Antill Ponds and the Half Way House(PDF, 642KB)

Antill Ponds and the Half Way House by R. H. Green Curator Emeritus Occasional Paper No.7 Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery Launceston 1997 lntroduction Introduction horseback on one of the early exploratory journeys from south to north in 1811 and is almost exactly The following notes have been compiled to halfway between Launceston and Hobart. The accompany plans of the HalfWay House in an effort Sunday Examiner Express of 31 January 1981 p. 10, to briefly bring together some of its published history, in A story about a Tasmanian Place gives an inter together with a few anecdotal accounts from esting background to the life of Henry Colden Antill. memories of the author and others. The plans were As an ensign in the 73rd Regiment, Antill had carried compiled in 1994, as a result of careful measurements the colours during the British war against the Sultan made amongst the then remaining walls and rubble, of Tippoo in India. He was wounded, received a and discussions with David Carnes who, with medal for courage and was promoted to Captain in his parents and family, lived there between 1935 1809. At the end of that year he went to Sydney with and 1948 and to whom I am most grateful for his his regiment, arriving just after Christmas in 1809. knowledge and assistance. No attempt has been He was immediately appointed Macquarie's aid and made to relate railway or highway history beyond a accompanied the Governor on his first visit to few brief references to illustrate the important Tasmania. The Governor honoured him by naming influence which these had upon the Half Way House. Antill Ponds after the colour bearer from India. With the advent of the railway, Antill Ponds station Early history of the railway and the Midlands became a convenient centre for train crews, consisting Highway is given by several authors including of a driver, stoker and guard, who changed over, so Cooley (c. 1970), Cooper and Goss (1996, to return to their place of departure. The station was photograph), Sharland (1952, photograph p. 26), equipped with public toilets and a ladies' rest room, Stancombe (1968 illustration p. 960), Weeding shunting yards and holding tracks for rolling-stock, (1980) and Fenton (1891, p. 114 relates a raid on the a coal bunker and underground water tank from Half Way House by bush rangers). From these which the tenders of the steam-powered locomotives sources I have extracted relevant historical notes. I were restocked, and a large underground turntable, likewise acknowledge the help received from Mrs by which means an engine and its tender could be Jean Gibbs, a direct descendant of John Presnell, the manually turned around. Stockyards for the loading first owner and proprietor of the Half Way House, and unloading of animals were regularly used; for whose research into her family history has proved sheep, double decker wagons with a capacity of most interesting and helpful. The State Library of about seventy grown sheep and for cattle about Tasmania has also been most cooperative, providing seven grown beasts. Horses, too, were often references to information published in the Hobart transported in these. Ample goods-sheds and loading Town Gazette, the Hobart Town Courier and the bays, for the receipt and dispatch of rail-transported Mercury newspaper. produce and sundry goods, were also regularly used by local farmers and others. Antill Ponds and its Railway Station A track maintenance crew, consisting of a ganger The gradual demise of the Tasmanian railways from and three fettlers, were responsible for the care and about the middle of the twentieth century brought general condition of the track and for weed control about the closure and demolition of many small and fire safety over the summer months. These country stations, prominent amongst which was that families lived locally in Tasmanian Government at Antill Ponds. The railway had, for many years, Railway cottages, which, like the Station Master's served the surrounding pastoral and farming district house, were invariably sited on railway property and was the principal means of transport in the days within a few metres of the track. Their section of before the advent of the automobile. Before the responsibility extended from Woodbury Siding, Midlands Highway was upgraded and sealed about about five kilometres to the north, and southwards, 1930, it was, by today's standards, little more than to the York Plains station, a total length of about a gravelled byway, having been designed for twenty kilometres. In addition to weekly work day horse-drawn vehicles for which a gentle gradient patrols, the section was routinely patrolled and was more important than the avoidance of sharp inspected every Sunday morning. comers. Most railway personnel had large families and the Antill Ponds was named by Governor Macquarie in nearest school was at Woodbury, about six kilometres honour of Major Henry Antill of the 73rd Regiment, to the north, most of the children having to walk the Governor's Aid-de-Camp, after they travelled by there and back whatever the weather. 2 Antill Ponds and the HalfWay House In cold weather the station office was always heated The Half Way House with a large, well-stocked open coal fire and attended during the day by a station master and at night by his A prominent feature and the social centre of Antill relieving porter. They were responsible for the Ponds was its Half Way House, a three storey hotel receiving and clearing of up to five passenger trains which serviced both travellers and locals with and as many goods trains which passed through the accommodation, meals and liquor. Adjacent stables station during the day and night and which often were also a changing station where hard-driven crossed there, as well as for the associated organisation coach horses were changed for fresh animals. of signals, staves, rail points and the necessary ticketing and invoicing of passengers and goods. Only the highway separated the railway station and platform from the front door of the hotel, a distance of about twenty metres. The attraction and proximity Signals, on tall steel poles several hundred metres to of warmth and hospitality for train crews, railway the north and south, were lit manually with oil lamps staff, the travelling public and the local community which had to be serviced daily. The signal arms, resulted in numerous accounts of humorous behaviour, displaying red or green lights, were regulated by especially so in the earlier years when the hotel was means of heavy iron levers installed on the platform licensed to sell alcoholic refreshments. The licence and connected to the signals by wires strung about lapsed at the end of 1932 and was never subsequently thirty centimetres above ground on wooden pegs granted. beside the line. Additionally, the station staff manually operated the Antill Ponds telephone exchange with Early accounts of the Half Way House are scanty, about a dozen lines, an agency for the Savings Bank receiving only brief mentions in various publica of Tasmania, and the local post office. Being so tions. Two of the best coverages are to be found in cited, staffed and equipped Antill Ponds was, for Early Buildings ofSouthern Tasmania by E. Graeme many years, probably the most important and busiest Robertson, 1970, which gives some useful station on the main north-south line. references and quotes; and A History of the Lower Midlands by J. S. Weeding 1988 who mentions that Information extracted from Orchard (1991) records the earliest Midlands Highway was routed by way of York Plains, through Sorell Springs, several kilometres the post office at Antill Ponds was first opened on 25 to the east of St Peters Pass, thus avoiding the steep June 1832. This was about two years after the north and more difficult terrain through the St Peters Pass. south road was built through St Peters pass and the A half kilometre section of this original road can still White Hart Inn (the first HalfWay House) was built. be clearly seen, cut into the hillside to the east of the It was subsequently closed on 31 January 1897, present highway, a few hundred metres south of re-opened again on 26 April 1897, closed on 8 Antill Ponds and which originally extended outwards August 1897, reopened as Woodbury on 9 August across the plain to Sorell Springs. Northwards it 1897 and eventually closed on 31 August 1968. followed the valleys to the east of the present highway to exit onto the Salt Pan Plains a few hundred metres David Carnes recalls collecting mail from a post west of the present 'Lowes Park' homestead. A striking office at Woodbury in the 1930s from a private panoramic view northwards from this point is house, operated by Mrs Isles, situated on the eastern illustrated by Joseph Lycett in his Views in Australia side of the highway, on the northern edge of the (1824 plate 19). Blackman River. At this period the 'half way' house was at Sorell Campbell et al. (1962), in Postal History and Postal Springs, having been built by John Presnell, a Markings records a post office at Antill Ponds in blacksmith by trade, who arrived from England on the Midas on 13 January 1821. He was granted 300 1897 (No. 153) and it appears this office, together acres of land at Sorell Springs on which he built with that at Woodbury, operated continuously, at least the White Hart Inn. A licence to sell spirits, wine from that date, until the railway station was closed in and beer was granted in 1822 but following the 1968.

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