The building now hosts two bookshops – including one (The Book Cellar) in the cellars where bridge-building convicts were quartered overnight. The bridge was put up over dry land and the river made to flow beneath it, with two kilometres of hand-dug channel.Ī riverside park has chainsaw sculptures paying tribute to those unknown bridge-workers, the first to see their handiwork’s deep ruddy glow in the afternoon sun.Ĭlose by the bridge, the Foxhunter’s Return went up in the 1830s to accommodate coach travellers. But then the idyllic Elizabeth River, where nodding willows shade the banks and native ducks potter in peace, is also convict-created. Luckily the scene is so restful it’s tiring just thinking about that kind of hard yakka.
Unlike its stone siblings, the Red Bridge is brick – 1.25 million of them, wheeled in barrows all the way from Ross. This makes the Red Bridge (1838), on the southern approach, the oldest bridge on Australia’s national grid. Unlike sleepy, bypassed Ross, it’s still on the Midland Highway, with garages and modern shops catering to its Hobart-Launceston pitstop raison d’être. Ross was more important back then, the Midlands’ main convict garrison, but Campbell Town is now the busier centre. The old bridge was blown up and a picnic of cold cuts heartily tucked into. It was a big day for the guv’nor – he’d come straight from launching work on another new bridge project at Campbell Town, 12 kilometres north. On 21 October 1836, Lieutenant-Governor Arthur opened Ross Bridge to a cheering crowd. If so, this glimmer of kindness has left a unique legacy – the world’s only stone bridge with every arch smothered in carvings. Strangely, none of the project’s many official documents mention his over-the-top masonry, but someone in charge must have given the OK, perhaps as a morale booster. Whether or not he intended the subversive symbolism now seen in his carvings, Herbert was hell-bent on embedding the human spirit into an enterprise that needed nothing more than basic functionality. Yet the convict sculptor, a highwayman named Daniel Herbert, won a pardon for his work. One north-facing keystone has a lion devouring a lamb, just possibly a startlingly bold comment on imperial cruelties. The intricate carvings on Ross Bridge were sculpted by a convict, Daniel Herbert. The nickname is doubly appropriate as Jørgensen was known as the ‘King of Iceland’ – in 1809 he briefly held executive power there after a coup.ĭreadfully downwardly mobile, Jørgensen ended up a convict constable at Ross, driven nuts by the theft of quarried stone that was slowing bridge-building to a snail’s pace. The so-called ‘King and Queen’ have a playing-card look, but they’re likely Danish adventurer Jørgen Jørgensen and his wife, Norah. A flower by an aboriginal head has been interpreted as a sympathetic gesture toward a people already facing destruction. Lieutenant-governor Arthur looks like death warmed up under a big hat. Grim elven faces abound, along with swirling patterns and weird creatures. The dazzling array of 186 carvings is an outburst of creative artistry unmatched by any other convict construction in Australia. Look closely at Ross Bridge (binoculars are ideal) and you might feel it looking right back at you. The Ross bridge in Tasmania has 186 intricate carvings etched onto the surface.Ī tiny island of convict-built, Georgian-era real estate in a sea of sheep pastures, Ross is a storybook stone village that rewards a relaxed stroll and a sharp eye. 100 Things To Do In Australia You’ve Never Heard Of.
Supernatural creature on bridge series#
Shawn is also a published author, with a non-fiction book about the Stephen King Dollar Baby Filmmakers and has begun work on a new fiction series as well. His work on the Internet has been featured on websites like The Huffington Post, Yahoo Movies, Chud, Renegade Cinema, 411mania, and Sporting News. He has work published in newspapers such as Daily Oklahoman and Oklahoma Gazette and magazines such as Vox Magazine, Loud Magazine, and Inside Sports Magazine.
Supernatural creature on bridge professional#
Shawn is a former member of the Society of Professional Journalists and current member of the Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. He has worked as a journalist for over 25 years, first in the world of print journalism before moving to online media as the world changed. Shawn received his Bachelor's degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma with a minor in Film Studies. Lealos is a senior writer on ScreenRant who fell in love with movies in 1989 after going to the theater to see Tim Burton's Batman as his first big screen experience.
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