Homeward Bound

Our last day in Tassie.

In February, at our annual girl's weekend, my friend Lyn, who is Taswegian by birth (and has the scar on her neck from the removal of her second head to prove it), wrote me some notes about what we should see in Tassie. The notes were on incredibly small note paper (my fault, not Lyn's), but I did manage to get them out from time to time and review them. She had written that we should visit Pennyroyal in Launceston. Well - it turns out we were booked in to Pennyroyal apartments for our last night in Tasmania. But it was serendipity, not in any way planned.
This building with it's waterwheel was dismantled and taken to Launceston and rebuilt. It was a tourist attraction of some sort at one time, however it is now a pub and hotel and serviced apartments etc..

 Anyway we checked out of our room and hit the road. First stop Deloraine, where we found ourselves another Melbourne Cup winning horse - well a statue of it anyway. It's name was Malua, and if you want to know any more than that you will have to ask Ray because that's all I know!

Something Delaoraine had that was breathtaking was a display call Yarns. It is a series of four silk panels depicting the history culture of the town.
The idea came from a theatre curtain in Griffith NSW (which is also breathtaking).
The four panels in Deloraine took 300 women 3 years to make.
I haven't shown them all here, just small parts of them that had an impact on me.

Tasmanian Devils peeking out of some foliage...

This is one whole panel depicting the natural history of the area...

And last, but never least the inevitable Tasmanian Tigers...

Deloraine also had a fantastic social history museum. Very very comprehensive. I took a fancy to this doll's house...

And tried to imagine cooking the perfect steak with this..... I image the little basin/cup in the handle is to collect the fat????

And how different is this cake mixer to the Thermomix!!!

There was an aquaphone in the outdoor area of the museum, we had to use the sound to locate it.

Quite fascinating!

When we got back to the building one of the ladies from visitor information took the time to point out some of the buildings that feature in the silk panels that could be seen from the centre. She and Ray had already had a light-hearted 'discussion' about Melbourne Cup winners so they were firm friends!

We left the visitor info centre bound for a 1950's style lunch. Actually the menu was really 2012 - although they did have malt for their milkshakes (Yummy!).

The decor was 1950's. I thought we would get served by a girl on roller skates!
There was 50s vintage memorabilia everywhere. Collections of toy cars and petrol bowsers and engine oil bottles and cans - it was almost too much. Unfortunately the owner does not allow photographs inside, so if it is of any interest, I'll be bringing home a post card.Great maze in the front though, and there is a topiary teapot and cup that is apparently a fountain!

 

Our next stop was a town called Sheffield where there is a department store that still has an old fashioned "flying fox" for payment. The money you proffer is sent to the accounts office via the "fox" and the change sent back down to the counter. The other thing that I noticed when we went in was that they still had all their original counters and your senses were immediately assaulted by the smell of furniture polish. I didn't take any photos inside as it was just toooooo crowded with stock.

More importantly than department stores, Sheffield is the town of murals. There are 48 murals in the town and more dotted around the area.
Just one of the many...... note the clever inclusion of the shadow of a tourist taking a photo.  :-)

From Sheffield to Wilmot, which is a quite small village, they do boast a museum, which we didn't go in.

We were actually on the "mail box trail" There are dozens of novelty mailboxes on the roads leading to Wilmot - great fun!

And of course the inevitable Tasmanian Tiger......

and there was a some beautiful scenery along the way...

The last place we went to in Tasmania (other than the Ferry Wharf in Devonport) was like  no where else.

In fact, it was soooooooo much like no where else that it was.................

see you all on the mainland!!