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**Ross (1825-1856)﻿** //"Oh! To think that a land so blessed, so rich in all that renders life bountiful happy and great - so kindly formed to be a refuge and a sweet abiding place in these latter times for the younger children of the old decrepid worn out world at home - to think that such a land is doomed to be the prison, the workshop and the grave of the Empire's outcast poverty, ignorance and guilt."// Thomas Meagher, Young Irelander exiled at Ross date unknown, sited at the Tasmanian Wool Centre and Wool Museum. toc

__ **Location** __ Ross is situated on the Macquarie River between Hobart and Launceston. It is on the Midlands but is bypassed by the Midlands highway. Its coordinates are 42°01’48”S 147°29’31”E. Below are a range of maps showing Van Dieman's Land in 1830, a satellite map of Tasmania marked with Indigenous boundaries and a contemporary satellite map of Ross illustrating its position in relation to the Midlands Highway, the layout of the township, the Macquarie River and surrounding farmland.

Source: http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18856246?q=VAN+DIEMEN%27S+LAND+1830&c=map (Accessed online)

Source: Wikipedia (2011)



**__A Description of Ross from Widowson in 1829.__..**

//"The country at Ross, nine miles distant from Blackman's Bridge ... is generally good, being open and pleasant. To the West the forests are thick and fit only for cattle. W. Kermode's house and premises are a short distance from the road to the right. Two pleasant cottages in the valley stand on the grant of Mr. Parrymore and Captain Horton, a more delightful situation than the immediate neighbourhood of the place cannot be wished for. The numerous flocks, feeding on the verdant banks of the river, would tempt the traveller to envy those who have been fortunate enough to choose this part of the country for their new abode."//

Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.

__Buildings and Town Layout__ Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts Description: 1 drawing, sepia wash on paper; 8 x 12cm Date: 1856

__**The Four Co**____**rners of Ross**__
The Four Corners of Ross refers to the four buildings at the crossroads of Church St. and Bridge St., reflecting the characters of each of the buildings. The following photos were taken during an excursion to Ross in September 2011.

[|The Pub (Temptation)] [|The Old Gaol (Damnation)] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|The Town Hall (Recreation)] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|The Church (Salvation)]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">__**The Barracks**__
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Between 1824 and 1854, Ross was a garrison town. During this period, many regiments of the British Army were stationed in the area including the 3rd East Kent Regiment (1824-1825), the 40th Foot Second Somersetshire (1824-1829) and the 4th Royal Lancashire Regiment (The King's Own, 1831-1832). Daniel Herbert (described below) married Mary Witherington at these barracks in 1835.

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">"As the town grew during the early days, the various detachments of soldiers stationed there gave names to the streets which commemorated various battles in which their regiments had taken part; these include Waterloo, Vittoria, Badajos and Trafalgar Streets." // <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This website outlines the involvement of the British Army in Australia between 1788-1870. It details many of the regiments that were stationed at Ross during this period, including the 3rd East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) and the 4th Royal Lancashire Regiment (The King's Own).



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This image from the above website details the uniform of the 40th Foot Second <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Somersetshire Regiment, who were stationed at Ross between 1824-1829.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">__**The Old Cemetery**__
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"Among the old head stones in the cemetery, now beginning to show the ravages of time, is one in the memory of "Thomas Rawlins and Edward Green, inhumanly killed by the natives in 1827."// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.





<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Pictured above is Daniel Herbert's grave in the old cemetary. The picture was taken on a recent excursion to Ross. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Daniel Herbert, a convict stonemason who built the famous Ross bridge, also carved his own tombstone. In this photo the urn on top of the tombstone is a reproduction of the original.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The article from "The Mercury" pictured below from 25th September 1976 was found at the Tasmanian Wool Museum in a scrapbook of historical newspaper articles from the 1960's - present. The news story reveals that the urn and one of the legs form the tombstone had gone missing.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Close up of the above article] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: The Mercury (1976)

