Tumbledown
This is a little old place just out of Lebrina, on the way to Scottsdale via the Lilydale road. It’s a little bit pitcuresque, a whole lot shabby and has just a touch of potential ghosts as you drive past at dusk. Just around the corner, behind this building, there’s a new colourbond fence and a fairly modern house, which kinda spoils the old-world-Tasmanian-pioneer atmosphere. Roadsides in Tassie often feature gorgeous old ruins like this – it’s part of our relatively new history, and yet another thing that I love about our state.
April 9th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Old run-down houses kinda freak me out. Was driving to St Helens the other day and from the road (just past the Scotch Oakburn camp turn -off thingy and before Fingal I think) you can just make out this old sandstone ruin of a house which was called Garth. It is supposedly one of the most haunted houses in Tasmania. Anyways the story goes that the land that ‘Garth’ was built on was given to an unknown englishman in 1830 and he left his fiancee in England and came to Van Diemans Land with his convicts to build the place. So he built this beautiful two-storey sandstone building that was Garth and then set back off the England to fetch his financee – BUT when he got there he found that she hadn’t waited for him and married another man. So quite devestated the guy sailed all the was back to Van Diemans Land only to slit his through in the courtyard of Garth.
So then in the mid 1830s a scotsman named Charles Peters took over the property and on the 20th September 1840 his two year old daughter Ann ran off from her convict nanny and fell down a well which was dug not to far from the house. The nanny, in desperation, tried to save the girl and also fell to her death in the bottom of the well. Anns grave is still on site at the house today.
However, the inquest into Anns death supposedly states that she died from burns by her clothing catching fire (i.e. maybe the nanny set fire to her) and the house was burned down by fires repeatedly after the death of Ann Peters!
Just a little story I picked up from my 6th grade camp – when we actually went out to the site at dusk and had a bonfire while the camp leaders told us the story. It was creepy then and driving past the place 10 years later still gives me the creeps!!!
April 12th, 2010 at 11:14 am
wow. it obviously made an impression! thanks for the story ^.^
April 25th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
wow! great story! Great photo Anna!