As reported in (The Examiner, October 15, 1887) and in response to a serious smallpox outbreak in Launceston, a delegation visited Pig (Tamar) Island:

“About six o'clock a call was made at Pig island to ascertain its suitability as a permanent quarantine station for Launceston.

“Several cottages have been erected by the Marine Board for the men engaged in dredging in the neighbourhood. For their water supply they are now dependent on the rainfall. A well has been sunk to a depth of 80ft, the last eight or ten feet passing through silver sand, from which came a strong up-flow of salt water.

“Mr Pinnington, the foreman of works, has consequently re-filled the well to that depth and puddled it with clay, by which means he hopes to exclude the salt water; he will then lead the surface drainage of the northern side of the island into the well, which will thus become an immense tank, giving an abundant supply.”

If any readers can provide information about either the smallpox outbreak in Launceston in 1887, or  about the construction and use of the well on Tamar Island, I would be most grateful.

CONGRATULATIONS on the success of Nicolas Tolputt, the countertenor born in Launceston.  It was wonderful to read that Nic has won at the recent Australian Singing Competition, where he won the Marianne Mathy Scholarship of $30 000 as well as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra Award.  

During 2016 he  won several impressive awards.  Nic was educated at St Patrick’s College where he was introduced to stage, acting and singing.  He became heavily involved in the local theatre scene, appearing in almost 20 musicals and plays, as well as appearing as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah in 2011 and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in 2012.  

Leo Scholfield, having heard Nic singing in Launceston as a countertenor, recognised his talent and included him in his productions of  the  series of the Hobart Baroque.   The first scholarship that Nic won was the Dorothy N  Glover Music Trust Scholarship, a Launceston-based endowment.   

Nic left Launceston to study Opera in the Melbourne Conservatorium where he began to study as a baritone, but on the advice of his Launceston teacher he switched to study as a countertenor.   Several of his admirers generously set up benefit concerts to raise money to further his studies.  Launceston can be so proud of their talented and hardworking son.  

THE Tasmanian government is to be commended for recognising that there are problems with the Anti-Discrimination Act, but its proposed changes fall well short of fixing the many flaws in this unjust, undemocratic and divisive piece of legislation which, among other things, unnecessarily seeks to curtail our fundamental right to freedom of speech.

Any who have read the Catholic Bishops’ pamphlet Don’t Mess With Marriage may well wonder why the complaint against it under Section 17 (1) wasn’t immediately rejected for its total lack of any factual basis under the Anti-Discrimination Commission’s present powers. Perhaps the answer lies in the fundamental conflict between the Commission’s advocacy and quasi-judicial roles. When a body is charged with providing specified interest groups with special protection that is not available to the rest of us, then its role in assessing which cases deserve to be proceeded with is inevitably compromised. This Act needs much more wide-ranging revision to make it the fair and just legislation that all Tasmanians, not just those with religious convictions, deserve.