Heritage Highway

Campbell Town – Hobart

• Just 10 minutes farther on from Campbell Town is the timeless village of Ross with huge English elms lining the main street and the famous Ross Bridge (1836), built by convict labour and featuring 186 intricate colonial carvings.
• Don't miss the nearby female factory prison site and original burial ground on the hill.
• Learn about early life in Ross and the importance of sheep grazing in the area at the Tasmanian Wool Centre.
• Continue on to Oatlands and keep a look out for the old coaching inn at Tunbridge – now a stately private residence.
• Also spanning the river at Tunbridge is the convict-built Blackman's River Bridge. Dating back to 1848, it's the oldest wooden span bridge in Australia.
• Continue on to Oatlands and its sandstone-lined streets. Oatlands has the largest collection of colonial sandstone buildings in a village environment in Australia, many built by convict labour.
• Still in Oatlands, look out for the hard-to-miss Callington Mill, a unique landmark. The mill is Australia's third oldest windmill, built in 1837 and restored to working order in 2010.
• Another landmark, St Pauls' Catholic Church, was designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, the father of Gothic Revival architecture.
• Detour on your way south to the wineries of the Coal River Valley via Colebrook and the fascinating remains of the convict Probation Station built in 1841.
• Continuing on the main highway from Oatlands, take a 30 minutes detour to the town of Bothwell with 53 National Trust Classified buildings including the church of St Michaels and All Angels with its unusual feature inside – a fireplace.
• Bothwell also has the oldest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere, Ratho, dating back to the 1820s. The Australasian Golf Museum housed at Ratho is said to have the most interesting golfing memorabilia outside of St Andrews in Scotland.
• Back on the main highway to Hobart and easily overlooked is the tiny historic village of Kempton. A stroll through the main street reveals a charming collection of colonial homes, cottages, churches, shops, taverns and coaching inns, all within a distance of one kilometre.
• On the final approach to Hobart through Mangalore and Bagdad, look out for the magnificent old homes by the side of the road – Marlbrook, Oakwood, Wybra Hall and Shene - seen in the distance with its gabled outbuildings and clock tower. Call ahead to book a tour. All are testament to the wealth of some of the early European settlers who prospered from wheat-growing.
• Continue to Pontville for more fine examples of colonial architecture including sandstone churches, a convict-built bridge, hotels, stately homes and workmen's cottages.
• Take in the beautiful St Mark's Church (1839), with its distinctive Romanesque architecture, designed by convict architect James Blackburn, then stroll through the old graveyard with its stories of the suffering and success of early settlers.
• At Brighton, take a short detour to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, home to kangaroos, eastern quolls and Tasmanian devils.
• Continue on to Hobart.