Convict precinct

The former convict station

The Bridgewater Convict Station was one of a number of convict stations operating around the Derwent Valley region from 1828 until 1849.

The site was made up of a group of buildings west of the nearby Granton Quarry site, including a wooden barracks that could house up to 160 convicts, a cook and bake house, provision store, and a chapel, as well as officers’ quarters.

The station was intended to house and oversee convicts that would have laboured in the construction of the Bridgewater causeway.

Conditions were harsh at the station, with up to 280 convicts at a time being held. Those who broke the rules were held in one of the 11 cells only two metres by 80 cm in size.

When colonial officials visited the station in 1831, they witnessed the sight of hundreds of convicts in a ‘chain gang’, working with leg-irons around their ankles. Well-behaved men were rewarded with longer chains in between their irons that allowed for less restrictive movement.

Once the causeway was completed in 1841, the convict station was used as a ‘probation station’, where convicts were subject to less severe punishment, moral instruction and jobtraining, until they were judged worthy of a ‘probation-pass’ allowing them to be hired by free settlers.

By 1845, the station housed a superintendent, two convict overseers, a storekeeper, and 66 convicts who were used to repair the main road.

Brief View of the Roads, Bridges, and other public buildings’, Launceston Advertiser, 17 Jan 1831, p.24.

“An establishment has been formed at Bridgewater for a Chain Gang, which is employed in constructing that great work, the causeway over the Derwent. A goal or barracks for the reception and safe keeping of the prisoners after their hours of labour, was among the first works completed; It is capable, of containing 160 men. A commodious barracks for the military has also been constructed, as well as a store, solitary cells for such convicts as misconduct themselves, etc. On a commanding eminence stands a neat building for the Officers quarters. A very excellent quarry on the road side gives employment to one part of the gang, while the others are busily engaged in wheeling the stone out into the water.”

References:

• ‘Granton Convict and Memorial Group, Lyell Hwy, Gnraton, TAS, Australia’. Australian Heritage Database.
  Tasmanian Heritage Register – Granton Convict Site 9937, p. 3
  https://ontheconvicttrail.blogspot.com/2013/05/bridgewater-convict-station.html
• Michael Sprod, 2006. ‘Probation System’ The Companion to Tasmanian History, Accessed form the University of Tasmania ; Richard Tuffin and Martin Gibbs, 2020.
• ‘Uninformed and impractical?’ The convict probation system and its impact upon the landscape of 1840s Van Diemens Land.’
  History of Australia – Volume. 17, No. 1, 87-114, p. 92
• Tasmanian Heritage Register – Granton Convict Site 1178 p. 3 Commandant's Cottage

Commandant's Cottage

The building known as the ‘Commandant’s Cottage’ is one of the earliest surviving buildings of the Convict Station, and is believed to have been built in 1830 to be used as the main officer’s quarters for the station. This officer/s were stationed here to oversee convicts and would have been the on-site authority during the construction of the Bridgewater causeway.

The exposed stone Georgian cottage sits on a small rise overlooking the River Derwent and would have had a perfect view of the causeway as it was being constructed.

The cottage you see today has been restored and altered since the days of the Convict Station, with a top floor added in 1974, a new roof with dormer windows, and a rear extension.

References:

• Tasmanian Heritage Register – Granton Convict Site 1178

Stone End Cottage

Alongside the ‘Commandant’s Cottage’, the building known as ‘Stone End’ is thought to be only the other surviving cottage of the Convict Station. Its exact purpose is subject to speculation, potentially serving as a chapel, hospital, or officer’s quarters.

The current stone and timber building has also been altered considerably since the convict era, and is currently a private residence. While being renovated the owner found several convict-made bricks with broad arrows stacked up in the exterior walls, as well as the name ‘Alfred Berrisford’ (the son of Henry Berrisford, the last superintendent of the Convict Station) cut into the surviving brick chimney.

References:

• Tasmanian Heritage Register - Granton Convict Site 1178

Convict Watchhouse

The convict-era Watch House is located east of the Granton Quarry and south of Bridgewater Bridge’s southernmost entrance.

Built in c.1838, the Watch House is one of the few buildings that survive from the convict era of Bridgewater.

It would have served as a barracks for soldiers supervising the causeway construction. The stockade at the rear likely would have functioned as a lock-up for convicts until they were sent before a magistrate for trial.

The single storey sandstone structure is built in a simple Old Colonial Georgian architectural style, with thick two-foot walls covered in lime (a kind of plaster often made from crushed shells).

The building was extended in 1851 to include a room for the Watch House keeper, as well as a separate women’s lock-up area, exercise yards, and a constable’s office.

The Watch House has been altered since colonial times, including the removal of the original doors and windows, and installation of a new corrugated iron roof.

After the First World War the building was converted into a store and service station with petrol pumps installed out the front in c.1928.

References:

• ‘Watchhouses’ Female Convicts Research Centre Inc. Accessed from: https://femaleconvicts.org.au/convictinstitutions/gaols-in-vdl?view=article&id=444:watchhouses&catid=100
• ‘Granton Convict and Memorial Group, Lyell Hwy, Gnraton, TAS, Australia’. Australian Heritage Database.

Granton Quarry

The Granton Quarry is located at the southern end of the Bridgewater causeway along the River Derwent, just west of the former Convict Station.

The site’s abrupt drop-off, angular cuts and notches on the quarry face, show clear signs of human excavation. The quarry stands as a reminder of the huge human achievement of the causeway’s construction.

The quarry was an important factor in the decision to construct the causeway across this part of the River Derwent in 1828. The large amount of raw resources available avoided the need to transport materials over long distances.

The quarry was excavated by hand over a period of six years by over 1,800 convicts overall who would have had to transport up to 1.8 million tonnes of sandstone, mudstone, and clay, all by wheelbarrow, into the nearby River Derwent to create the causeway.

The quarry was gazetted as part of the wider Granton Reserve in May 1921, and is visible throughout the reserve from up to 300 metres away.

References:

• Tasmanian Heritage Register – Granton Convict Quarry 7158, p. 2.
• ‘Granton Convict and Memorial Group, Lyell Hwy, Granton, TAS, Australia’. Australian Heritage Database.