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Mona Vale (Home of the Kermode family)** __
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">//"There is nothing remarkably picturesque in the site of Mona Vale, the residence of Mr K - ; but the house itself it excellent; there are pleasant gardens and greenhouses full of fruit and flowers, a tolerable growth of English trees, and, moreover, - rare feature in Australian home scenery, - a clear and rapid stream running across the lawn, and forming beyond it a tolerably large pool, edged with English willows and large growth."//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: Mundy, G. C. (1852) //Our Antipodes.// London: R. Bentley. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The above quote is taken from a primary source written by Lt Colonel Godfrey Charles Mundy who travelled through Ross in 1851 and stayed at Mona Vale with the Kermode family. He gives a detailed description of his stay there in Chapter 8.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**"Mona Vale House" at Ross, Tasmania. (ca. 1914- ca. 1941) Mona Vale print (ca. 1838)**



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">These two images show Mona Vale in different centuries. The photograph on the left was taken in the early 1900's after Federation and the print on the right is dated from 1838 when Tasmania was still known as Van Diemen's Land.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__ **Ellenthorpe Hall** __
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">The property is located 13km west of Ross and operated as a ladies college between 1827 and 1839. The school was run by Mrs Clarke and became renowned for its strict educational standards.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Ellenthorpe Hall Photo] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: National Library of Australia





<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: An information board at the Tasmanian Wool Centre Museum at Ross 2011.

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**Horton College** __


<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; text-align: center;">Source: W. L. Crowther Library

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;"> Source: Tasmanian Wool Centre Museum at Ross 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"This College was, for a time, one of the famous educational centres in Australia. In 1850 Capt. Samuel Horton offered the Wesleyan Church twenty acres of 'Somercotes' and 1, 350 pounds for the establishment of a boys school. The offer was accepted and the foundation stone laid on the 6th January, 1852. The Victorian gold rush took place at that time and as nearly every able-bodied man who had no ties left at once for those golden shores, the work was delayed ... it was finally opened in '55"// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.



<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Old Horton College at Ross (The Mercury, 1930)] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">A 1930's Mercury newspaper article details some of Horton College's history.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Home holds ancestor's secrets (The Mercury, December 28th 2010)] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">This recent article from the Mercury details some information about Ross during the early 1830's when an inn called 'The Sheilling' was being built.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">__ **The Probation Station (Female Factory)** __
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"Between 1848 and 1854 the site operated as the Ross Female Factory, housing female convicts and their babies. It was a hiring depot where women worked carding and spinning wool and sewing and knitting before being hired out to the surrounding properties as domestic servants. It was also a punishment station where female convicts who had comitted new offences were sent for punishment."//

Source: Ross Information Guide, Tasmanian Wool Centre (2007)

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">

//<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">"Of course they were not factories at all, as we know them, but prisons for women and hiring centres for ladies who sought very rough-and-ready help with their housework. Around the building there was a wall with broken bottles set in the mortar along the top of it. This was in case the women wanted to escape, or on the other hand, to prevent playful young soldiers from the nearby barracks from creeping over at night-time, in a spirit of fun, which would perhaps frighten the fair inmates and cause some disturbance in the sleeping domitories of the institution" //

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|Routine: The Muster bell rang at 5.30am] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: An information board at The Female Factory archaeological site in Ross, 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">[|An incident in the yard] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: An information board at The Female Factory archeological site in Ross, 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Original Plans] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Plans to Convert to a Reformatory] <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**The Bridge** __
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The sandstone bridge at Ross crossing the Macquarie River was built by convict labour and completed in 1836. Convict stonemasons Daniel Herbert and James Colbeck received pardons for their completion of the bridge. The bridge features 186 carvings above the arches, which portray Celtic symbols, animals and faces.



