Andrew Bain lives and breathes history on a convict-built property and Australia's only World Heritage-listed B&B.It's Anne of Green Gables meets convict life. In the shadow of a double-storey barn, sheep, goats, ducks and turkeys wander about, surrounded by some of the oldest convict-built structures in Tasmania.
Children hand-feed the cute animals, while a roll call of convict names relates Dickensian-type crimes punished by the severest of penalties: life sentences for pickpocketing; 14 years for stealing a few handkerchiefs.
It's not Port Arthur, and it's not Sarah Island. It's Brickendon Estate, one of Tasmania's oldest farms and one of 11 places gathered together under the United Nations' World Heritage listing of Australian convict sites in 2010.
What sets Brickendon Estate apart from its World Heritage cell mates, such as Port Arthur, Hyde Barracks and the Fremantle Prison, is the fact that it remains a working property, a seventh-generation family farm, and, now, with sister property Woolmers Estate, the only bed-and-breakfast in the country that can boast World Heritage credentials.
The road into Brickendon from the town of Longford is squeezed between hedgerows, creating a suitably manorial entrance. The Archer family has occupied the main homestead, which is built of bricks made on the property, since 1828, and directly across the driveway is the Coachman's Cottage, now one of five guest cottages on the estate. It will be my home for the next two nights.
Gallipoli Tours
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