Locations in Tasmania

O'Brien travelled from New Norfolk to Red Rock, fourteen miles from Avoca, to tutor the two young sons of an Irish doctor, Henry George Brock, and remained there until 15 December 1851 (from 21 February 1851).

The Bothwell Tourism Association developed signage for relevant locations in Bothwell, including Croakers Alley. The Association developed tartan/Celtic signage on the corners of all streets and the five entrances to the town of Bothwell: Barrack Street from Patrick Street to Elizabeth Street, including the very significant Croakers Alley, depicting the journey of the seven Young Irelanders and P.J. Smyth to and from Van Diemen's Land 1848-1856. The following Young Irelanders have family tartans for Barrack Street: William Smith O'Brien, Patrick O'Donoghoe (also O’Donohoe), Thomas Francis Meagher, John Mitchel, Pat Smyth (who helped Mitchel, Meagher, MacManus escape), John Martin, Kevin Todd O'Doherty, Terence Bellew MacManus.

The Panel

In 2009 a panel depicting the sea journeys made by the Young Irelanders to and from Tasmania was unveiled. It stands next to the current police station, close to the site of the old courthouse. The Panel was placed in Croakers Alley because that was where Mitchel, assisted by P.J. Smyth, handed in his ticket of leave. From there a fenced lane, the continuation of Croakers Alley, leads over the river to the Barracks where at the time of the escape the soldiers were occupied having drill and thus were not available to assist with the arrest.

Nant Cottage

Mitchel searched the Bothwell district for a house and farm that could accommodate his family and decided on a 200-acre property called Nant, located on the Clyde River, which he stocked with sheep and cattle. Nant Cottage is located nearly three miles from Bothwell village and here the family resided in relative peace surrounded by rich pastoral land, rolling hills and a view of the steep escarpment of the surrounding mountains in the distance.

The Castle

The local pub, The Castle, was probably where Mitchel stayed briefly. This still operates and provides accommodation.

St Luke's Church and Cemetary

St Luke’s is the church where the Mitchels worshipped; now a Uniting Church, it is open for visits. The cemetery contains the headstone of Job Sims, who sheltered Mitchel.

Mrs Harris's house

Martin and Mitchel boarded at Mrs Harris's house.

Ratho House

Thomas Meagher was initially sent to Campelltown but did not like the town, ‘a vulgar, upstart village’ (Meagher of the Sword).

Black Snake Inn

Disguised in a clerical outfit given to him by Father Hogan of Westbury, Mitchel travelled under the guise of the Rev. Mr. Blake.  On nearing Hobart Mitchel spent the day at the Bridgewater Hotel (now believed to be the Black Snake Inn) before taking the evening coach to Hobart where he repaired to Connellan's house in Collins Street. Nicaragua (P.J. Smyth) who greeted him at the door did not detect recognise Mitchel until he walked into the house and threw his hat on the floor.

  (The Inn is located at Granton at the bottom of Blacksnake Road on the opposite side of the river to Bridgewater. Just around the corner is the Brooker Highway.)

Martin, with the Mitchels gone, and in need of money, took up a teaching position in the home of the Jackson family, a job he did not particularly relish but made the best of.

A steamer was to collect Mitchel from an open boat off George Town but foul weather and the vigilance of the police left him waiting at Kelso on the west bank of the Tamar until it was too late and the vessel was forced to leave without him (July 1848).

Mitchel traveled in disguise by coach to Greenponds (now Kempton) where he was prepared to use his pistol but the chief constable failed to recognise him. Mitchel continued on safely to Hobart, to greet his family (Jenny and five children who travelled out from Ireland in 1851). The reunion with his family was overwhelming as he recorded in his journal: 'Today I met my wife and family once more. These things cannot be described'.

Meagher and Catherine settled on the shores of Lake Sorell in a cottage (no longer extant) that Meagher had built with the generous contribution from his father. He farmed a small island in the middle of Lake Sorell, which he reached by boat and Mitchel recounted in his Jail Journal incidents on the Lake and the route by which Meagher's cottage was reached:

We pass the Dog's Head promontory, and enter a rough winding path cut among the trees, which brings us to a quiet bay, or deep curve of the lake, at the head of which, facing one of the most glorious scenes of fairy-land, with the clear waters rippling at its feet, and a dense forest around and behind it, stands our friend's quiet cottage.  A little wooden jetty runs out some yards into the lake; and at anchor, near the end of the jetty, lies the little Speranza, a new boat built at Hobart Town, and hauled up here, through Bothwell, a distance of seventy-five miles, by six bullocks.