[|Australian Hertiage Database] The above link shows Ross Bridge on the Australian Heritage Database. It was listed in 1978.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Steel Staples Holding the Sandstone Together with a Convict Mark]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Recognition of the Convict Builders]
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This plaque was added to the bridge in 1986, 150 years after the bridge was opened. = = <span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">**__Significant Figures and Groups__** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The township of Ross was predominately built with the hands of convict labour. Thus, the convicts of the early-mid 1800's are a significant part of its history. The aristocracy such as the Kermode family of Mona Vale employed the use of substantial Government assigned labour for the maintenance of their substantial property. Evidence of this can be found in the Kermode's Census record from 1842.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">There is evidence of convicts being housed at Ross in thatched huts along the Macquarie River as they attempted to build the troublesome Ross Bridge from 1833. However, in the early 1840's a punishment station was constructed to provide sufficent space for the "300 chained road gang convicts and the male probation prisoners that followed them" (Ross Female Factory: A guide to the site and its history, information pamphlet). This site eventually became the Ross Female Factory which housed hundreds of women and children over its 7-year life time. So began the dynamic and complex history of the convicts at Ross.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Daniel Herbert and his wife Mary (nee Witherington) are the most notable figures that are remembered in the 21st Century. Herbert is remembered for his incredible stonemasonary skills that contributed to the intricate carvings that he created during his part in contructing the now famous Ross Bridge.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**__Convicts at the Ross Female Factory__**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">In 1851 Colonel Mundy visited the Female Factory at Ross and decribed his perceptions of the site's conditions in a report. What he scribed in that year shows a particular attitude to the women and children housed at the station. This primary source comes from within a reliable secondary source by Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers". Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery. p. 15.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//- "during the inspection there was dead silence everywhere - one would have thought them all deaf and dumb, both women and children. Never was I before in so numerous a nursery ... and the children were mostly healthy and pretty. Most of the women were not even tolerably nice-looking and many of them had come for obstetric assistance. It was rather a pretty sight for a father ('of none of them' adds the Colonal hurriedly), to contemplate the large ward allotted to the mid-day sleep of the poor little babies. There were a score or so of wooden cribs in each of which lay two, three or four innocents stowed away head and tail like sardines in oil, while others were curling about like a litter of kittens in a basket of straw. All of them wonderfully good - chiefly, I suspect, because there was no anxious mamma nor fussy nurse constantly telling them to be so ... The doctor of the establishment needed to be very prudent in his dealings with the fair, but fierce ladies, whose chief affliction was gross health and fiery temperament. A diet of bread and water in conjunction with solitary confinement were the two principal punishments used in an attempt to quell their high spirits."//

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**[|Infants at the Station]** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The secondary source that is found within the previous link is highly reliable as the information comes directly from the contemporary site of the old Female Factory at Ross. The information tells visitors to the site that is was not uncommon that convict women would get pregnant on assignment. It also informs of the conditions that the women are their babies were subjected to during that time.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: An information board at The Female Factory archaeological site in Ross 2011.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**__An Attitude Towards the Convicts__**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">A remark from Reverend Eastman quoted in the //Launceston Examiner// in 1851 shows that current attitude towards the convicts during that time.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"What had he been without transportation? Nothing! What would any of them have been?"//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: An information board at The Female Factory archaeological site in Ross 2011.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**[|An Original Lower Court Report from a Convict: Mary Sutherland]** <span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">The primary source that can be found in this link (photographed), was retrieved from the Archives Office of Tasmania which are housed in the current State Library of Tasmania. This primary source is very valuable in the sense that it creates a physical connection between the present and the past. This lower court record the crime of Mary Sutherland. It states that she was convict on private assignment in Ross in 1835 and was charged with being "useless in her duties as she is in the family way". She was sent to the Launceston Female Factory for a arbitrary amount of time for her confinement. This was on her master's conditions that she be returned to him once she had served her sentence. This source is very difficult to read, but can be enlarged for closer attention.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania. Located at 91 Murray St in Hobart.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**[|Kindness to the Women Convicts]**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The article embedded in the above link shows the possibility of a more compassionate side to the seemingly tragic conditions that the women convicts and their children encountered while housed in the Ross Female Factory. This article describes that archaeological evidence has been found at the site to suggest that the overseer's may not have been as strict on the interaction between mothers and their children as previously thought.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">**__ Daniel Herbert __**


<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**<span class="wiki_link_ext">A Photograph of Daniel Herbert in 1835. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania Online. Retrieved from: []

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">**[|Daniel Herbert's Biography]**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This biography was written by Hamish Maxwell Stewart and was published in 2005. It is a good secondary source as it offers a comprehensive (yet also brief) overview of Ross' most famous convict.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Australian Dictionary of Biography. Retrieved from: []

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">__**Daniel Herberts Convict Record**__ <span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">This primary source is invaluable as it provides insight into the life of Daniel Herbert from the time that he actually lived. As this volume is a government document the only information that it provides is what would have been important to the authorities at between the years 1822-1850. As such, Daniel Herbert's section details the date of his arrival to the colony, the ship that he travelled on, his crimes in England and his demeanour on the ship. It also includes notations of each time he was reprimanded for disobeying the law, such as being "absent without leave". This primary source is difficult to read, but can be enlarged for a clearer view.





