Lavender and old ships.

George Town is the oldest town in Australia- or so they say! There was an earlier settlement, York Town, which no longer exists as such, so George Town has been in continuous existence and they say pre-dates all the mainland towns.
But it has other claims to fame, not least it is the home of a replica of the sloop Norfolk, the ship that Matthew Flinders and George Bass circumavigated "Van Diemen's Land" (Tasmania) in 1798, and charted the Tamar river, anchoring off what is now George Town.
In 1998 a local man reconstructed the Norfolk and re-enacted the voyage. Not a screw or a nail was used, tree nails hold the ship together which is made of Huon Pine and celery Top Pine, two local woods.
Just around 40ft long, the same size of the original, it must have been a real adventure sailing through the Bass Strait, where the seas can be rather unpredictable.
Just down the road is the pilot station, reputed to be the oldest pilot station still in use. Home of a maritime museum, they have a number of fascinating artefacts from the days when quite large ships navigated the Tamar up to Launceston. Nowadays most ships don't go all the way, but still need a pilot for the mouth of the river, which can be treacherous.

One of the rooms contains records of the wreck of the Edenholme, an iron barque built and registered in Maryport, who made regular trips from London to Hobart and Launceston. On one of those trips in 1907, while waiting for a tug here, she ran aground on the Hebe Reef, and broke up about two weeks later in a storm. As recently as 1995 a bulk ore carrier, the Iron Baron, ran aground on the same reef and spilled fuel oil in a wildlife sanctuary, which necessitated a massive clean up operation.

Later we made our way to the Bridestowe Estate, the world's largest privately owned lavender farm.
The principal supplier to the Yardley brand, the estate has no less than 260 acres of lavender in production, around 650,000 plants.
The company has been in operation since 1921, when the founder brought seeds from the French Alps.This is the month for harvesting, so we saw the blooms at their best.
They also distil lavender here, as well as drying them for the decorative trade.
We enjoyed a cream tea in the cafe there, I say enjoyed, it was very good but the tea had to contain a slight tast of lavender, as did the scones and the rhubarb jam that went with it. Well - it was different!