Ross sits on the banks of the Macquarie River, and is one of Australia’s most appealing convict-built stone villages. Cobble-style paths and old, tall elm trees line the main road and give this picture-perfect town an air of tranquillity.
The Ross Bridge, designed by John Lee Archer, is Australia’s third oldest, and possibly the most beautiful of its kind left in the world. The detail of its 186 carvings by convict stonemasons was deemed of such high quality that it won the men a free pardon.
Like other parts of Tasmania’s Midlands, the Ross area is famous for its superfine merino wool. The Tasmanian Wool Centre features a Heritage Museum and Wool Exhibition.
Another attraction not to miss is the Ross Bakery, with its original semi-scotch brick ‘3 bag’ wood-fired oven. (In a scotch oven the fire is lit inside the oven; in a semi-scotch oven it’s lit in a chamber to one side of the oven.) The bakery, which has the capacity to bake more than 300 loaves of bread (‘3-bag’ refers to three hundredweight bags of flour), has been operating on the site for more than a century.
The main crossroads of the village is said to represent Temptation (Man O’Ross Hotel), Recreation (Town Hall), Salvation (Catholic Church) and Damnation (the gaol, which is now a private residence).
Ross was settled in 1812 and many of its original sandstone buildings have been restored. The population is around 300 people. The Ross Female Convict Station Historic Site is a significant archaeological site.
Ross enjoys a daily average maximum temperature of 23.5 degrees Celsius (74.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in January and 11.5 degrees Celsius (52.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in June. It is 80 kilometres (49.5 miles) south of Launceston and 122 kilometres (76 miles) north of Hobart.
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