Tassie Tex

Could you ask him one for me to please.

Oxford dictionary; Elderly: adjective; any person old or aging.

You mean this one, Barrat's House, South Carolina USA.

I have a photo here that maybe of some use when blending brick to stone. Old stores building Salamanca Docks Hobart c1830. I think Chubber had a post on this subject. Tex.

All lucky enough to reach over 50, some cases 40, Just ask a teenager and you'll soon find out. He probably say your a stupid old @#$% and a so so as well. Tex. edit grammar.

Just joking Allan but did you use some leftover bricks from the last pub build to smash those windows?

May I also add. So far I have been associated with 'Diplomatic Services' and 'Tourism Tasmania'. Could someone pleeeease contact www.tasgov.au so I can start to get some form of supplementary payments to my disability pension. Greatly appreciated, Tex.(spoken by Tex Allen on behalf of the Tassie Tex benevolent fund).

Thankyou for the post Polly (Southern 42) of your Tasmanian connection, my guess there is that its a Dicksonia Antarctica ( no I'm not swearing ), commonly known as the Man Tree Fern. It grows all along the east coast of the main land as well, mostly in the area called The Great Divided Range, that's were all our maintain ranges of any significance lay and at one stage in life, Tasmania also was joined. You can fid a little reading in www.Wikipedia.com or www.dicksoniaantarcticta.co.uk/ Here they say it can reach a height of 15+m, I had a photo of a friend of mine standing next one almost double that in the Huon Valley, although it was several hundreds of years old . you say you use bubble wrap, may I suggest same packed straw around it tied off with some string, then you can use this for compost after. You can also give a bit of feed of tea leaves once in while at the base of the fronds, insects to from bug zappers or your ( maybe the neighbours ) window sills also. the inner core of the trunk is hollow, so any thing fed from above makes its way down and becomes compost inside its base. Sorry I'm full of useless information, so I've been told. To all those who posted your Mug shots, thankyou all as I'm placing them in a file, so I can then relate to whom I 'am corresponding with. Going gray, yes far to quickly since I inherited seven step children six years ago, 24-14 Two boys five girls, still have four at home, three of the teenage girls and one who knows more than any body teenage boy. Going bald no, I was lucky to inherit my fathers hair, his was the thickest curly, wavy hair ever found on a Scotsman's head. Had a moustache since the day I was born and it still lives there, did spout a beard a few times but was always told it looks bloody awful, so of it went. I did find a piccie of one with fav step daughter (not supposed to have favourites) Josie a couple of years back. Hope you have a great day and will peruse back again later, up ya kilt (something my late father always said). Cheers, Tex.

Richard, either you forgot to post an image or you do look very pale?

Love both posts there, at least now I can say, "yes, I know your number from some where". Thankyou you Dom and The Stationmaster for revealing yourselves, both very handsome gentlemen don't you agree? Perhaps next to show us your scratch builds, we could have, Show us your Faces. Then again? I must agree with Ian (OD) also about getting checked some time around the 50-50+ mark for us men. Prostrate cancer is one of the biggest causes of early deaths in men in Australia. I've been getting mine checked every two years since I turned 48. May I also say to any of you who smoke, give it up if you can, I thought COAD (chronic obstructive airways disorder,mainly emphysema) would never happen to me. I now only have the use of one lung and even that's working overtime, so from all of us who have, do or had suffered from any illness give you a bit of 'advice', we do so for your wellbeing also. Cheers till tomorrow, Tex.

Morning all and thankyou AndyID for the moss and lichen shot. It gave me the thought that today I would post some of our beautiful forests here in Tasmania. So for all those going through some emotional tough times at the moment, please sit back and immerse yourself in tranquillity. Cheers and good health, Tex.

Sounds nice Tristonic, here's a couple of the Australian built Ford Falcon GTHO phase III, fastest four door production sedan in the world and I think it still is.

