6. Launceston

The ‘Garden City of Tasmania’, it said in my Lonely Planet Guidebook © 1986.

When I arrived in 1988, that book was my travel bible and survival kit, containing all sorts of useful tips about places to stay, eat and visit.  Back then, if you travelled from the airport to the centre of Launceston, it only cost $3 on the Redline bus.  You arrived via Ansett or Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) if you came by air from the mainland, or if you came by sea (to Devonport, an hour’s drive from Launceston), it was on the Abel Tasman ferry.

Of course, you could Google all of that information now, but you travelled by your wits in the 80’s.  You trusted your intuition, and each night, before you went to bed, you scanned your Lonely Planet so that you could plan an itinerary for the next morning.

There are different airlines now; but the ferry still runs across the Strait, renamed, and refurbished as The Spirit of Tasmania.  In fact, there are two vessels now, and they offer day sailings as well –  and not just the 14½ hour overnight crossing on a ship that used to boast a sauna, a pool and a disco (if you wanted to shake your stuff on the dancefloor all night).

Whenever I return, I always revisit the favourite places mentioned in Two Mexicans, to see how time has changed them.   I began a lovely walking tour around the centre of town one morning, first to Royal Park, where the Macaque monkey enclosure has been preserved – a different generation now for certain, but a lively and playful troupe.  Opposite the park, The Royal Oak Hotel offers beer from the local James Boag’s brewery, and an on-going live-music schedule as it did in the past, but this time I didn’t drop-in to sample either of them.

The fountain looks spectacular in Prince’s Square, the place where I once sat chatting to a boy and his band as the afternoon shadows lengthened.  Even the Jimmys sign remains on Charles Street, although now the supermarket is a Coles store.

Of course I took some time to visit the old Nurses Home, behind the new Hotel Charles, accessed via the steeply rising Frankland Street, on the corner of Charles Street.  The hotel (and its beautiful gardens) occupies the part of the old hospital building that housed the ICU, in the days when The General was in two halves, joined by a walkway above Charles Street.  Apart from occasional office use, the Nurses Home seems largely disused now; although, to my delight, I could see curtains made from the same vintage fabric (that hung in my bedroom in 1989) still bracketing the hatch window of my old first floor room.

As I retraced my steps into town again, I couldn’t really capture the perils of Balfour Street and its 1:3 stomach-lurching incline, but I clearly recall the horror of freefalling down it in Cecil whenever James was careening around in the silver Suzuki.  If you think you have nerves of steel, you should try driving down it someday.

I made sure I dropped into Petrarch’s Bookshop on Brisbane St whilst I was in Launceston, to thank them for selling my book, even though they were rather busy with a book signing that day.  Nigella Lawson was in the store, and the queue was a long way out of it –  so it wasn’t the best day to do any PR for my own book.   I’m thankful that they have my book in stock; and although I didn’t get chance to do the hard-sell, how many people can say they’ve been upstaged by Nigella Lawson? Perhaps I should’ve tried to flog her a book?

(You can see the walking tour photos on Facebook.)