Remarkably, behind those towers is one of the best ochre deposits in Australia, with another superb deposit at Scott's Hill behind Beaconsfield.

The range of colours in our local ochres is extraordinary - white, yellows and reds, through greens and browns to purple and black.

The significance of these deposits was recognised in the 1870s, though they were probably prized by Aboriginal people for thousands of years.

It's likely we only found them because they'd been exposed by previous Indigenous mining.

A number of companies attempted to exploit these deposits in the 1880s and '90s, without success, though they created quite a stir at the 1888 Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne.

Their experiments revealed that 277 distinct colours of paint could be manufactured from the ochre, mixed with linseed oil.

In 1917 the Serpentine Paint Company was registered in Launceston.

It created huge interest, securing the ochre resources and mixing a test range of superb natural paints from a factory on Alexandra Wharf.

The Examiner reported that Johnstone & Wilmot in Cimitiere St were backing the venture and the shares were very much sought-after.

The new company secured the services of Yorkshireman Alonza Flounders, a world-class paint expert, and he was soon producing the finest paints we'd ever seen.

Operations began January 1918 with a daily output of four tons.

Two of the latest granite rollers were used, with two modern pug mills, a disintegrator and three pulverisers, plus accompanying sifters, etc.

The machinery was driven electrically, and a modern and well-equipped laboratory built.

Visitors flocked to the Serpentine Paint exhibit at the Beaconsfield Show in March 1918, and a convoy of motor cars, carrying Governor Sir Francis Newdegate and the Premier, visited the ochre mine nearby.

As the only paint producer in Tasmania, the market seemed assured.

The company had strong backing from Launceston city councillors for their work, and City Park and Cataract Bridge contracts proved their products as the best and cheapest available.

Strangely though, despite painting a large building free for the Hobart Marine Board as a demonstration, they couldn't get contracts in the south until they realised a director of the Hobart Marine Board was agent for a British paint company.

Serpentine Paint survived for 20 years, despite a mystifying prejudice against local products, but sadly, the depression was the last straw and they folded in 1937.

Their now-unemployed paintmaker Alonza Flounders bought a shop in Paterson St, on the corner of Margaret St.

This didn't work out though. Alonza was too nice, and when his wife wasn't around he would give credit and never get paid.

The Flounders name then died out when only their daughters had children.