Tassie John

G'day my name is John I am 58 yo medically retired and I live just outside Hobart a town called Kingston. Most of my adult life I have always wanted to build a miniature live steam Locomotive and now finally I am able to have a go at it. I have previous experience in this type of engineering but I will give it my best shot. I have got myself a small lathe (7x14), mill, bench grinder, air compressor, pedestal drill stand and a good array of different types of tools as I used to fix cars up. I watch a lot of YTube and in particular Kieth Appleton and I asked his option on a good loco for a beginner to start with and he suggested the Super Simplex 5" gauge. I have the drawings and I have had the frames ordered as they have been laser cut. I know that this will take me a long time to complete, but I am in no hurry. I will be joining a miniature steam locomotive society here in Hobart in the near future. I have waffled on long enough now, nice to read other threads. Regards Tassie John

Hi John

Good luck with your project . I lived at Cygnet in the early 1970's , lots of apple orchards I recall . The apple industry was down and out with the UK joining the common market , they ( the pommies ) didn't want Tassie apples any more . Mike

Hi Mike that's wright but now Tassie is booming new markets have opened up in China, Europe and Japan. Hobart is nothing like it was even when we came over from South Aust. It has very high investment in retail and commercial trade, not to mention our tourism. There are more and more high class hotels being built. You really have to see it, Cygnet is becoming world famous as a food and life stile place it has changed quite significantly the fugi apples and world class cherries are now growen for over seas markets, all in all it's changed a lot. Thanks for notifying me it is nice to talk to a fellow Tasmanian, where do you live now? Regards John

Hi John

Its a beautiful part of the world the Huon Valley . That's interesting, the changes you have noted since I was down there . I recall the houses were dirt cheap and Cygnet was almost dead , you could get a house to rent for 5 bucks a week . I was a student at the TCAE in Hobart . The govt. were paying the orchadists to rip out the apple trees and go into other pursuits . This is the house I lived in

http://tww.id.au/cygnet/pio-wills.html

6 Aug 2003 - From Mike

I spotted the history of the Guys road Wills house on the Cygnet web site. In 1974, myself and a fellow 18 year old student lived in the house for a few months. The house had been derelect for many years and we did our best to make it liveable again. We cleaned up the front garden and painted the window frames. The little loft in the roof had its own steep stairway. John was the person we spoke to occasionally, I hope he is in good health. Our neighbour was a old fellow called Merv, he was so kind to us, he would lend us his tractor to pull out our often bogged car. The separate kitchen and laundry had us wondering why it was built away from the main house. Amazingly, the old house wiring still worked. Guys road was deserted then, we had it all to ourselves.

We attended the then new Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, Mt Nelson, on the outskirts of Hobart. Our car was a 1953 Ford Anglia, we bought it for $50. I recall Jack ( Johns father I think ? ) coming to the house once. We picked apples at an orchard with old Merv occasionally, Merv told us he had lived in Cygnet his whole life and he saw the first motor car ever to come to Cygnet. We bought our groceries at the old store on the corner. It was so quiet, we used to set up targets on the fence opposite the house and shoot them from the verandah of the house using a .22 rifle. Nobody ever came up Guys road. Cygnet was rather run down as the apple industry had fallen on bad times, empty houses were dotted around town. Many apples were left on the trees as it wasn't worth picking them. Houses were $5 a week to rent. I guess at that time, early 1974, Cygnet was still a quiet, out of the way place that displayed a special ambience. People were very kind to us despite our long hair and being from the mainland as well. Living in the house was rather basic, we had no bath or shower, we used to use a little camping gas stove to cook things. The house internally was lined with hand split boards, some type of native softwood I think, a orangy colour, the newspapers used on the walls dated back to the 1880's, Tasmanian Mail. Our stay in Cygnet was upset by a nasty car accident, we had a head on prang on the Lymington road with a Falcon. Better stop raving. Bye from Mike.

Edited By hth on 23/12/2015 11:35:46

Hi Mike thanks for all that information, it's a far different place now houses sell for a lot of money. We go through Cygnet a lot as we have a another house at Deep Bay. Cygnet is very trendy now and has Sunday markets there are a lot of trendy shops and a renound rester aunt the Velvet Lounge which is beautiful . There are three pubs and I know where you use to live. They have large cherry orchards and straw berries and a very nice yaght squadron. I will try and send you a photo of the Main Street if I can regards John