On our first night we stayed in a historic tourist town named Stanley.
The drive to Stanley involves driving through quaint seaside towns nestled between the sea and beautiful rolling green farmland.
As you approach Stanley, it is hard not to miss 'The Nut' on the horizon. It is a huge 'boxy' looking mountain which is the core of an old volcano.
Matthew Flinders first saw the nut in 1798 and recorded that he had seen a 'cliffy round lump resembling a Christmas cake'.
Frank and the kids took the chairlift to the top of the Nut and walked back down. Poor Mama sprained her ankle (in a slightly embarrassing fashion) in Melbourne so she waited in the van doing the RICE thingy...
The view from on top of The Nut...
The Van Diemens Land Company (London) was granted this land around Stanley to raise wool sheep on a large scale in 1826. There is a lovely historic home here (Highfield House) which was built in the 1830's for the chief agent of the Van Diemens Land Company. It was restored in the 1980's.
We didn't get to see this beautiful house, but we drove by and took photos of the nearby, dilapidated Convict's barracks. These barracks were occupied from 1834 by about (20) convicts who worked at Highfield House.
Our first taste of Convict history....
Stanley's 'high street' was gorgeous....
We also visited a quirky little local 'Seaquarium' which housed local crayfish, octopus, Port Jackson sharks, Salmon....
and the biggest, hairiest Hermit crabs we have ever seen....
It sure feels strange for us Queenslanders, to be wearing jumpers and beanies on the 2nd of December....
A real novelty....
Ironically we've been wearing them up here too the last few days! Weird weather!
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