xenith | Island Trek: Darlington?

You might remember when I left off we had finally reached Darlington. Or you might not. I can barely remember what I was up :)

First though, it was definitely time for lunch! Now, see the brown (red brick) buildings to the left?

They're a series of terraced cottages were built by Bernacchi (the ambitious industrialist) in the 1880s to house his workers, using brick from the Separate Apartment Cells (more on them later).

View across part of Bernacchi's Vinyard

The houses next to the terraces were believed to have been occupied by Bernacchi and to have been joined by their verandahs. Now they're rangers' residences.

We sat up on the verandah of one of the brick cottages and ate lunch.

With lots of glances towards the white buildings down the hill of course.

That's inside one.

Then lunch over, I, um, went down to look at a information panel which had a map on it. I pointed to a spot along the coast a bit more and said I wanted to walk up there to see if I could see the Painted Cliffs, and then we could go and look around Darlington.

....

So we set off up the hill.

There is a good view up this hill.

(Cape Barren Geese)

Even if it doesn't change very much.

It hasn't changed that much since 1912 either except for the cement works.

Fortunately, the view in the other direction does, eventually, change.

This is as far as I planned to walk. Although that beach does look very appealing, it is a very long beach and realistically, we're not going to do that walk today. (For scale: previous photo, you might be able to make out the two people walking along it.)

At the other end of the beach, are the cliffs.

That's pushing the camera past its limits though, so I'll use a photo from the National Archives of Australia instead.

Painted Cliffs, Maria Island (NAA: A6135, K4/6/75/81)

On the way back, instead of following the path, we head across to the cottage instead.

Mrs Hunt's Cottage - during the first convict period the Commandant, Major T.D. Lord, constructed his own residence on this hill. If you look carefully you may be able to find the footings. Mrs Hunt's cottages, however, was built in the 1900s, over the ruins of the old visiting magistrate's dwelling of the second convict period.

As you can see, the position commands an excellent view of Darlington and the surrounding waterways, which would have been important for he commandant and later for Mrs Hunt. Ruby Hunt was by all accounts a bit of a character and operated a pedal wireless which at the time was the only communication link with the mainland of Tasmania. It is also said that she would hang a lantern in her cottage window to guide in the shop which collected and delivered the mail for the island.

Which is all very interesting, but you think I can find anything that looks like "footings"? There's grass, rocks, thistles and geese.

The only man-made thing away from the Mrs Hunt's cottage is this brick square, which is hardly the footings for a -- wait a sec. There it is!

That's a better photo. There's a "wall" running from the front centre back to another wall, that's sort of parallel to the edge of the hill.

There's a separate indentation as well, that I thought might be the kitchen, and judging by the plan of buildings at Darlington, 1834, it would seem there was a kitchen to the rear of the main house.