Historic Richmond Bridge at Dusk

After our afternoon at the Old Hobart Town Model Village learning about life in Hobart during the 1820’s and our time in the Woodcraft Shop next door we drove the short distance through Richmond to the historic Richmond Bridge.

Richmond is only a short drive from Hobart, around 30 minutes in the north-east direction. The countryside is lovely with many wineries along the way.

The bridge is such a beautiful structure. From the grassy bank of the Coal River the year that the foundation stone for the bridge was first laid in 1823 is clearly visible.

It is interesting to me imagining the almost 2 years that it took to build the bridge from 11th December 1823 to the completion of construction in 1825. Imagine all of those convicts bringing the large, heavy sandstone from the quarry at Butchers Hill by hand-drawn carts.

There are tales of the bridge being haunted. For the brave you can even do a ghost tour by lantern light and see if any spooks appear!

Greg and I enjoyed examining the structure of the bridge and walking around and up onto the top of the bridge. Tehillah took some photos of us as we explored.

On the other hand, Tehillah, who loves nature and animals, had a wonderful time feeding and photographing the diverse array of ducks, geese and other birds on the banks of the Coal River and swimming in the river itself.

Not far from the Richmond Bridge is the also historic St John’s Catholic Church, which was built in 1836. This is considered to be one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in Australia.

Right across from the grass banks of the river is the old building of the St John’s School with the date 1925 clearly visible.

I enjoyed our time here. It was almost like I could feel the rich history of the bridge and surrounds.

Fifty years ago my mum visited Richmond and wanted to again see the historic bridge. Unfortunately she was unable to come with us as she has been in hospital for a couple of months now. So we will need to arrange another trip to Tasmania when mum is well and out of hospital again.

In our next blog post we will take a look at our accommodation for our 8 nights in Tassie. We will go to Wyndham Resorts at Seven Mile Beach and have a look at the resort.