<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania Online. Convict Index: CON31/1/

__**Mary Herbert (nee Witherington)**__



 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">A Photograph of Mary Herbert in 1835. **

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">__**"Memorial for Marriage" Between Daniel Herbert and Mary Witherington**__

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Source: Memorial for Marriage (p. 75) Retrieved from [|http://digital.statelibrary.tas.gov.au:1801/view/action/nmets.do?DOCCHOICE=CON52-1-1.xml&dvs=1317100081150~57&locale=en_US&search_terms=&adjacency=&VIEWER_URL=/view/action/nmets.do?&DELIVERY_RULE_ID=4&usePid1=true&usePid2=true]

**__ ﻿Mary Witherington's Convict Record __**





<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: left;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania Online. Convict Index: CON40/1/9

==<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**[|An article about the Ross Bridge carvings]** == <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This online blog describes some of the intricate carvings that have been attributed to the handiwork of Daniel Herbert. It is a secondary source that is accompanied with a photograph of some of the carvings on the middle arch of the Ross Bridge.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: []. April 2010.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**[|Daniel Herbert's Free Pardon]**
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The above link provides access to a primary source about Daniel Herbert. It is Government Notice making note of his Free Pardon in 1842 as a result of completing the Ross Bridge with such proficiency.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Photo of a newspaper clipping located at the Tasmanian Wool Museum 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**[|July 27 1858 Herbert writes a classified ad.]**
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This primary source provides evidence of Daniel Herbert's life as a freed convict.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: The Tasmanian Wool Museum. 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">__**Daniel Herbert's Census Report 1842**__
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This census report (which is a primary source) provides interesting insight into the living conditions of Daniel Herbert and his families’ free life. It provides an interesting contrast to William Kermode of Mona Vale’s census report from the same year, below.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania Online. This primary source can be access by going to the following site: []. The requested information needs to be inserted and this is an easy process.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**[|Daniel Herbert's home, a modern view.]**
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The above link provides access to a photo of what was once Daniel Herbert’s home. Here, only a hundred metres downstream from the bridge that freed him, he raised his children and passed away in 1868.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Photograph taken on site in Ross 2011.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; text-align: center;">__**The Kermode Family of Mona Vale**__ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">__**William Kermode's Census Report 1842**__

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This primary source provides interesting insight in to the daily life of the wealthier classes, such as the Kermode family.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: The Archives Office of Tasmania Online. This primary source can be access by going to the following site: []. The requested information needs to be inserted and this is an easy process.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**[|"Removing the Convict Stain"]**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This secondary source shows the negative attitude of the autocracy in the 19th century towards the convicts who had helped them to build their fortunes.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: An Information Board at the Tasmanian Wool Museum: “Removing the Convict Stain”.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**__The Kermode’s Burial Ground__**

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">This contemporary site represents the deep division that must have existed between the classes in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The Kermode’s (from the 19th century – present) are buried in a fenced-off division in the Protestant section of the Ross burial ground.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: A Photograph Taken at Ross in 2011.



__Natural Environment and Land Use__

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: National Library of Australia <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Description: 1 watercolour; 26.2 x 36.4cm <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Date: 1847

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: National Library of Australia <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Date: 1825

These two paintings give one an understanding of what the land around Ross and the Macquarie river was like between 1825-1855. You can see from these paintings that the town of Ross was well established and flourishing by 1847. The below links are photos of the Macquarie River in 2011. These photos illustrate the type of countryside that the original European settlers were faced with. The land was considered ideal grazing area, although less useful for farming crops.

