So many spots around Launceston have fascinating histories, when you stop to really look at them.
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Dilston began with the appointment of a new District Constable named Michael Fitzgerald in 1818.
He was an Irish nationalist, convicted of political crimes in 1797 and transported for life.
Fitzgerald was given responsibility over the convict gangs building the George Town Road from Launceston.
He couldn't perform the role from town due to travel times, and so built a cottage for himself and family nine miles out, in a pretty valley full of waterbirds, next to the surveyed road.
Then in 1823 the first ship direct from Britain sailed into Launceston, captained by George Coulson.
Coulson was anxious to build a home so that he could send for his family and found an ideal property next door to the Fitzgeralds, where the deep river channel came right up near the shore.
He called it Dilston.
In 1833 Captain and Mary Coulson decided to convert their home into a hotel they called the Friends' Arms, for the convenience for travellers going up to George Town.
The following year an army officer named William Neilly, who'd retired after fighting Napoleon, was granted 407 acres on the Coulson's western boundary.
Neilly's convicts built a big house he called Rostella, after his wife's home in Ireland.
The increasing settlement and convenient location of Dilston led to an impromptu stopover by Jane, Lady Franklin in January 1838.
She recorded that a bridge had been built over a deep cutting between the Coulson and Fitzgerald properties.
The cutting looked like a creek, but in fact had been recently dug by convicts to drain the valley behind. Today it is known as Lady Nelson Creek.
The artist Joshua Higgs later painted this scene, but his work has been lost.
Hopefully it is on someone's wall somewhere.
Dilston became the focus of enormous attention in 1865, with the inauguration of the East Tamar Regatta.
The first race to Dilston was held on New Year's Day 1866, and a pavilion was erected next to the hotel, where there was a superb view up the river. The regatta was a great success.
The hotel was sold to Michael Whelan in 1877 and when he found coal and clay on the grounds, the East Tamar Brick Making Association was formed in 1882.
In 1889, a rather flamboyant gentleman named Henry Law came along and went a little mad, buying up most of the town, including the brickworks, hotel and police station.
The people of Dilston reasoned that a Henry Law might come into their lives only once, and they'd better take advantage.
Mr Law went bust three years later and took the Bank of Van Diemen's Land down with him.
He moved to the mainland and became an auditor.
Most of Dilston changed hands and settled down to a quiet life.