Woolmers Estate is a farming estate located in

Longford, Tasmania Longford is a town in the northern midlands of Tasmania, Australia. It lies 145 m above sea level at the convergence of the Macquarie River and the South Esk River, 21 km south of Launceston and a 15-minute drive from the airport. It ...

, founded in 1817 by prominent grazier and member of parliament Thomas Archer. It consists of an 82ha property, including a two-part manor house, coach house, the National Rose Garden, extensive outbuildings and convict cottages and formal gardens. The main house consists of a brick nog weatherboard homestead, built in 1819, with an attached extensive addition in Italiate style, designed by

William Archer William or Bill Archer may refer to: * William Archer (British politician) (1677–1739), British politician * William S. Archer (1789–1855), U.S. Senator and Representative from Virginia * William Beatty Archer (1793–1870), Illinois politician ...

and built in 1842-1843. From the 1819 completion of the main house to 1994, it was one of the main ancestral homes of the Archer family. It is listed on the

Tasmanian Heritage Register The Tasmanian Heritage Register is the statutory heritage register of the Australian state of Tasmania. It is defined as a list of areas currently identified as having historic cultural heritage importance to Tasmania as a whole. The Register is ...

. Along with

Brickendon Estate Brickendon Estate is a farm estate located in Longford, Tasmania. It is one of the two main ancestral homes (with Woolmers) of the Archer family, prominent local pioneers and politicians. Founded in 1824, Brickendon Estate was one of the fi ...

, Woolmers was inscribed onto the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

in November 2007 as being of outstanding national significance because of their close association with the convict consignment system and in July 2010 included on the

World Heritage A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

list as

Australian Convict Sites Australian Convict Sites is a World Heritage property consisting of 11 remnant penal sites originally built within the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries on fertile Australian coastal strips at Sydney, Tasmania, Norfolk Island, ...

and amongst the world'sUNESCO's World Heritage "Australian Convict Sites" webpages
Accessed 2 August 2010

" .. best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and the colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts"

Name

Like most Archer properties, Woolmers was named after an English location or building - Woolmer's Park, in Hertfordshire.

National Rose Garden

The Woolmers Estate features the National Rose Garden, which was begun in 1999 and fundraised by public donation. It has 460 varieties of rose, and over 5000 individual plants.

History

In 1812, Thomas Archer arrived in New South Wales on the ship ''Guilford'', with a letter of introduction from

Lord Liverpool Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, (7 June 1770 – 4 December 1828) was a British Tory statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1812 to 1827. He held many important cabinet offices such as Foreign Secret ...

acquired from the influence of his uncle, proprietor of the London Courier. He achieved success as a public servant, starting as a Clerk in the Sydney Commissariat before being appointed acting deputy assistant commissary in November of that year. He was transferred to Port Dalrymple (modern George Town) as clerk in charge, in 1813. He was made magistrate in 1814 and coroner of Cornwall County in 1816. He married his wife Susan Hortle the same year. Various other promotions followed but he retired in 1821 to focus on his farm. In 1817, he had been granted 800 acres, which formed the core of his Woolmers Estate. By 1819, the very first part of modern Woolmers - the weatherboard section of the main house - was under construction, using wood logged on the property.

References

{{coord, -41.62525, 147.148167, display=title History of Tasmania Australian Convict Sites Tourist attractions in Tasmania Museums in Tasmania Open-air museums in Australia 1817 establishments in Australia Houses in Tasmania Archer family residences Tasmanian Heritage Register Convictism in Tasmania