Meagher's Cottage

Meagher loved the Tasmanian bush and bought a piece of land on the shore of Lake Sorell. Here he built a small house, where he lived with his wife Catherine. Mitchel and Martin used to ride up from Bothwell frequently. At other times Meagher and O’Doherty rode up from Ross and Oatlands. MacManus and O’Brien made at least one visit from their more distant residences. The site of the house is now on forestry land away from any road and is not easily accessible. It was the subject of an archaeological investigation in 2008. It is possible to drive to Lake Sorell on dirt roads and get a feel for the country that attracted Meagher.

Cooper’s Hut (Shepherd’s Cottage)

Martin took Mitchel to meet Meagher and O'Doherty at the geographical point where their allotted police districts overlapped. It was the first of many secret trysts the four Young Irelanders enjoyed at this location. The rendezvous point was a hut on the shore of Lake Sorell belonging to a local shepherd named Cooper. Martin, Meagher and O'Doherty had already met at Cooper's hut before but with Mitchel's arrival the meetings took on a more secretive tone. Mitchel’s first meeting at Lake Sorell on 15 August 1850.

Father Tom Butler and St Joseph’s Church (later demolished and rebuilt as the Church of Apostles) on Margaret Street, Launceston, were integrally involved with the Young Irelanders.*

Father Butler offered Mass in St Joseph’s Church for MacManus’s mother in 1850, and that Christmas he joined MacManus, Mitchel, Martin, Father Dunne, Smith O’Brien and O’Donohue a the Lakes.

When MacManus decided to escape, sympathisers in Launceston devised an ingenious plan. A MacManus farmer look-alike named John Galvin assumed the persona of MacManus and feigned sickness, thus providing an alibi for him, and MacManus was concealed in the house of Father Butler.

O’Donohue was Father Butler’s house guest in 1851, and Father Butler also hid John Martin (1854) and John Mitchel (1853) in the Church. Mitchel wrote in his diary:

‘Reached Launceston in broad day. I was put ashore a mile from town, and was to walk up accompanied by Dan Burke, and proceed openly to the house of Father Butler behind the Catholic chapel, where the others would meet me . . . I reached the worthy priest’s house safely . . . In the meantime the good Father Butler proposes to conceal me in the belfry of his church. Father Butler disguised Mitchel in priest’s robes, explaining, “Clergymen of all denominations are privileged to pass the toll-gates of Van Diemen’s Land”.’
Planting a faith: Launceston’s Catholic story in word and picture, W.T. Sutherland, c. 1968

Among the convicts who served time at Maria Island, on the east coast of Van Diemen's Land, was Young Irelander William Smith O'Brien. O'Brien stubbornly refused to give his parole not to escape and thereby obtain a ticket-of-leave — despite remonstrations by the authorities, as well as by his family and friends. Consequently, he was kept on board the Swift, without being allowed to set foot in Hobart Town, before being transferred on the government steamer Kangaroo to the convict probation station at Maria Island on the Island's east coast. There he was incarcerated for ten months in a small cottage, within the convict precinct, until August 1850.

 

The Bush Inn

The Bush Inn was the site of many meals and the location of Smith O’Brien’s farewell dinner. It has been much altered but the core of the building and the cellars date from the 1850s. It is open for business providing meals and accommodation. It is said that the exiles also met regularly at the Bush Hotel, which still operates as a pub.

Glen Derwent (then the Elwin's Hotel)

William Smith O’Brien was subsequently assigned to the New Norfolk district where he took up residence at Elwin's Hotel on 20 November 1850, where he lived for two years. Apparently reconciled to his new status O'Brien then set about enjoying the company of the local aristocracy who appeared to reciprocate these feelings. Mitchell visited O'Brien several times and was introduced to O'Brien's friends.

An unauthorised visit to O'Brien here in December 1850 led to Terence Bellew MacManus's arrest and his subsequent charge on 18 December with misconduct for being absent from his assigned district on 3 December. He was subsequently sent to a convict chain gang on the Tasman Peninsula (December 18, 1850).

Elwyn’s Hotel, now the Glen Derwent, has been run as a bed and breakfast and the owners have been willing to allow visitors to see O’Brien’s rooms. However the property is currently up for sale.

Bryn Estyn

O’Brien visited a number of local properties, mostly by walking. All of these are in private hands but many can be seen from the road. His descriptions of the river and the town itself are easily recognisable today. (See map from the frontispiece of Davis’ book To Solitude Consigned.) Bryn Estyn was a favourite place to visit.

MacManus House

Terence MacManus lived for a time in a chalet-like house near the present-day Boyer Paper Mill, currently a private residence called ‘The Grange’. He enjoyed fishing, shooting and hunting. Not being a man of means he had to earn a living so he was allowed to relocate to Launceston.

The Grange lies on the banks of the Derwent and can be best seen from the other (eastern) side of the river near the Boyer paper works. It is now in private hands.

