52 Australian Country HOMES
A
s Steph Burbury describes a day
in the garden at Bowsden, her
home in Tasmania’s Southern
Midlands, it’s more like an
archaeological dig than an encounter with
Mother Nature. “You never know what’s
going to turn up,” she says. “In the 30 years
I’ve been living here we’ve uncovered
everything from fragments of old china
and pipes to 19th -century coins.”
Steph came to Bowsden, which has been
in the Burbury family since 1928, when she
married her husband, Charles. They have
raised their three adult sons on the historic
property near Jericho in the Oatlands
district, and continue a sheep-farming
tradition that was established in 1822, when
Dr John Maule Hudspeth arrived in Van
Dieman’s Land and took up a grant of 600
acres (243 hectares) on the Jordan River.
[Local lore has it that one of the district’s
early explorers, Hugh Germain, carried a
bible and a copy of The Arabian Nights, by
way of explanation for local place names
including Jericho, Bagdad and Jerusalem.]
Fortunately for the Burburys and anyone
else with a passing interest in Australian
history, Dr Hudspeth left a diary. It provides
a hair-raising glimpse into colonial
life, complete with attacks by hostile
Aboriginals, constant thefts by his convict
servants, house fi res and even the rape of
a neighbour. Having spent his early career
as a ship’s surgeon on a whaling vessel,
Dr Hudspeth and his young wife, Mary,
took the bold decision to head for Van
Dieman’s Land in pursuit of a better future.
The passage was not without incident as
the Hudspeth’s manservant was drowned
when he fell overboard and the ship
narrowly avoided shipwreck off Bruny
Island. Although they left their two-year-
old daughter, Elizabeth, in England in the
care of her grandparents, another daughter,
Alice, was born during the six-month
voyage and the pioneers went on to have
seven more children, three of whom died
in infancy.
When young Elizabeth fi nally joined
the family in 1834, her journey was
marred by a fall in which she injured
her knee. Her father and another doctor
decided to amputate her leg. Given that
it was performed without the benefi t of
anaesthetic, we can only imagine what
an ordeal this must have been. Elizabeth,These pages: The Burbury family bought Bowsden, with its convict-built homestead and outbuildings in- Steph and Charles raised their now adult children on the property, which has history at every turn. ›