Carrick

Carrick is a small historic village 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, on the banks of the Liffey River.

Carrick is a small historic village 17 kilometres (11 mi) west of Launceston, Tasmania, Australia, on the banks of the Liffey River. The Meander Valley Highway passes through the town's centre; this road was formerly the main road from Launceston to Deloraine and Devonport. Carrick has a well-preserved 19th-century heritage; fifteen of its colonial buildings are listed on the Tasmanian Heritage Register including Carrick House (1840), St Andrew's Church (1848), the Old Watch house (1837), Monds Roller Mill (1846) and the Carrick Hotel (1833).

The first land grant at Carrick was in 1818 and a decade later William Bryan was building a wooden mill on the river's bank. The town was formed in consequence of this mill's construction and town plots sold in 1838.

Carrick Post Office opened on 5 November 1841. Carrick never grew large—the population varied from around 200 to 439—and today it is largely a residential settlement for those who work in Launceston and the rural areas surrounding the town. During much of its history growth has been limited by lack of organised water supply and sewerage, though reticulated services for both are now connected. Volunteer labour enabled piped water supply, from the Liffey, from 1961 and a sewerage plant was built in the mid-1970s on the towns outskirts. The local councils' strategic plan aims for the town to stay small with only infill development.

The 1846 stone building known as "Monds Roller Mill" is the town's most prominent feature. The operation of this mill—and the preceding wooden mill—was the foundation of the town's prosperity during the 19th century. The mill operated until 1924, for most of this time by Thomas Monds and his family company, and was the last water powered flour mill in Tasmania. Since a 1984 renovation it has intermittently been a restaurant, wedding venue and meeting venue. Near the mill is Archer's Folly, an imposing and now ruined, but never completed, grand colonial house. The folly was started in 1847, sold incomplete in 1867 and burned to a roofless shell in 1978. Significant people associated with Carrick include: Thomas Reibey, once Premier of Tasmania; Thomas Monds who founded an extensive milling company; and Sammy Cox whose claims would make him the earliest European settler in Tasmania.

The Anglican Church St Andrews has held services since the 1840s. For some time the town also had a Wesleyan Chapel. A private school opened in 1843 and a government one in the 1870s. By the late 1930s both schools had closed. Carrick hosts Agfest, the state's largest single event and one of Australia's largest agricultural field days. The 1848 Anglican church, 1833 hotel and a few other establishments serve the townspeople. A brewery, steam and water mill, butcher, schools and other hotels are all long since closed. Carrick has a long association with horse racing, starting prior to the race course's formation in 1848. For a time the town held the oldest horse race in Australia. Today regular harness racing, speedway racing and cycling events have replaced this.

Carrick's area is within the traditional grounds of the Northern Midlands group of Tasmanian Aborigines. Records held by Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania have no reference, as recently as 2010, of any aboriginal heritage or artifacts in the area. The first land grant at Carrick was made in 1818 to Thomas Haydock Reibey, father of Thomas Reibey (later Premier of Tasmania). The grant was for 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) taking in the area of the later town. Early land use was for agriculture and by 1823, at least, there were only a few widely scattered settlers.Captain William Thomas Lyttleton was granted over 1,300 acres (530 ha) near Carrick in late 1825 when he lived at nearby Hagley in Hagley House. What was then just a locality became known as Lyttleton after the Captain. The river that passed from the Great Western Tiers to nearby Meander River was then known as The Pennyroyal Creek, after a plant that grew profusely on its banks. William Bryan arrived at Hobart, from Ireland, in May 1824. He received land grants of 1,077 acres (436 ha) in the Meander Valley and later purchased 500 acres (200 ha) at Carrick, including 30 acres (10 ha) on the creek. Bryan began building a mill on his Carrick grant in 1826, on the same site as the later Monds Roller Mills. His business interests prospered and he purchased large amounts of land, including more at Carrick. By 1828 the first bridge over the river had been built, a simple log structure. Bryan's mill was the impetus for foundation of the town. Van Diemen's Land's Land Commissioners recommended in early 1828: "Mr W Bryan is building a mill a short way up the stream and we beg to recommend reserving 100 acres each side for the various purposes of a village which we called Lyttleton."Over the next few years Bryan used his influence to rename, in memory of his homeland, both the town and the river, much to the disgust of Lyttleton. It was reported in 1831 newspapers that the road from Launceston to Carrick had been opened. The path of the road was announced in April 1831, and it was opened for public traffic in June. The State Government sold town allotments in late 1838, obtaining what was noted as a high price of £45 (A$8,100 in 2005) per acre.

