Southern Tour Day 8 Launceston Museums

By the numbers

2 museums

11.2 kms

14,931 steps

 

The morning was wet when I looked outside through my blinds. The room was really good and the bed really comfy too. I was happy to have a decent bed to sleep in. I went downstairs for breakfast that is part of the hotel and is put on my tab. Something different to what I have done before. I am not used to doing something like that. When I did go outside Once I had eaten and sorted my gear out, I had to use my umbrella and it was actually a great idea for a museum visit for that day. The museum I had wanted to visit was the Tasmanian Transport Museum.

 

I thought visiting the transport museum would be interesting as I had wondered if I should have caught the boat to the mainland. I wanted a day in Launceston so I decided to do that and break my trip up. By the time I got to the museum I had dried off my umbrella and the museum had only just been opened for the day. I thought I would check the shop out first and to be honest there was plenty of books about various vehicles including the history of transport in Tasmania. Some of the prices were expensive and the weight of the books told me I couldn’t take them with me at all. I have a weight limit for the plane and I still have to wander through Melbourne. I was able to get into the museum and it had quite a few vehicles from the past and the recent past as well.  The information about each vehicle was interesting especially when some were imported into the country. Information included who owned the vehicle especially in Tasmania and how many were actually made. The funny part was the distance the vehicles ran were included. Some hadn’t travelled very far and depending on the age of the vehicle that mileage could be impressive. One vehicle included the 1974 Holden Monaro HQ GTS that was involved in the Tasman Bridge disaster in 1975. The car had been lucky not to go into the water where others had. The owner had the vehicle  until it was donated to the museum. I was happy to look around the museum looking at the information and the different motorcycles as well They did have to include several cars from Bathurst.

 

Once I was finished with the museum, I walked out the front heading towards another museum. Out the front there were some bikes that were being shown off, but I wanted to keep going as I was headed towards the Tram museum. I didn’t know much about it at all, so I wandered over. I found another museum nearby that was an art museum, but I wanted the tram one instead. There was a tram parked outside and I walked in. What I thought was the cost of entry turned out to be the ticket for a tram ride instead. I had only been there for several minutes before hopping on the tram. As there was building work going on to do with the university the trams were allowed to go through it when the gates were opened. At the end of the line was something that I had not realised and was something unique. At the end was a train turntable in the middle of the carpark. It was being looked at to be restored by either the tram museum or the university. It turns out there is quite a bit of bad blood between the university and the tram museum people. The university seemed to have a desire to shut the non profit museum down and has cost a bit of money so far. It made me not wanting to visit the museum connected with the university. The building that the university happened to be doing up were all part of the tram workshops like carpentry and other jobs.

 

The history behind the trams were once the trams stopped running in 1952 the stock of trams were sold off and were used by families as houses, chicken coops and even holiday homes. Many were lost to time and other disasters including fires. Few trams were bought back to Launceston and one of them was put back into service. The museum itself had a list of all the trams and their whereabouts or what happened to them, some people’s stories about what their intentions were towards the trams they received. One guy even had the tram as his retirement home. The workshop even had a waterline from the 1926 flood in Launceston. I spent a little bit of time at the museum and when I wandered off, I had a look at the train weigh bridge that was located nearby. I was actually surprised once I went behind the university buildings that there was a few railway lines and even a signal box. That was different and anyone could walk around these. Across from the river was something I was wondering about and turned into a Hogs breath. The building itself was part of the gasworks, I don’t know anything about it, but you could still read the sign at the top of the building was Cook with gas.

 

I returned to my room for a brief rest and then came back down to have a quick look around town again. I thought it would be better if I returned and sorted myself out before leaving in the morning. I did try to get dinner in the restaurant and learnt that it was closed on a Sunday and I could actually do room service, which I did. It was something that I had never done before and I am pretty new to doing all that. It just means I didn’t have to walk very far and I sorted that out at the reception.