Highway One: Tasmania’s Red Bridge
Catherine Lawson and David Bristow, along with baby Maya, are doing a lap of Highway One, the road that circles Australia.
I’VE TRAVELLED TO TASMANIA dozens of times but never found myself on the Midland Highway. This stretch of Highway One, which connects Launceston and Hobart follows the Heritage Highway through a string of historic towns – Campbell Town, Ross and Oatlands.
We were particularly drawn to Campbell Towns’ Red Bridge which may well be the oldest bridge anywhere on Highway One.
It’s a magnificent 154-year-old structure, built by convict labour in the 1850s and utilising around 1.25 million locally made bricks. It’s estimated that two million vehicles cross the bridge every year, which only makes its construction even more impressive.
About 50km south of Campbell Town at Oatlands, we are again impressed by another historic icon – Callington Mill, built in 1837 and today the only working wind-driven Lincolnshire Mill in the southern hemisphere.
It was restored to fully working order in 2010 and produces exceptional organic wheat and spelt flours thanks to miller Benjamin Paulsen – a real livewire in this laidback town.
Oatlands boasts Australia’s largest collection of sandstone Georgian buildings and it’s a super-friendly town that welcomes travellers with a free campground on the shores of Lake Dulverton.
A conservation park protects the lake and its flocks of black swans, ducks and migratory water birds, and the lake is stocked with trout. There’s a small boat ramp on the Esplanade near the campground and a walking trail that leads around the lake’s foreshore too.
RELATED ARTICLES
…More Highway One articles
Australia’s 18 top camping spots
Camping: the classic Aussie past-time
Top 5 great Aussie road trips
Australian Geographic’s top 100 icons of all time
Top 10 Australian outback experiences
Wilderness by bike: the Munda Biddi Trail
Predict the weather without a forecast
Rottnest Island’s best beaches
Touring the Kimberley from the aerial highway
Australia’s 8 greatest surf spots
6 great Australian train trips
Best winter escapes in Australia
Travel photography tips
10 best kayak day trips in Australia
18 of the best day walks in Australia
Massive new Indigenous Protected Area declared
Gallery: The top five greatest Aussie roadtrips
Indian Pacific celebrates 40 years
