Sunday, 20th March …..

Oatlands is a very pretty little town with many convict-built sandstone buildings – substantial homes, government buildings and smaller Georgian cottages. Like other places in Tasmania, most of these buildings have survived as the economy hasn’t allowed for demolition and re-building when fashions changed.
A lot of these buildings are now used for cafes and B&Bs, but most are still personal residences. It is quite a delight to walk around looking at the way they are being restored. There’s also a bit of topiary around the village and that’s becoming quite a feature of many Tasmanian towns.
The Callington Mill is the eye-catching first thing in the town you can see from the highway. It was built in the 1830s but was only operational for 55 years before falling into disrepair. After a century or more of neglect it was brought back to life in October last year and is now fully functioning, working 362 days a year and producing tonnes of flour and various by-products. It is a genuine wind-mill, not like some replicas in other parts of the world which cheat and use electricity.
We took the tour his afternoon, climbing the 56 steps to the top floor and watching the whole process as we moved down from floor to floor. Ben, one of the millers, ran up and down like a scalded cat making sure that everything was working to perfection and we were able to see the flour coming out at the bottom. It’s a light, sifted wholemeal with no additives.
All the power in the mill comes from the wind and the rigmarole to hoist the grain to the top or lower it down is extraordinary. Ben had to run outside to adjust the louvres on the sails, back inside and up two floors to attach a chain to the bag of grain, while pulling on a rope which operates the brake on the drive-wheel, then release the brake and kick open a trapdoor to let the grain down, then kick the trapdoor closed again (OH&S!) and start the whole process again. He is NOTALLOWED to carry the bag from one level to another (OH&S).
The mill uses wheat and spelt (an ancient cousin of wheat) both grown in Tasmania. You can buy the flour and bread at the mill’s information centre. We tried their fruit bread and bought some flour for Marilyn to make a Tomato and Olive damper in our Dreampot.
It was a great experience and terrific to see a truly Tasmanian enterprise being so successful.
Yesterday, we had a quiet day. We found a couple of geocaches which stretched our legs, but also read a bit and replenished our energy. This morning, Marilyn decided she would wash. I made sure the water tank was full and started the generator to provide power. Everything went fine except that the drain hose backed up a bit and we had a minor flood in the bottom of the kitchen cupboards. No big drama and it gave us a chance to go through what we had stored there and decide what we didn’t really need to carry.
It’s been a good stay here at Oatlands but we’ll probably move on tomorrow and continue heading south.