Our final destination on one tour day was the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area. To pass some time, as we travelled up the picturesque Midland Highway we played eye spy with the shadows of the past. each representing a different theme from Tasmania's colonial history. How many can you remember seeing? Poor Solomon Blay, colony hangman trudging beside the midland highway with his swag over his shoulder was a favourite perhaps only surpassed by the policeman wheeling away the drunk in his police issued wheelbarrow assigned for exactly that purpose. Solomon holds the unenviable record of being the most successful and longest serving hangman in the colony. Recording 206 hangings in his 50 year career. Solomon was said to have never seen a single hanging, always turning his back at the crucial moment. Fiercely avoidant of publicity there are no known photographs of Solomon and when he died as the empire's most prolific executioner officials discovered 206 neatly arranged and tagged nooses in his possession. read more

Southern Midlands Council - Landmarks & Historical Buildings Near Me - Oatlands, TAS