A new local history of Oatlands and the surrounding area — compiled by the Oatlands District Historical Society. Oatlands sits in Tasmania's Southern Midlands on the Midland Highway corridor, about 85km north of Hobart and 40 minutes south of Campbell Town. Its main street of intact colonial sandstone buildings is one of the most complete examples of colonial-era architecture in Australia.
A close study of the 186 carved decorations on the Ross Bridge — the convict-built sandstone bridge that has spanned the Macquarie River at Ross since 1836, and one of the most visited historic sites in Tasmania. The carvings were the work of Daniel Herbert, a transported convict who was a stonemason by trade.
Presents the earliest surviving written accounts of the exploration and founding of Port Dalrymple and the Tamar, at the mouth of which the site of modern Launceston developed. On the evening of 3 November 1798, Matthew Flinders and George Bass entered Port Dalrymple aboard the colonial sloop Norfolk, becoming the first Europeans to survey the harbour.

