Going East: Triabunna
Mar. 4th, 2010 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenithI'll leave Swansea and things for the trip home.
The bits in italics are from the information panels about the town.
This is the first view of Triabunna -- Spring Bay, boats and odd brown hill (guess what that is).
Triabunna (Try-a-bun-na, from the native name for native hens) is a small town of about 800 people. However it's the only town of any size along a long stretch of coast and it's the administrative centre for the Glamorgan-Spring municipality
The centre of the town seems to this intersection, with a shop on each corner.
See the sign on the footpath just in front of the yellow weatherboard building? Some person/s had the very clever idea to erect information panels in the street, to give the background about some of the buildings. So now I can tell you:
Tom & Dulcie Gillow owned the shop on the other corner [now the blue takeaway]. They came to Triabunna in 1940 when they brought the store from Clyde Castle and they owned it for 36 years. The shop opened at 8 am and closed at 9.30 p m. In the late 1940's when electricity was connected to Triabunna, the Gillows bought a refrigerator and made ice blocks for sale, also milk shakes from their own cow's milk. Milk shakes cost 6d and filled three glasses. During the war when lollies were not available, the Gillows who did not use their rationed sugar for personal use, made it into turkish delight, also snowballs.
For a change, some photos of inside :)
The blue hardware building there gets a mention on the information panel:
When Roy Hadden owned the shop diagonally opposite he stocked groceries, hardware, kitchenware, paints, putties, sports good, footwear, clothing, cards, stationery, confectionery, cakes, smallgoods, frozen food, fruits & vegies, cigarettes, knitting wool, needles and patterns. Watch and clock repairs were also arranged.
Vicary originally owned this large house and shop next door which stocked groceries, jumpers and trousers as well as boots and shoes. Jock Brodribb bought the business and added ready made dresses to the stock, the first shop in Triabunna to do so.
When owned by Mr Luttrell, a barn at the rear was used to stable the horses from the coaches stopping over at Triabunna Houses.
Mr Luttrell also dealt in possum skins, these also being stored in the stable. After selling their wares to Mr Luttrell many of the young lads in town would then 'repossess' the skins and try and sell them back to him.
And of the IGA on the opposite corner:
Ron Castle built the original shop opposite [where the IGA supermarket is now] in 1924, and opened Monday to Saturday between 7.30 am and 11 pm.
Before regulations were changed, the front door was closed on Sundays, but by entering through the back door the same service was availed. Everything was stocked on shelves made from the wooden boxes that kerosene tins were packed in. There were no packaged goods then -- sugar, flour, biscuits, pollard, bran, wheat, nails -- everything had to be weighed as required. Cottons, laces, needles, buttons, boot laces etc. always seemed tangled.
Now heading towards the water (you can see the "commercial corners" in the background).
Triabunna House was built as an inn for Thomas Martin, a publican, to provide accommodation for the military from Maria Island. From 1859, it was a public house and shop. The wooden additions were used for the electric telegraph and the Post Office and Annie Robinson an her daughter Clara were Postmistresses until 1911. The shop specialised in clothing, dress materials and haberdashery.
The excellence of the Robinsons and then the Thompson Family Boarding Houses was known through Tasmania. From 1906 it provided accommodation and meals for visitors and passengers on the horse and mother coaches and a new dining room was added in 1925. A meal cost 2s 6d with a choice of 2 soups, 2 entrees, 2 meats with vegetables and a choice of sweets with tea or coffee.
The Thompson managed the Boarding House until it closed when the bigger dining room opened at Thompson's Spring Bay Hotel.
Next door is...
From the information panel across the road:
The 51st Regiment, who duties were on Maria Island, was stationed at Spring Bay in 1843. The government relied on private enterprise to house 80 min and offices. This proved a boon to Triabunna as cottages were built for families, stables for horses, barracks for the men and inns were opened for their thirst.
The stone barracks were built on land previously owned by John Ibbottson, a publican, in 1843. In 1844 the site also contained three wooden buildings, one an inn which had various names, including the Freemason's Arms, but most popularly known as the Retreat Inn.
After the departure from Spring Bay of the military in 1850, the stone barracks were used to stable the coach horses.
The Retreat Inn was demolished in 1960s and the stone barracks were purchase in 1969 with the intention of restoration. Ideas of a restaurant and museum did not come to fruition because of restoration expenses.
Down at the waterfront now.
Spring Bay Hotel, erected 1838.
The Spring Bay Hotel was built by John Felmingham and was originally known as the Pembroke Hotel.
He applied to the Spring Bay Council to make the bricks, but it was later stated that the bricks for the hotel actually came from Maria Island. Some time before 1909 a verandah was added and the navigation light which was suspended beside it was the responsibility of the licencee.
The hotel was enlarged in the 1930s.
The water was very still, and the bay is very quite pretty, from Triabunna.
Around the coast, there are some industries on the edge of the water. One I've forgotten the name of which the grinds up fish for Omega 3 capsules and for pellets for other aquaculture industries isn't particularly noticeable. This one though, is Gunn's woodchip mill.
There's obviously fishing boats based here, but I guess most of them would be out fishing.
For visitors though, this is the main reason to come to Triabunna.
