f9c304c5-89e8-404c-b0db-6da838f2e5da

Posted on April 10, 2019April 11, 2019 by Hilary Burden

Published by Hilary Burden

Writer & broadcaster View all posts by Hilary Burden

Post navigation

Previous Post f9c304c5-89e8-404c-b0db-6da838f2e5da

Social

View IslandLifeTasmania’s profile on Facebook
View @HilaryBurden’s profile on Twitter
View HilaryBurden’s profile on Instagram

Instagram

Pretties🌸today at Cape Tourville in Freycinet. 👋🏻Sally @sallyjohannsohn Do you know what this is?

Locals pointed us to @freycinetnp today, shore diving for abalone. But Sleepy Bay was far from sleepy and Bluestone Bay gave no solace, except for its wild beauty and aptly named stones. With Franklin chef Analiese Gregory, scratching the diving itch on her day off

Despite Tasmania’s reputation it can be surprisingly difficult to find good food and service outside the usual places. Food in the vineyard by Zac and Ashton at Milton🍷is fresh, simple & delicious

Sometimes it’s hard to find words to write important stories, especially when it comes to describing landscape. Words never seem enough to convey the poetry of a beautiful tree or Glover Country at sunrise. So to share a special moment I’ll just tell it. Landscape painter John Glover moved to Patterdale from Britain in 1831 and painted his new landscape in a fervour: 35 paintings in the blink of an eye in artistic terms, many of which now hang in important galleries in Britain and Australia. Earlier this year some of you will recall I stayed here on a writer’s residency, walking in Glover’s footsteps, seeing where he painted some of those paintings, staying in his former home that has been exquisitely restored by the Westmore family, and finishing my book (unpublished still). When Glover traversed the valley, Aboriginal people from the Ben Lomond nation were no longer living here - brutally killed or exiled from their living and hunting grounds by British settlers. Seeing new country for the first time, enthralled by nature, John Glover studied every new detail of his new home - the twist of white gums, the pointed leaves, the radiant golden light that seeped through branches, the fire managed land. But something was missing - the presence of people who had seen the land before him. So he painted Aborigines back in. I returned to Patterdale this week with Northeast Tasmanian Aboriginal elder Aunty Patsy Cameron, to walk on Country with her and Patterdale’s co-owner Carol Westmore. While staying here last summer I met people drawn to the property. Several cars drove up to see the valley that is as it would have been in Glover’s time: an old Australia. Or, to be in the painter’s landscape. One man wanted to make a gift to Patterdale that was important to his family, and to give creative breath to his late mother, a frustrated artist. This gift is being built - a seat to walk to and appreciate the view. Vaughan, while making the stone and timber bench, built a bark humpy for cover in rough weather, ‘just like the old people’, said Patsy. We made our way there and an Aboriginal presence was welcomed on @glovercountry - not painted in. This time it was for real

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Published by Hilary Burden

Leave a Reply Cancel reply