Discover a fascinating virtual world with Augmented Tasmania. Best of all, it’s completely free!
Today’s technology allows us to gaze back at days gone by more clearly than ever before. Explore the towns of Kempton and Oatlands with an enriching new layer—stories from the past brought vividly to life through augmented reality. Discover a rum rebel, march to the gallows, see horses in the stables, plot for freedom, and much, much more.
To play, download the free Uist app via the Apple App Store or Google Play.
The app is better suited to iPhone/iPad users (requires iOS 12.2 or later), but is also available on Android 5.0 and up. It sends push notifications when AR experiences are close by, so you’ll know exactly where to find them.
Ross
AR Experiences:
- Jack the dog
- Ross Hotel
- Ross Female Factory
- The Missing School
- Sheep & Wool
- Richards Stonemason’s Shop
- The Post Office
- First Church of St John
- Daniel Herbert
- Ross Sandstone
- Salvation – Roman Catholic Church
- Mysterious Art
- Central Place of Remembrance
- The Police Station & Watch House
- The 15 Pound Field Gun
- World War I Memorial
- Boer War Memorial
- The Four Corners of Ross
- The Town Hall
- A Missing Bridge
- Ross Bridge
- Ross Bridge Characters – Mary Witherington, Lt Governor George Arthur, Jorgen Jorgensen, William Kermode, Nora Cobbitt, Daniel Herbert, James Colbeck
- The Old Stables
Ross AR was generously supported by funding from the Tasmanian Community Fund, the Department of State Growth, the Northern Midlands Council, the Tasmanian Wool Centre and the Heritage Highway.
Kempton
The quaint town of Kempton is just a 45-minute drive north from Hobart. Today, this historic gem is best known as the home of the Old Kempton Distillery (visit their cellar door at Dysart House, an 1840s coaching inn, for whisky tastings and amazing home-cooked Tasmanian produce).
Back in the 19th century, Kempton bustled with activity as a busy coaching stop on the road between Launceston and Hobart. The stage coach silhouette sculptures north and south of the town are a tribute to this history. Fire up the Uist app and delve deeper into stories of the town’s heritage as you explore.
AR Experiences:
- An avenue of honour to remember the fallen
- Try and try again…
- A fateful letter foretells mysterious death
- A landscape thousands of years in the creating
- A skilled and tenacious resistance continues
- A rum rebel settles in Kempton
- An educated convict with a coin
- A spectacular embezzler emerges into “Society”
- A family empire begins business and prospers
- Society and respectability is confirmed in Kempton
- A business and a building dominates the passing trade
Oatlands
The 19th century town of Oatlands is around a 1-hour drive north from Hobart. The whole town appears locked in time, with its well-preserved streetscape and charming Georgian buildings, including the Oatlands Military Precinct.
Oatlands is delightful to explore on foot. The town boasts the greatest number of historic sandstone buildings in a village setting in Australia, with many now operating as modern shops and eateries (the pancakes and crepes are very popular). There are a range of AR experiences that bring the stories from the sandstone to life as you wander—there is even an AR experience at the old gaol that reconstructs the spine-tingling gallows!
AR Experiences:
- The Lake Frederick Inn
- The original Oatlands Hotel
- The Stables
- A distant church steeple
- The Government’s Commissariat store
- Drake and Doughty Dispensary
- The Commandant’s house
- In irons and in winter
- A makeover to define Oatlands’ future
- The Court comes to order
- After the bench’s final sitting
- Van Diemen’s Land: an allurement to vice
- A building to dominate the township and its inmates
- Freedom! Many plotted, some succeeded
- The launch into eternity
- The inevitable fate draws closer
- An executioner’s hood is lifted
- Executed at Oatlands Gaol
- A gaol of monotony
- The final roll call rings out
We love it when you share your adventures with us! Tag @MidlandsTasmania and use @MidlandsTasmania or #HeritageHighway and we’ll share our favourite photos on @MidlandsTasmania, Facebook, and in our Blog.
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Story Time: Where to Hear Tales of Days Gone By
The Oatlands Key: Access the Historic Military Precinct
HEADER IMAGE:
Oatlands Gaol | @devilish_imagery/Instagram
WORDS:
Isabel Galloway