Now I get to see if I can make sense of the 570 photos I have of the island.
The bits in italics are from the information panels about the town.
This is the first view of Triabunna -- Spring Bay, boats and odd brown hill (guess what that is).
Triabunna (Try-a-bun-na, from the native name for native hens) is a small town of about 800 people. However it's the only town of any size along a long stretch of coast and it's the administrative centre for the Glamorgan-Spring municipality
The centre of the town seems to this intersection, with a shop on each corner.
See the sign on the footpath just in front of the yellow weatherboard building? Some person/s had the very clever idea to erect information panels in the street, to give the background about some of the buildings. So now I can tell you:
Tom & Dulcie Gillow owned the shop on the other corner [now the blue takeaway]. They came to Triabunna in 1940 when they brought the store from Clyde Castle and they owned it for 36 years. The shop opened at 8 am and closed at 9.30 p m. In the late 1940's when electricity was connected to Triabunna, the Gillows bought a refrigerator and made ice blocks for sale, also milk shakes from their own cow's milk. Milk shakes cost 6d and filled three glasses. During the war when lollies were not available, the Gillows who did not use their rationed sugar for personal use, made it into turkish delight, also snowballs.
For a change, some photos of inside :)
The blue hardware building there gets a mention on the information panel:
When Roy Hadden owned the shop diagonally opposite he stocked groceries, hardware, kitchenware, paints, putties, sports good, footwear, clothing, cards, stationery, confectionery, cakes, smallgoods, frozen food, fruits & vegies, cigarettes, knitting wool, needles and patterns. Watch and clock repairs were also arranged.
Vicary originally owned this large house and shop next door which stocked groceries, jumpers and trousers as well as boots and shoes. Jock Brodribb bought the business and added ready made dresses to the stock, the first shop in Triabunna to do so.
When owned by Mr Luttrell, a barn at the rear was used to stable the horses from the coaches stopping over at Triabunna Houses.
Mr Luttrell also dealt in possum skins, these also being stored in the stable. After selling their wares to Mr Luttrell many of the young lads in town would then 'repossess' the skins and try and sell them back to him.
And of the IGA on the opposite corner:
Ron Castle built the original shop opposite [where the IGA supermarket is now] in 1924, and opened Monday to Saturday between 7.30 am and 11 pm.
Before regulations were changed, the front door was closed on Sundays, but by entering through the back door the same service was availed. Everything was stocked on shelves made from the wooden boxes that kerosene tins were packed in. There were no packaged goods then -- sugar, flour, biscuits, pollard, bran, wheat, nails -- everything had to be weighed as required. Cottons, laces, needles, buttons, boot laces etc. always seemed tangled.
Now heading towards the water (you can see the "commercial corners" in the background).
Triabunna House was built as an inn for Thomas Martin, a publican, to provide accommodation for the military from Maria Island. From 1859, it was a public house and shop. The wooden additions were used for the electric telegraph and the Post Office and Annie Robinson an her daughter Clara were Postmistresses until 1911. The shop specialised in clothing, dress materials and haberdashery.
The excellence of the Robinsons and then the Thompson Family Boarding Houses was known through Tasmania. From 1906 it provided accommodation and meals for visitors and passengers on the horse and mother coaches and a new dining room was added in 1925. A meal cost 2s 6d with a choice of 2 soups, 2 entrees, 2 meats with vegetables and a choice of sweets with tea or coffee.
The Thompson managed the Boarding House until it closed when the bigger dining room opened at Thompson's Spring Bay Hotel.
Next door is...
From the information panel across the road:
The 51st Regiment, who duties were on Maria Island, was stationed at Spring Bay in 1843. The government relied on private enterprise to house 80 min and offices. This proved a boon to Triabunna as cottages were built for families, stables for horses, barracks for the men and inns were opened for their thirst.
The stone barracks were built on land previously owned by John Ibbottson, a publican, in 1843. In 1844 the site also contained three wooden buildings, one an inn which had various names, including the Freemason's Arms, but most popularly known as the Retreat Inn.
After the departure from Spring Bay of the military in 1850, the stone barracks were used to stable the coach horses.
The Retreat Inn was demolished in 1960s and the stone barracks were purchase in 1969 with the intention of restoration. Ideas of a restaurant and museum did not come to fruition because of restoration expenses.
Down at the waterfront now.
Spring Bay Hotel, erected 1838.
The Spring Bay Hotel was built by John Felmingham and was originally known as the Pembroke Hotel.
He applied to the Spring Bay Council to make the bricks, but it was later stated that the bricks for the hotel actually came from Maria Island. Some time before 1909 a verandah was added and the navigation light which was suspended beside it was the responsibility of the licencee.
The hotel was enlarged in the 1930s.
The water was very still, and the bay is very quite pretty, from Triabunna.
Around the coast, there are some industries on the edge of the water. One I've forgotten the name of which the grinds up fish for Omega 3 capsules and for pellets for other aquaculture industries isn't particularly noticeable. This one though, is Gunn's woodchip mill.
There's obviously fishing boats based here, but I guess most of them would be out fishing.
For visitors though, this is the main reason to come to Triabunna.
Now I get to see if I can make sense of the 570 photos I have of the island.
