Construction began on it in 1847, and it was sold 20 years later, an unfinished shell of a building. Its ruins now stand as a reminder of the ambitions of one person, doomed to fail.

Today, on Birralee Road, there stands a nature reserve, purchased in 1999 with Commonwealth money, that is earmarked by the Gutwein government to be the site for a maximum security prison.

The Minister for Corrections, Elise Archer, insists she is being "fully cognisant" of the environmental impacts a prison would impose on this site, yet seems happy to plough ahead in spite of evidence showing a wealth of flora and fauna right on the proposed prison footprint. Should she continue to move forward, we may well see history repeat itself.

This project is already more than a year late in her projected timeline, and will continue to be delayed - because she has chosen the wrong site.

In 20 years time, one can wonder if the prison will be colloquially called "Archer's Folly 2.0" - assuming it ever gets built in that location, of course.

THERE was once a call from space to earth.

It was this message: "Houston we have a problem".

I am over 60 and have had my first AstraZeneca shot.

I am beginning to feel like us chronologically challenged folk have been tied to a stick and put out as sacrificial lambs.

My hope is that the government is telling us the truth and that they are not just trying to use up some very expensive vaccines that have been proven to be not so good.

Maybe it is time to throw them out, as some European countries have done.

I READ that the City of Launceston council is introducing more modern parking meters (The Examiner, June 18).

The ones we have at the moment are sufficiently difficult for locals and tourists alike to master without having to upgrade our pilots licence for the next generation.

Rather than embark on this new project may I suggest that the council clean up the CBD and make it a far more inviting place for us all to visit?

At the moment it's boring, dirty and with far more empty shops than we want.

I HAVE often been disappointed by actions of the City of Launceston council but none more than the sale or lease of car park spaces to Care car parks which sees the revenue from them go interstate.

Every time a block becomes vacant, Care appears to get the right to collect the fees.

We used to see people emptying meters, which is expected anywhere, but LCC seem to decide on this alternative.

It has kept more shoppers out of the city than anything else.

My friends and I won't risk Care's huge fines, we use the council car parks.

I SPRING to the defence of Senator Eric Abetz's opinion (The Examiner, June 15) on the little Tamil family, currently residing in Western Australia on temporary visas.

This is a family that came to Australia, because they were able to pay illegal traffickers, and were made aware of Australia's border protection laws, that prohibit residency to those who choose this type of entry.

This family and their supporters have explored many options on how they might be permitted to settle in Australia.

The Tamil family must return to their country of origin, or be sent to another country where no such laws exist.

Compassion is extremely motivational, but it is not always in the best interests of society, if it wishes to undermine our lawmakers and the law of the land.

The only way to permit this family to stay in Australia is to repeal the border protection law.

Senator Abetz is an example of the kind of lawmakers this country has enjoyed for many years. He is honest, fair, trustworthy and steadfast.

SOME would apparently award that now-famous Tamil family defacto citizenship despite the parents not being bona fide refugees (The Examiner, June 16).

Let's not forget the 2008-14 crisis when leniency resulted in over 50,000 unauthorised arrivals, 1200 confirmed drownings and cost blow-outs now nearing $20 billion.

Many arrivals from that era will moreover never find work in an advanced economy, leaving them forever dependent on a Centrelink already overstretched by other demands.

Why revisit disastrous policies which Labor itself reversed to curtail the damage of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's witlessly repudiating Howard-era steadiness?

Instead let's monitor unfolding events at America's southern border as President Joe Biden struggles to find some happy medium between 'yes' and 'no' to people smuggling.

Better to monitor follies abroad than repeat them here, where sensible Aussies recall the terrible price of concocting asylum policy one tear-stained face at a time.