Tourism and Travel: Tourism & Travel Blog

Destinations - The Heritage Highway Staging Towns, September 2023

Hi all,

"Destinations are only part of the journey". This is a good reminder to slow down when we are traveling between A and B and have a look at the places in between. This is one of the concepts of "Slow Tourism" (I'll probably do a blog on this later on).

A great example of this, is Tasmania's own Heritage Highway between Hobart and Launceston, a journey that now takes a couple of hours (extra with the road works of course). Back in the 19th Century, the journey was three to five days. The travelers definitely knew what slow tourism was about, with staging towns for coaches established about one day's travel apart. Some of the towns now have been bypassed like Oatlands and others such as Campbell Town where you travel slowly through or take a break and have a coffee.

"OatlandsCoach" by Floatjon is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Have a look at the web links, each one with a different story to tell about the various towns established to service the regional areas and travelers. The Drysdale library also has some great resources on the towns and on the Heritage Highway which was a successful marketing campaign in the 90's and is still remembered.

The staging towns 

Heritage Highway 

https://holidayswithkids.com.au/heritage-highway-road-trip/  

Ross 

https://www.fortysouth.com.au/travel--tourism/towns-of-tasmania-ross 

https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/launceston/ross.html  

Campbell Town 

https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/launceston/campbell-town.html 

Oatlands 

https://www.fortysouth.com.au/travel--tourism/towns-of-tasmania-oatlands 

https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/travel/2023/08/a-complete-guide-to-oatlands-tas/ 

Tunbridge 

https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/launceston/tunbridge.html  

Kempton 

https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/hobart/kempton.html 

Richmond 

https://www.ourtasmania.com.au/hobart/richmond.html 

Library Books 

• Vanishing towns : Tasmania's ghost towns and settlements / Michael Holmes. 
• The Heritage Highway, Tasmania / [Heritage Highway Tourism Association]. 
• Heritage Highway Tourism Region Tasmania : a touring guide 1998/99 / produced for the Northern Midlands Council and Southern Midlands Council by the Heritage Highway Tourism Association. 
• Tasmania's Heritage Highway Tourism Region : 27 places to get held up / Heritage Highway Tourism Association. 
• The arch villains : field notes Ross 1834 / concept, text (and all fabrications), Hamish Maxwell-Stewart ; research, Caroline Evans ; illustrations, Simon Barnard and Tom Samek. 

Video Tape

• Ross one of the finest 19th century stone villages remaining in Australia, and an example of the way communities can be designed, preserved and developed produced by Peter Richman Productions. [videocassette] (You gotta be my age kids to remember this technology, we actually do have a player in the library.)

Articles 

Bob Mckercher, Anne Hardy & Jagannath Aryal (2019) Using tracking technology to improve marketing: insights from a historic town in Tasmania, Australia, Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36:7, 823-834, DOI: 10.1080/10548408.2019.1580243