Good morning to you all and my thoughts to all enduring life's many obstacle's. Weather a bit overcast today, a bit muggy. Mining also took place at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsular, Coal was found not far from the penal settlement although not the highest of quality, it proved fine for cooking. Why I do not know as there's more wood than you can poke a stick at (pun intended), an interesting thing is there were also underground cells here. Salt was also mined further north at Saltwater near Pontypool on the east coast. Tasman Peninsular is connected to main land Tasmania by a small isthmus, around 300 metres wide at high tide and about 900m? long. This was the only access to the Peninsular other than sea which where shark infested waters and is known as Eaglehawk Neck. Surprisingly not many, if any at all knew how to swim, so this piece of land was there only escape. So, here was placed rationed soldiers, half starved dog's and man trap's.(bear trap) Now we could not have our gently folk crossing the perils of this piece of earth, so a tramway was constructed from the neck to (Taranna to the south of the neck) to Long Bay near Port Arthur. This became our first rail passenger service built on wooden rails in 1852. Across from the port was the Isle of the Dead, 1,646 convicts are and 180 prison staff, the latter with head stones. Just a brief jump in history some my have heard of the Port Arthur massacre. On the 28 of April 1996 Martin Bryant armed with automatic assault rifles murdered in cold blood 35 men, women and children. He is now serving 35 life sentences + 1,035 years life without parole. Our gun laws changed for the better after this. Now some pic's, Tex.

I'm no expert Allan but to my eye they look more of a modern brick, the different colours distract the balance between the dark windows and the weathered slat tiles. Perhaps a terracotta roof tile and white window frames. As I say I'm no expert and dare not tell a master how to do his job, but you did ask what do we think. Love your work, regards, Tex.

Morning all once again, weather much the here today. I love this time of year as the leaves change into their Autumn dress. Jock I have to agree with you what is taught in our history, American Independence seemed more important than our own and what we did learn of our nation was edited beyond belief? For example, it was estimated that there were between 5,000- 10,000 Aborigine's living on the island when white settlement commenced, during a thirty year time span it was is estimated that only 300 remained. Most were slaughtered and others rounded up and placed on nearby Flinders Island in Bass Straight, it is believed they virtually staved to death. The story go's that the last full blood Tasmanian Aborigine,'Truganinni', a mature women was the last,c1812-1876. As to carry on with convicts. as I said many were women and children, women were placed as domestic servants to the well to do, but if a bit rough around the edges, pregnant when they arrived or were weening small one's they were to be placed in Female Factories. We had three main one's, Hobart, Ross and Launceston, here the women would engage themselves in Spinning wool and flax, sewing and knitting of garments even hard labour such as 'Rock splitting.' Older children 5-6 upwards were sent as required, girls as servants, boys to the work of men, mostly in the mines. Some say that 1 in 5 or 1 in 7 Australians are related to these women some how? The Female Factory Hobart ( conjures all sought's of ideas in ones head doesn't it.)

Hasn't capital punishment been abolished in the UK yet? That's right your in Wales!

I've just noticed Ian (OD) must be reading catch-up, Good to see your return Ian and hope all is going well. Tex

Yes, the good old days

I only just found this in my poetry papers, so I'll post it now. I sentence you to transportation, but to what I do not know. Perhaps to storm and shipwrecks. Perhaps to infectious disorders. Perhaps to famine. Perhaps to be devoured by wild beasts. Away-take your chance, perish or prosper, suffer or enjoy, I rid myself the sight of you. (unknown English Judge. 1804

I have searched and searched for what do you call a baby squid, most of the best dictionary's just have unknown, Has Squidgette been used?

