other. We walked round all the buildings but it was strange although the estate has World Heritage status because of its connections with the convicts virtually nothing was said about them and none of the buildings they would have lived in remain. We had some lunch then drove down the road to Brickendon. This was completely different, for a start it is still a farm and there are still descendants of William Archer living there. This estate is now in the seventh generation of Archers and is still a working farm which was obvious where we were greeted by a sheep at the entrance and a lamb that obviously things it is a dog that was wondering round the entrance way. We couldn’t find anyone when we first arrived but a note on the desk said go and watch the video and someone will turn up which was right they did! The video was really good, at the time of making it – which was probably about 10 or 15 years ago there were three generations of the family living there. Grandad and Grandma, Mum and Dad plus three children one of whom was a son who at the time said he wanted to take over the farm but as he was only 16 his parents were making him finish his education and try some other things before making a decision. The family continued farming even after the assignment system ended in 1841, with paid labour and the farm is now run just by the family. We walked all round the farm buildings which provided background and information on the estate the convicts that were sent here and their lives. After we finished walking round the farm we went to the house but as this is where they still live we could only walk round the gardens. I think I enjoyed Brickendon more than Woolmers although they are very different they definitely show two sides of life. After this we started driving back home and made our final stop in Campbell Town where the road and bridge were built by Convict labour, these were from prisons rather than with houses. There is a brick walk in the town that provides details of convicts, their crime and their sentence. I had misunderstood the walk as I thought it was just the people that built the road and bridge but it was a selection of ships that brought prisoners to the island however, the bridge in the town was built by convicts and possibly designed by one as well, it was opened in 1838 and originally built for horse drawn carriages it now takes quite a lot of traffic as it is the main road through. We picked up something for dinner then drove back to the room to have dinner and a well earned drink.