Hollow Tree

About an hour from Hobart, following the Derwent River and past the quaint village of New Norfolk, is the sheep farming area called Hollow Tree. It's hilly and rocky with rivulets and farmlets and it is the place the Best's called home from the early 1820s when John began to buy land from his employer Mr Wells. It's not unlike parts of Ireland....but it is a long, long way from their homeland.

Armed with a "mud map" provided by another descendant, Ann Gowans, we set about locating any signs of the remains of their homestead.....more hopeful than purposeful. It is thought that, as he prospered, he built a stone dwelling and that is what we are looking for......just some old convict stones to suggest that this place was a family home and farm over 150 years ago.

            Anne Gowan's "mud map" showing the location of the Best farmstead with an X

After calling in on a local farmer for a chat about the local area we arranged permission to access the area marked on the map.....X marks the spot....but it was a pretty rough map.

Our "Time Team" sussing out the "lay of the land"

We headed up the past the Large Georgian style house of the Hallets  (currently being significantly renovated) and found a flattened type area with some sheds on it which looked to be around the right location as per the map.

Between the Dew Rivulet  and the Burn house is quite a hill and we had been warned that most of the convict era stone had been "re-purposed" over the years by farmers. Now we are no Tony Robinson "Time Team" but when Wendy noticed some random fruit trees in an area near a smaller water course (Little Dew Rivulet has been referred to in documents / plans) and there was a pile of  "pushed up" stones and timbers, well that quite caught our attention.

Examples of convict worked stone in the pile...recently uncovered.

As it turns out, some workers recently laying irrigation in the fields came across this "difficult spot" with a shed on it so they moved the shed to another paddock and used a machine to clear the stones in the way of their irrigation pipes. On closer inspection it was clear that some of the material was definitely convict hewn stone and their work had unearthed a line of square stones forming a rough foundation. When we looked closely, we could make out the outline of what looked like a foundation about the size of a small building. It was pure chance and timing that we happened upon this pile of material just recently exposed.

Note the line of stones forming a Right Angle to the top R of the picture

We spent quite a bit of time carefully examining many of the interesting objects including huge supporting timbers rough hewn and spiked together and it seemed clear that this material had been built over with other structures over the years. Bricks, rubble timbers and stones were in the pile, but also clearly were examples of shaped blocks with the "sparrow pecks" only found on convict worked stone.

In the end we would have been quite content to have walked and explored the locale of our ancestors...the place they lived, worked and raised their families. But after the finds of the day we think that there is a fair chance  that what we happened upon was of convict origin, and if so a good chance based on the information on the map, that it may have been the Best homestead.

Well, who'd of though it?

Hollow Tree from the hill.