Elm Cottage

Kevin O’Doherty was sent to Oatlands. A comfortable rent-free cottage was made available to him by a fellow Catholic. This house on the High Street (now a private home called Elm Cottage) still stands in the main street. O’Doherty continued his study of medicine there, made friends with the local Catholic clergyman, Father Bond, and used his time as usefully as possible.  A small plaque on the fence acknowledges O’Doherty’s residence.

Catholic Church

The local Roman Catholic Church, St Paul’s, was under construction and O’Doherty volunteered time to help build it. The church still stands and can be visited.

Court House

The local courthouse where O’Doherty reported has recently been conserved and is expected to be open to the public.

Mitchel and his companions elected to travel the nine miles west to the shore of Port Sorell inlet where a man named Miller put them up for the night. Mitchel stayed with Miller another four nights.

A month after Meagher escaped, Catherine gave birth to a baby boy whom she named Henry Emmett Fitzgerald Meagher. To Catherine's distress, on 15 June, the baby died and subsequently was buried in St. John's Church, Richmond, Tasmania, the oldest Catholic Church in Australia. The cemetery contains headstone of infant son of Thomas and Catherine O’Meagher (June 1852).

Thomas Meagher was initially sent to ‘Campelltown’ but did not like the town, which he called ‘a vulgar, upstart village’ and he quickly relocated within the same police district to Ross, which he termed ‘a little apology of a town’. Meagher stayed in a little brick cottage looked after by the Andersons. The cottage still stands, although much altered.

Meagher seemed to spend a good deal of his time in Hope’s Hotel, at the time a local inn but now a private residence. Meagher’s letters were sent from here.

Thomas Meagher and Catherine Bennett were married on 22 February 1851 — quietly in a no-fuss ceremony at the home of Dr Edward Swarbreck Hall, Catherine's boss, in Church Street, Ross. The only Young Irelander known to attend the wedding was Terence MacManus who having just been released from Port Arthur stopped at Ross on his way back to Launceston in time for the wedding. Bishop Wilson, who officiated at the wedding, ‘counselled a dense silence’ about MacManus’s presence and ‘gave him a blessing on his way to Launceston’ (Planting a faith: Launceston’s Catholic story in word and picture, W.T. Sutherland, c. 1968).

Dr Hall's residence is still there, located halfway between Church Street and Badajos Street in Ross.  It is a long, large sandstone (one-storey) bungalow with a verandah at the front.

Port Arthur

As punishment for his escape attempt from Maria Island, Governor Denison promptly removed O'Brien to the secondary penal settlement at Port Arthur where he remained for the next three months in a small cottage on the hillside.

The cottage is open to the public as part of the entry fee to the site. There is extensive interpretation within the cottage on all the Young Irelanders.

Impression Bay (Premaydena)

O’Doherty was sent to Impression Bay. Little of the old building can be seen but the log foundations of the slipway are visible at low tide. The old convict cemetery has been recently cleared and can be visited on the headland.

Saltwater River

O'Donohoe, on account of compromising his conditional ticket of leave by visiting O'Brien at New Norfolk, was escorted from Hobart Town Prisoners' Barracks to Salt Water River Probation Station, Port Arthur, where he remained for three months (8 January 1851).

Cascades

Meagher was sent to the Cascades after he was caught visiting O’Brien in New Norfolk. This property is run as an accommodation business and only residents can explore the whole site. However there is an interpretive panel and a good view of the site from an adjoining paddock.

Although none of the exiles resided in this village, Tunbridge was the junction of two of their districts and therefore a convenient meeting place. Mitchel, Martin, Meagher and O’Doherty met here under the Blackman River Bridge. Lunch was supplied by the local inn and carried down to the bridge although ‘the passage through the air for upward of five hundred yards or so, condensed the steam of the potatoes and solidified the gravy somewhat’ (Meagher of the Sword). The bridge looks very much as it did 150 years ago.

Meagher described the inn as an old wooden structure. The pub that stands on the site today is probably the result of extension and alteration. It is currently unoccupied.

On 3 January 1852 Meagher advised the local magistrate Thomas Mason by letter that he was withdrawing his parole and unless arrested would shortly depart Van Diemen's Land . . . Meagher fled to Waterhouse Island, just off the northeast coast of Van Diemen's Land, where he waited in solitude for a rendezvous with the Elizabeth Thompson, the same vessel that collected MacManus.

After leaving Bothwell Mitchel headed north to Westbury where many Irish immigrants had settled and were known to sympathise with the Young Irelanders. A settler named Burke hid him in 'closest privacy' at his farmhouse while he waited for Nicaragua (P.J. Smyth) to negotiate for a vessel to collect him from the colony.

Westfield

Mitchel is believed to have been sheltered by the Field family for ten days here.

O'Donohoe, on account of compromising his conditional ticket of leave by visiting O'Brien at New Norfolk, was escorted from Hobart Town Prisoners' Barracks to Salt Water River Probation Station, Port Arthur, where he remained for three months (8 January 1851)