Morning to all those on ER. Great to see a post from Ian (OD) and I wish you a speedy recovery. Very windy down here today and the sea is very choppy, although I can see a couple of fisherman out there. (mad if you ask me). As I was saying yesterday Van Diemans Land started as a penal colony for old mother England and first settled in 1803, first at Risdon Cove then moved south to Sullivans Cove, now Hobart our capital. Transport of convicts took place between 1803-1853, during this time some 67,000 convicts, both men, women and children were sent to our shores. These were a mixed bunch charged with various crimes consisting of Lawyers, Bankers, Architects, Stone masons, Carpenters, Shipwrights, Blacksmiths, Farmers and petty thieves. The most famous of the settlements is the convict built penitentiary at Port Arthur, this would be our biggest tourist attraction, in the photo's it's under restoration, but it has seen two huge bush fires since it closed in the 1870s. Many of these men and women were put to work no sooner than disembarking, many in poor health after a six month voyage chained and shackled in an over crowded prison hulk. (mostly very old coal and ore transports.) Of course with any new settlement infrastructure was paramount so roads had to built between the different settlements and with roads 'bridges'. I hope these come out in order, so the first bridge is at Richmond, this is the oldest stone bridge in the state, built 1823 across the Coal River. It was on the road that joined Hobart town to Port Arthur, still in use today and has only recently been graded down to carry 10tonne.( preservation purposes.) The second bridge is the most beautiful thing ever to cross a river, this one is at Ross on the old main road between Hobart and Launceston to the north, our 2nd city. The bridge crosses the Macquarie River, built in 1836,two convict masons built this, James Colbeck and Danial Herbert the latter also doing the stone engravings, both released on full pardons on completion, again still in use. The third is Spiky Bridge on the east coast road just south of Swansea, the spikes just sharpish stones on end were to prevent livestock from going over the small parapet wall. Hope you enjoy the pic's, Tex. ps. The harbour in front of the old penitentiary is deep enough for the Queen Mary and she could turn around also unassisted, you would'nt think so, same as Hobart. I failed to mention that Hobart is on the Derwent River one of the deepest river ports in the world.

Lichen! I wish I could find a way to export it, grows everywhere here and can reach a rather large size but still keep it's fragile'ness. (if that's a word)? delicacy?

Morning to you all from the Diplomatic Services. 'Sir Les Patterson';(indeed!) a true diplomatic ambassador to our great nation Australia. Thankyou to all those who replied to my last post, I tell people that when God had finished creating the earth, this is where he emptied and cleaned his barrow and tools. We named it 'Tasmania'. We owe a lot to our earlier explorers such as Abel Tasman (Dutch) who mapped most of our West coast of Tasmania in 1642. He named it Van Die mans Land in honour of the then Colonial Governor of Batavia. (Dutch east Indies) Tasman was followed by what we call the French connection, Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux ( pronounced Dee cast row) and Freycinet (Fray sin aye), coastal areas bear their name. In 1777 both Capt James Cook and the French were in a bay near Bruni (now Bruny Island) And a bit of a stand off occurred, so the British Flag was duly raised and proclaimed part of the British Empire. It was not until 1803 that Van Diemans land was colonised, the name was changed by authority of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1856 to Tasmania, in honour of the first European who discovered the island. It may be said too that if it had not been for the excellent mapping of both the Dutch and French, Capt Cook may never had discovered Australia. Had the French taken it, the island would be the most southern of all French colonies, now that would be an interesting concept? I think the Dutch found it to (hilly). Land mass area 64,500sq km, population 500,000+. My thoughts of Ian(Oldudders) is that of others so until later, Tex.

Mornin to ya, I had to note the amount of likes I received yesterday about Tasmania. If! some of you would like to hear more about my backyard? or would like to ask a question, please press the thanks button. It's only been a couple of weeks since I've joined ER and I must say, even though it's not face to face I'm seeing a lot of very interesting personalities in each and every one of you. I'll tell what I do find amusing, a lot don't use a profile picture of one's self. So, when going through layouts, exhibitions, etc you see a photo of one of the members and they look nothing like how you perceive them to look. (not in a scary sense) It all adds an air of mystery to the forum but how doe's one get on when you are approached by a fellow member, you don't know his real name or what he looks like and comes along and says, G'day Tex, I'm Graham. I think my first thought would be, "Who The Bloody Hell are You", or how about (if I may use your tag without infringement) 1216 025 I'd still be puzzled?. Has anybody had this happen to them. "I think this would be an embarrassing situation" It was just a thought, catch up a little later, regards and health to all, Tex.

Are they Porta-loo's?