Tasmanian Gothic: Hobart Old Time String Band

22 September 2013

Saturday in Hobart

One of my favourite pastimes is playing tourist. And one of the things I love about Hobart is that I don't even have to leave home to do it! Take today, for instance.

First I had to go to work, teaching my regular Saturday drawing lesson. As it was a nice day we spent a couple of hours outside in Princes Park.

drawing in Princes Park

Back at the Salamanca Arts Centre I found 40 Artists from the Island, an exhibition of paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, textiles, assemblages and more, opening at the Long Gallery. This is one part of Rediscover Bruny, a three-part showcase of Bruny Island arts. It seems practically every artist I meet these days lives on Bruny, or at least has a holiday house there, and this event has almost a hundred participants – not bad, when you consider there are only seven hundred people living on the island.

Of course, they are not all visual artists. In the Sidespace Gallery beside the Long Gallery there is a charming exhibition of Childhood Treasures, precious items people have kept for most of their lives: teddy bear, puppet, building blocks, favourite books, each with an explanation by its owner telling us just what makes this particular toy so special.

40 Artists from the Island opens in the Long Gallery

The third part of the Bruny Island spectacular is As Time Goes By, written by Barry Weston and directed by Megan Weston, a theatre piece "written, directed and performed by Bruny Islanders for Bruny Islanders and about Bruny Islanders”, which played in the Peacock Theatre on 20^th and 21^st September.

I was really impressed by the overall quality of the artwork in the main exhibition – some truly lovely work, and I took my time enjoying it, along with a glass of white wine and some super Bruny Island cheese.

Tall ships, a carousel, live music, terrific food . . .

Returning to the sunshine outdoors I wandered through Salamanca Market to the Tall Ships Festival. Lunched on a delicious goatmeat-and-elderberry-wine pie at Princes Pier, tried some apple, pear and cherry cider (more, please!) and strolled round listening to musicians, admiring ships and generally enjoying the atmosphere. Here are some of the things I saw.

This wonderful steam carousel, complete with calliope to provide music, always brings a lump to my throat, and true to form I had a little Stendhal Moment in front of it today.

Europa's figurehead caused some comment.
This old Greek tale of woe should serve as warning to all
young ladies not to believe that bull . . .

Is this the youngest jazz band in town? They played very well.

Of course, Preana isn't a tall ship, but she's so pretty another photo
of her doesn't hurt. And there's a real Tall Ship there, too.

Lots of history here at Constitution Dock - some of Australia's
oldest wooden boats and the old Customs House

The Vikings are back!

It was time to return to the car and head for home. Stopped for a while on the lawns of Parliament House to listen to the Hobart Old Time String Band along the way.

By now the market was closed and stall-holders were packing up.

The sky was beginning to cloud over. I made it home just before a brief shower of drizzly rain, tired but happy. Who wouldn't love this place?

just a little corner of our garden

10 February 2013

WOODEN BOAT FESTIVAL AND REGATTA DAY AND NAVY WEEK - AND A GOOD NAUTICAL TIME WAS HAD BY ALL

A disclaimer: although I live on an island, my ignorance of things nautical is abysmal. However, I can't pass up a good party, so as soon as my drawing lesson finished this morning I launched (pun, folks) myself into this year's Wooden Boat Festival. Not for the first time I felt smug about being gainfully employed right there in the thick of it at the Salamanca Arts Centre.

I am not sure when it first happened, or who made the decision, but the Festival is now timed to coincide with the annual Hobart Regatta, which has been held somewhere about the first weekend in February for rather a long time. Better still, there are no admission fees, so the waterfront was definitely the place to be, with crowds enthusiastically roaming the usual Saturday morning market at Salamanca Place and hurrying around the wharves from one attraction to the next.

Restoration

I am constantly amazed by the dedication and perseverence of people who take the time to discover and restore beautiful old things, whether it be furniture, machinery, vehicles or whatever. Historic boat enthusiasts are out in force at the Wooden Boat Festival.

Admiral is claimed to be Tasmania's oldest boat; this is what she looks like today, and here is a photo of her being launched in 1865 .

Preana (the name is an aboriginal word meaning "spear") is one of my favourites. She is a luxury steamer, built late in the nineteenth century for the Gibson family, who owned a large flour mill in Hobart.

The Gibsons built a house on the Esplanade at Lindisfarne, where they had their own jetty.

Preana was always flagship at the Lindisfarne regatta and Mr Les Gibson used to dress up in uniform, with plenty of gold braid on his captain's cap, and gallantly escort guests aboard. Alas, she was eventually sold, allowed to fall into disrepair and there was little more than the hull left when she was finally rescued.

I liked the contrast here with a few less elegant vessels. The Preana.org website will give you more information.

Another miraculous rescue is Terra Linna, built as a racing yacht (28ft class) in 1880 at Sandy Bay, and the ninth yacht registered with the Derwent Sailing Club (later the Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania).

There are some big gaps in her history, but in 2001 she was rescued by members of the Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania in a very sorry condition.

Now she is looking beautiful again.

Creation

Boat builders and boat building displays are an important part of the Wooden Boat Festival.

There are competitions for school children to build their own boats; this year they experimented with fabric over a lightweight skeleton.

The ancient British coracle was constructed from animal hide stretched over a wicker framework; it was practical, portable and easily repaired. Now Peter Ingram-Jones of Otago Bay uses synthetic fabrics and hand-crafted Huon pine in a modern version of this very ancient technique. His tough, useful but seemingly ethereal vessels double as lampshades, if you are short of storage space.

Here he is with one of his boats – weighing only six kilograms. Yes, he really is lifting it up with just his little finger.

You can see some fabulous photographs of his creations on his website.

Reconstruction

If you can't find an old boat to rescue, you can always build a reproduction of one.

Teepookana is a reproduction of a west coast Piner's punt built by members of the Wooden Boat Guild of Tasmania. Piner's punts were used to harvest Huon Pine; for this a short, easily-manouvered boat without a keel is required. According to the Wooden Boat Guild this specific design is unique to Tasmania, and probably appeared in Port Davey before 1890.

Of course, there are people who are not satisfied with something this small.

How about your very own Viking longboat?

This is Russich, built in Russia and working her way around the world.

It looks pretty good, but on closer inspection -

Since when have Vikings politely asked for donations, or raised some extra money painting souvenirs for tourists?

Now THIS is Notorious - an amazing reconstruction of a fifteenth century Portuguese Caravel.

(You can see some much better photos of it on their Facebook page)

Its builders, Graeme and Felicite Wylie from Western Victoria, were inspired by the legendary Mahogany Ship said to lie beneath the shifting sand-dunes of Warrnambool.