[|View of the Macquarie River Facing South over the Argyle Plains]

[|The Macquarie River facing North]

Source: Photographs Taken at Ross in 2011.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Count Strzelecki (a Polish scientist on a visit to Tasmania) says in 1845 that the farm Mona Vale "stands alone, with few exceptions, in agricultural improvement"

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers". Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery. p. 13.

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Grazing land. __ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"The country at Ross, nine miles distant from Blackmans Bridge (Tunbridge?) further south is generally good, being open and pleasant", as Widowson wrote in 1829. "to the west the forrests are thick and only fit for cattle. W. Kermodes house and premisses are a short distance from the road to the right. Two pleasant cottages in the valley stand on the grant of Mr. Parrymore and Captain Horton, a more delightful situation than the immediate neighbourhood of the place cannot be wished for. The numerous clocks, feeding on the verdant banks of the river, would tempt the traveler to envy those who have been fortunate enough to choose this part of the country for their new abode ... After passing the 'Man O'Ross', a small inn for travelers, you cross the Macquarie over a bridge between two and three hundred feet in length, where on a pleasant dry sandy bank, is erected a small house now occupied Simpson, Esq., the district magistrate. This spot has been selected as the site most suitable for a township and as regards a fine dry soil, plenty of water with an open well populated country, it is, perhaps a very desirable situation. There are also some good freestone quarries close to township"//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery. p. 10

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ross was an important agricultural area of Tasmania in this time period, as the reproductions of the letters and news articles below suggest. In 1805 Holt mentioned that 500 head of cattle had arrived in Hobart from India, 19 years later West asserts that numerous herds of cattle were pastured in the Bothwell district and the Plains of Bashan were their feeding ground. The governments farming and grazing establishment was set up approximately three miles from the Ross bridge. In 1832 the Government reserves at Ross were sold for as much as 29 pounds per acre. Widowson writes in 1829 - //"about three miles from Ross Bridge is the Governemnt farming and grazing establishment. They have reserved to themselves twenty thousand acres and the best grazing land in the Island, moderately wooded and well watered"// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Von Stieglitz, K. R. (1949). "A short history of Ross: With some tales from the pioneers." Launceston, TAS: Telegraph Printery.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">The links below are reproductions of letters from shepherds to their overseers or masters from Ross and surrounding countryside. These letters provide further evidence that farming was an important feature of the land use and economy of Ross during this period.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Reproduction of a letter regarding shepherding.]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Reproduction of a letter from the Leakes regarding shepherding]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Reproduction of a letter regarding the theft of sheep.]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">//"In 1830 Ross was evidently progressing, as a visitor writes that 'in front of him was the Macquarie River with the Man O'Ross Hotel kept by Mr O'Connor, and the Western range of hills in the distance. Away on the opposite side for the river the Salt Pan Plains. The Government Cottage and other useful buildings are now in progress in this populous and highly important agricultural district. Generally speaking, the whole of this district is admirably adapted for the growth of fine wool. Sheep hustbandry has been much attended to, and the Hobart butchers have long prized the Macquarie wethers."//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">Source: Kermode, R.C,cited in a collection (1921) //Ross Centenary, June 2nd, 1821-June 2nd, 1921//, Hobart, The Mercury, p.8. __<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Ross as a trade and transport hub. __ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">After the building of the first bridge at Ross this became an important trading and transport hub for Tasmania. An army barracks was constructed here as wall the probation station. <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">There was also a quarry which provided much needed sandstone to the local area, particularly with the construction of the new bridge, however there is no evidence to suggest that this was a major export.



Source: A Photograph Taken at Ross in 2011.

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">European settlers and changes to the environment. __ <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">As a result of European settlement there were a number of introduced species into this region, the most prolific of these being the Scotch Thistle, introduced by the people as a reminder of their home this plant is now a weed running riot throughout the Midlands.



Source: A Photograph Taken at Ross in 2011.

__<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">**News Articles from the Cornwall Chronicle and Colonial Times which refer to Ross** __
<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Sheep auctioned at Ross Bridge]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Colonial Times july 1836 letter from a person living in Ross0000.pdf]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Warning against land purchases in the interior]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|More sheep auctioned at Ross Bridge]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Weather report from 1836]