BERT SPINKS & PEN TAYLER

In celebrating the pretty, quirky and peaceful towns around Tasmania, we ought to recognise that their establishment meant that traditional Aboriginal lifestyles ceased. Our architectural history is rather short here, but even the oldest sandstone edifice is built upon strata that contains thousands of years of human activity – and much longer than that, of landscape change. For those of us who dwell in Tasmania, it is well to understand that the places in which we base our lives have such forces behind them. For the visitor, I believe that our towns will be all the more interesting for the deep-map perspective we will try to offer, especially because – as I keep insisting – Tasmania is truly one of the most interesting places on Earth. 

~ Bert Spinks 

Towns of Tasmania: A Journey Through Time is a book produced by Forty South Publishing in collaboration with writer Bert Spinks and photographer Pen Tayler. With the highest quality content and production values, Towns of Tasmania celebrates the unique style and spirit of Strahan, Stanley, Ross, Richmond, Evandale, Deloraine, Bothwell, Queenstown, Triabunna, Derby, Franklin and Beaconsfield. 

Featured below is a chapter on the Tasmanian town of Stanley. In the words of Bert Spinks, “… this village on the far north-west coast is perhaps the most picturesque of Tasmanian towns, its historic buildings huddling around the base of a sheer, chocolate-brown slab of rock known as the Nut.”. Click the link below to read the full chapter.