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By Libby Hyett
Summer in Launceston is different to summer in the Hawkesbury. It’s not hot. It’s not moderately hot. It’s cold and windy, with piercing sunlight from dawn until nine in the evening. With Tasmania’s chilliest start to summer for many years, snowing in elevated areas, we’re grateful to experience the Apple Isle’s brilliant sunshine without the crippling heat of the Hawkesbury. Air pollution above the Apple Isle is minimal, bringing the brightest, cleanest urban landscape anywhere in the world. Steep streets and houses stacked on houses meld into the mountain ridgeline.
A view from Launceston, Tasmania’s second-largest city, gazes over farmland dotted with cattle. Gingerbread houses and rows of chimneys in this delightful, bright town remind us of the Australian architectural history we dearly love in our own Hawkesbury Valley.
Launceston is a smaller city than Sydney. Travel to major events is negligible however, with the exception of retail and hospitality, many services close down. We noted wait times of three weeks for a non-urgent medical scan (clumping around with crutches and a moon boot in the interim).
The Gazette interviewed a three-generation family of Launnie locals to find out how Tassie Devils celebrate the New Year. “I’m boring,” says Michael Ritchie, aged 71. “I go to the casino not that I gamble, they have a Scottish pipe band and fireworks.
One set of fireworks for the kids at 9:30; then another at midnight. "I’m excited for the new year ahead and hoping it’s a good one, in my new class,” says Ritchie’s granddaughter Lily, aged 8. “I have a boy teacher. He’s fairly young and he’s not strict, he’s quite fun. Every week when we’re good we get points, but if we’re bad, we lose points. With our points we can buy something every Friday afternoon, but we have to pay rent for our chair every week. I do not like that.” Lily’s mum, Clare, says, “I like that New Year’s comes with a month’s holiday so we can make the most of the sun and time together. It’s the longest holiday break we get, and typically the best weather.”
The Gazette checked out Beerfest at Royal Park on the Tamar River. Beerfest began in 2011 as the Esk Beerfest, growing to include live music, live comedy and, of course, plentiful food and drinks. “The City of Launceston’s signature New Year’s Eve event delivers a memorable, safe and fun experience for all ages, featuring a creatively curated program of food, drink and live entertainment,” says Mayor Matthew Garwood.
New Year’s in the Hawkesbury is often quiet, sometimes spent with family or friends; always with the background boom of fireworks at 9pm and midnight. New Year’s in Launceston is the same. Maybe home is wherever you feel safe and comfortable. The perspective gained from being away from home made us feel our presence on this land is so transient. The comfort bubble of home is small and fragile.
We often hear people talking about New Year’s as an opportunity for change. New year’s is an arbitrary marking of the passing of time, but change is constant and relative, like the speed of a blowfly inside a train.
Can we trust we’re OK as we are? Maybe we don’t need to focus on who we want to be, but instead look to the immediate future the one next step, the only thing we can control.
