The former garrison town of Ross, on Tasmania, boasts numerous old colonial buildings, as well as several convict-built bridges.
Church Street and Bridge Street form the center of Ross. A central part of the intersection is a war memorial with a field gun from the Boer War. The crossroads is often referred to as the 'Four Corners of Ross'. Each corner has its own label:
Places of interest in Ross include the former Army Orderly Room and the nearby Royal Ordnance Corps Store, which was built in 1836. Since 1951 it houses the Ross War Memorial Building. A beautiful Georgian building is the Council Clerk's cottage on the south-west corner of Church and Bridge Streets. Another Colonial building is the former military barracks not far from the Ross Bridge. The only ramaining building of the so-called convict site is the Assistant Superintendent's Quarters. It was established in the 1840's and nowadays houses an exhibition on the Female Factory, as it was usually called. It was one of the few female convict compounds in Australia. The Tasmanian Wool Centre is home to a museum, an exhibition and a wool craft area. It also serves as a tourist information centre.
All of Ross' 3 churches are located on Church Street. The Uniting Church dates from 1885 and sits on a hilltop. The Roman Catholic Church sits in a building that originally housed a store. St. John's Anglican Church was built in 1868. The Man O' Ross Hotel was built in 1831. Two former hotels are the 1840 Scotch Thistle Inn, which is nowadays a private residence and the Sherwood Castle Inn, which is now called the Ross Bakery Inn. The Ross Village Bakery is said to be the bakery that inspired the one in the 1989 animated film Kiki's Delivery Service. The bakery dates from 1860 and still has its original wood-fired oven. Convicts constructed Ross Bridge in 1836. It is one of Australia's oldest bridges that is still in use. The Town Hall is a neo-classical style late-Victorian building. Adjacent is the Council Chambers. The Post Office in Ross dates from 1889. The town's schoolhouse is a Victorian Rustic Gothic building with sandstone walls.
The town's cemetery is divided into a Roman Catholic section and a Church of England section. There is also an old military burial ground, located on a nearby hilltop. Tooms Lake was built as a water supply dam for Ross.
There are numerous other interesting buildings in Ross, many of which are private residences. Not far from town are several indigenous sites.
Accommodation is available in Ross. The town is on the Macquarie River, 100 km north of Hobart and about 770 km south of Canberra.
Ross ©Roy Digital Design
Ross bridge ©Stephen Mabbs
