28 September 2005 (Day 23)

We awoke to a lovely day by Tasmanian standards. As the city below drove around in peak hour we got ready to go out and have a look around. Daniel’s great grandfather was born in Tasmania and he can trace the family back to the early 1800s.
Family folklore have it that somewhere along the line they are related to the author Charles Dickens, and there was some evidence to support that – two of Dicken’s sons came out to Australia.
The Archive Office of Tasmania has a website that enabled Daniel to track the family back to his great-great-great grandparents, Patrick Foley and Margaret Cusack – the parents of the supposed Dicken’s link.
Today Daniel spent the entire day in the Archive Office looking through records trying to piece together the family tree.
Margaret Cusack and Patrick Foley had a child, but there was no record found of them marrying. A hint of the Dicken’s link was found when Anne Higgins (nee Foley) had her maiden name recorded on a birth certificate of one of her twelve children as ‘Dickens’.
A search on the databases found a marriage record for a Margaret Foley to Stephen Dickens. A check of the record showed that Margaret Foley was a widow. It is thought that Anne may have been asked her father’s name and said ‘Dickens’ instead of her maiden name, or something like that.
It’s yet to be sorted out, but there were six Patrick Foley’s who were transported to Tasmania as convicts and one Margaret Cusack. Whether they fit with the time lines has to be determined.
Whilst Daniel looked to chop down the family tree, Helen took herself off for a walk around town. She found Elizabeth St Mall – seen one shopping mall, seen ‘em all – then, rubber-necking all the way to look at the heritage buildings, headed for Salamanca Place and Battery Point. Salamanca Place is sort of like The Rocks in Sydney, set up as a heritage, gift shop and souvenir centre for old Hobart Town. Helen booked us tickets for Port Arthur before setting off on a walk around Battery Point, on the hill behind Salamanca Place.
Battery Point was one of the high points used to semaphore between ships and Hobart. It is also a village-style little suburb full of old houses and guest houses. It has a busy bakery where Helen bought a loaf of fig and pear rye bread and drooled over the great-looking cakes.
After wandering around for a few hours Helen made her way back to the Archives Office to see if Daniel was ready to emerge for lunch. He said he just had a few things left to look up and wanted to finish up before leaving, so Helen started to help.
At nearly 5pm we left the archives and walked down Murray Street a little until we saw an Indian takeaway. Daniel hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we grabbed a couple of samosas and then headed back to the hotel.
After a while we headed back out to have a drive around Hobart. One thing we had to do was go to 21 Service Street, Glebe. On various documents that Daniel has seen – including one of his great uncle’s war papers – 21 Service Street, Glebe is listed as the address of Matthew Higgins (great great grandfather).
It was harder to get there than it seemed. It was across a highway, but that highway had no right turns for ages. We ended up on top of a hill that is associated with the Botanical Gardens. There was a few lookouts that we stopped at and Daniel took a few photos.
Then it was onto Glebe. Helen navigated to the street and as we turned in Daniel saw that the house on the corner was number 23 and immediately pulled over. After a few photos we left and drove to the end of the street and were surprised at how steep it was. The road literally drops away. We took a couple of photos but it doesn’t truly show the steepness.
We drove onto Salamanca Place, where Helen had walked earlier. For dinner we went to the Ball & Chain Grill – one of the first convict built buildings in Tasmania. When we entered they told us there would be a 15 minute wait. Whilst we waited we looked at their extensive wine selection, both in the glass cabinets and on the menu. Many of the Langtons wine list were there and selling for up to $600!
We didn’t have any of that wine, instead going for a bottle of the Tasmanian made Devil’s Corner Cabernet Merlot to go with Daniel’s Porterhouse steak with a garlic and horseradish sauce whilst Helen had the duck with plum ginger sauce.
We then drove over the Tasman Bridge and down to Lindisfarne so Daniel could get some photos of the bridge in the same style as the photo of the Sydney Harbour Bridge from Blues Point.
Returning to the hotel we had intended to watch one of the in-house movies, but we were too tired and just went to bed.