If you travel directly north from Launceston until you reach Bass Strait, you'll find the beautiful and largely unknown holiday township of Lulworth, on Tam O'Shanter Bay.
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It's a quiet, restful and scenic place now, but had a busy past.
Lulworth was one of the many township reserves set aside by the government in the mid-19th century.
Most of these never developed, and Lulworth was no exception.
When they named the township, the government also named Tam O'Shanter Bay, after a barque that was wrecked there in July 1837.
People assume the bay was responsible for the wreck, but it isn't so.
The ship had earlier been damaged when entering Adelaide, and makeshift repairs were made while there.
The owners decided to risk a trip to Sydney, but 24 hours out of Adelaide she was taking on more water than the crew could pump out, and soon had an alarming two metres of water in the hold.
The captain decided to make a dash for the Tasmanian north coast.
The vessel helplessly skirted the shore until nearly striking on Fourteen-Mile Bluff.
By a mere shave she escaped doom, and the captain found a tranquil sand-bottomed beach where he was able to run her aground.
The security was such that the passengers and crew all managed to reach shore safely, set up a camp, and subsequently removed their luggage.
It was even possible in the quiet of the bay to partially unload and dismantle the vessel before she broke up.
This became Tam O'Shanter Bay, where the rarity of damaging waves in that spot and the general tranquillity of the surrounding waters was evidenced by the fact that traces of the ship's hull were still visible 40 years later.
Thus the quiet bay saved the ship and its passengers.
In 1872, prospectors looking for slate found a deposit of amazing quality on the east side of the old Back Creek goldfield, five kilometres to the south of Lulworth.
Three years later Welsh slate man William Roberts convinced Melbourne investors to back a project there, and the Australasian Slate Quarry Co was born.
Their slate was so good, people thought it was actually Welsh and some sort of scam.
It wasn't!
A tramway running from the slate mine to Lulworth was built, with a sheltered harbour and dock constructed on the west side of the bay.
In 1877 the government declared Lulworth to be a port of entry and clearance for customs purposes.
Finally, the government's Lulworth town subdivision was able to be sold at a Sale of Crown Lands.
New streets were created and named after the slate company owners Lyell and Gowan.
The twin townships at the quarry and Lulworth were lovely and healthy places to live, but sadly, it didn't last.
The end of the slate came in 1883, and for nigh on a century Lulworth went back to sleep.