Samuel Pratt Winter was sent to Tasmania by his father, at Bryan's request, to act as an overseer of the mill. He managed the mill from 1834, when Bryan went to London in the midst of a dispute with Governor Arthur, and leased it from 1837 onwards. After a dispute with the leasee Donald McLean in 1841, the mill was operated by Richard Warren from April 1841, he also occupied the mill cottage according to the 1842 census. A post office opened in November 1841, and at the end of the year the village had also four dwellings, a blacksmith shop, a police station, the flour mill and an adobe hotel built by John Archer. While passing through the town Louisa Anne Meredith took note of the buildings. In her guidebook, published in 1843, she referred to the "crazy weather board mill". At the time the mill's motive power came from an overshot water wheel supplied with water from the Liffey River via a long wooden trough. St Andrew's church was built in 1843 by Thomas Reibey as a school. The initial church grounds of 14 acres (6 ha) were donated by Thomas Reibey. Winter was living at the mill cottage in 1846, when he arranged for the old wooden mill to be removed and, with John Kinder Archer, began building the blue-stone mill. The town greatly expanded in the late 1850s, fueled by the efforts of those returning from the Victorian gold fields. Over time many cottages in Carrick were built for workers on the Reibey's Entally House outside nearby Hadspen.By 1859 the town had two mills—one steam and one water wheel powered—that processed approximately 4000 bushels per week. There was a steam-powered brewery, opposite St Andrew's church, whose produce won first prize at the 1859 Launceston show (by 1947 the brewery was scant ruins). During its operation the brewery had supplied all of the town's hotels. Four inns were open and the town had an agricultural machinery manufacturing business. A public library was established in 1860. The mill was sold to Thomas Monds, an experienced miller, in 1867. At the time it was reported that its machinery was in poor repair, but the building was sound. When a nearby rail line was built in 1869 traffic through Carrick greatly diminished and trade in the town suffered, though the nearest station was Bishopbourne over 5 miles (8 km) away.A government school was established in the 1870s and grew to 65 students by 1901. Mond's business expanded throughout the latter part of the 19th century and the prosperity of the town did likewise. He built a large grain store opposite the mill and opened offices and a depot in Launceston. Westbury Municipal Council built a public hall on the main road in 1883. The current weatherboard town hall dates from c1900 and the old hall is presumed to have been destroyed prior to this. At the town's height in the 19th century, just after the return of men from the Victorian gold fields, the town had four public houses and a population of approximately 400. It had four public houses operating two of which, Prince of Wales and the Carrick Hotel, remained open in 1901. As of 1883 it was reported that the inns were kept open by the Carrick Races and fortnightly livestock sales. Carrick's livestock sales were held at the Carrick Hotel and were the main fat stock sales for Launceston. At the turn of the century the town had no reticulated water. It relied on wells, rainwater and the inconstant river.

The Liffey River—then called Pennyroyal Creek—was first bridged at Carrick in 1828 with a simple log structure. This was replaced in the 1830s with a more substantial bridge, though still wooden. As of 1834 the areas' roads were poor and vehicles frequently became bogged on the road to Westbury. A bridge over the South Esk, at what is now Hadspen, was built in 1843. It replaced a frequently impassable ford and more reliably connected Carrick to Launceston. Liffey bridge was repaired and raised in the mid-1860s, keeping the original foundations. In May 1875 water sufficiently eroded these foundations to lead to the bridge's collapse, when one of the two supporting piles (logs) gave way. All of the Liffey bridges, and the connecting parts of the road, were subject to inundation when the river flooded; the 1929 Tasmanian Floods carried the bridge away. In the 1950s the road was reconstructed and the bridge again replaced. To reduce the incidence and impact of flooding both were raised substantially leaving the mill's ground floor far below the road level.A rail line was built nearby in 1869. With the advent of rail, traffic through Carrick was greatly diminished and trade in the town suffered. A rail siding was built at "The Oaks", over 1 mile (1.6 km) from the town's edge and a station at Bishopbourne over 5 miles (8 km) away. The passenger rail service had ceased before 1978, a time when all Tasmanian passenger rail services ceased.By 1877 there was a twice daily mail and passenger cart connecting Carrick to the railway station at Bishopbourne and "Blair's Bus" ran thrice weekly to Launceston. The Bass Highway, which passed through Carrick, had been designated a National Highway as part of the Federal National Highway Act 1974. The structure of this type of road required that the centre of Carrick be bypassed. The road through Carrick is now known as the Meander Valley Highway. Bass Highway, which connects Launceston, Burnie and Devonport, passes south of the town. As of 2011 Redline Coaches, runs a daily school bus service that passes through Carrick to many of the Schools in and around Launceston and regular services connecting Carrick to Burnie, Launceston, Hobart and towns in between.