Old Mill Site - Franklin

In the process of researching the area before we moved to Franklin, I found a web page describing a walk to an old mill site and boiler in the forestry area at the end of our road. We walk the dog up there a lot and have tried to find it a couple of times with no luck. The map isn't very clear and I'm sure the forest has grown and changed considerably since the book was written more than 20 years ago.

So when we were invited by a neighbour to join a group of people walking to the old mill site, we jumped at the chance. Yesterday we walked up there with about 25 lovely people, many of whom have been walking together for more than 20 years. Everyone parked in our driveway and set out from there. Baerli joined us, running about 50 metres ahead as usual.

The mill site itself has a large rusted old boiler and various other remnants of equipment hidden amongst the trees. Lorrie showed us a Pepperberry tree with its beautiful dark red stems and David was brave enough to eat one of the hot berries. This is a Tasmanian native plant. We've seen it as an ingredient on lots of menus but didn't know what the tree looked like until now.

After morning tea back down at the river, we walked up Hope Hill for a fantastic view of the Huon River. Unfortunately the camera battery had died so I only got a few happy snaps on my mobile. The steep climb up the hill was rewarded by a bowl or two of soup at Lorrie and Warren's place afterward.