Local Footy: Little Lions roar in Tassie Midlands grand final
Posted by Daryl Sharpen on 16th September 2009
By Daryl Sharpen
About an hour’s drive north of Hobart is the town of Oatlands, in the Tasmanian Midlands. In a long forgotten past it served as a carriage stop for travellers as they made their way north or south in a penal colony known as Van Diemen’s Land. It is generally considered to be about halfway between them up North and us down South. I reside in the capital!
If you didn’t already know, Tassy has a real North (norf)-South (souf) divide. An imaginary (?) line has split the state on almost everything since Naval Lieutenant John Bowen landed (circa 1803) in Hobart’s Risdon Cove – now the site of the state prison – followed a few years later by Colonel William Paterson, who lodged in the north near Launceston and promptly named the settlement Patersonia! I like me who do you like?
The Tassy divide is akin to the Mason–Dixon line in the USA but, like all feuds, families included, when challenged we unite; albeit only for a day or two or till the skirmish subsides.
History aside. Last Saturday I decided to travel out of my comfort zone and head north, but only halfway mind you, to Oatlands. My papers were in order and I had provisions. I was interested to see what these guys in the Midlands were like and where they fitted into the social fabric of the state. Were they Northerners or were they just like me? A local anthropologist suggested they were different again. Another breed, I pondered. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Tasmania
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