Plan Book Travel Australia

Tasmania's Midlands region follows the routes pioneered in 1807. Those first explorers took eight days to traverse the island. Soon afterwards, the fastest horse-drawn coaches completed the journey in 15 hours, changing horses every 10 miles.

These days, you can drive from Launceston to Hobart in a couple of hours - but if you do, you’ll be missing some of Tasmania’s most gently - beautiful country scenery, and bypassing the State’s best-preserved colonial towns and villages of the Midlands region of Tasmania. Here sandstone church spires overlook English trees, Georgian cottages line the quiet streets and stone bridges are reflected in leaf-dappled water.

The Midlands region is South of Launceston and is a farming district that also caters for travellers with a passion for history. Prior to European settlement the area was used by the Panninher Aboriginal band of the northern midlands.

An example of one of the historic towns in this area is Longford. It sits at the confluence of the Macquarie and South Esk rivers.

Longford is known for its many convict-built houses - farmers were provided with free convict labour and used this to create grand reminders of their English heritage. Christ Church is the site of the First Settlers Cemetery. A local arboretum once aspired to represent every tree mentioned in the Bible.

Longford still has the bucolic air of a 19th century country village. Three early free-settler estates - Woolmers (1816), Panshangar (1821) and Brickendon (1824) - were developed by the dynastic Archer family, who arrived in 1813 from Hertfordshire and whose descendants still farm the area today.

The Midland area has a range of antique galleries and art and craft shops, including one that specialises in dolls' houses and miniatures.