We have just endured the second wettest September on record down here in Tasmania. Personally we are feeling a bit ambivalent – yes, we needed the rain – our Hydro dams are now 43 % full again and our parched midlands green, with creeks and rivers running, BUT – we operate an outside tourism experience! We have been running Louisa’s Walk for over four years now and in all that time, have hardly ever had to cancel. During August and September this year, we have had to cancel quite a few times much to everyone’s disappointment.

However, yesterday, the rain caught us by surprise. We met, as usual, outside the Cascade Brewery building in a fairly steady rain. “It’ll be all right” Louisa said “It’s starting to brighten!”. Well it didn’t. The rain continued for the full two hour performance not easing until the very end. Our audience was warmly clad and all had umbrellas but we find it impossible to perform under umbrellas. Just after the nursery yard I was so cold & wet I could hardly remember my lines!

As we parted from our game and appreciative audience, I started to fantasize about a good tot of rum in a hot cup-of-tea. We called into the bottle shop on the way home & picked up a bottle (I’ll use it up in Christmas cakes!). We stripped off our soaking costumes and I luxuriated under a hot shower. Wrapped in a warm, fluffy dressing gown, roasting next to our newly installed pot-belly stove, that hot toddy was the closest thing to heaven I’ve tasted in a long time. I can still recall its glow as it spread through me. The things we do to tell Louisa’s story! Even today, when the weather has been much kinder, my cloak is still too wet to wear, despite being hung near our wood stove overnight. That’s how wet it was!

Are you like me when you visit a new place or city – do you Google “things to do in ……”? At Louisa’s Walk we are thrilled to be rated the number one thing to do in Hobart on the TripAdviser site. So many of our audience members come through that recommendation it’s awesome!
We spent the morning meeting up with two other actors to discuss a new play we will be performing for the Southern Midlands Council at the Oatlands Spring Festival. A read through has been scheduled (our place over a meal) and rehearsal dates discussed. Ability to “do” various accents were tossed around and we are all set, we hope, for another good play bringing the history of Tasmania to life. On your next trip to Tassie, do Louisa’s Walk of course, but also, check out the Festival on the 18th October in the historic Midlands town of Oatlands, and see the Live History team in action!
After this meeting we did some brochure dropping – going around all the B. & B’s and Hotels replacing our old brochures with our new. This is very necessary as we have just, after four years, had a price rise. A ticket to experience Louisa’s story will now cost you $30.00 and a Family Ticket will be $75.00. It’s really important to retrieve all the old brochures, with the old prices, to avoid confusion. On our rounds, we discussed with the various proprietors, the use of the internet as a means of booking and paying for, accommodation and activities, before a holiday, online. I would estimate that around 75% of our business is generated online now. People come in via our web site and Louisa’s Walk is booked, availability checked and then paid for before the holiday has even started. Whilst this has increased the time we spend on the computer, it is also a great means of spreading the word. This time last year, very few of our bookings came through the internet, now so many do. It will be interesting to see what summer brings!

When we perform the Primary School version of Louisa’s Walk, we always encourage the students to “bring their imaginations”. As I was walking along ahead of our audience yesterday having just “Skulled” across the road in our imaginary boat, the thought occurred to me that “bringing our imaginations” is also true for the adult performance. I was reminded of my childhood when the best and most memorable games, were the ones without toys but where we used our imaginations to explore all sorts of lands and situations. These games live, these games endure!

Today’s children live in a different world from the one in which I grew up – we barely had television! Now, screens and modern, electronic gadgetry dominate their lives. Perhaps the appeal of Louisa’s Walk is the fact that it is minimalist and that our imaginations have to come into play. I was told the other day by a teacher who had brought a class last year and who was booking to bring her current class, that the children had not stopped talking about Louisa’s Walk “it was better than rock-climbing!”

Naturally we feel enormously proud of the effect that Louisa’s Walk has on almost all who experience the story but we have often been puzzled by its appeal. Yes, we know we are good actors and we know from the feedback we receive that we have a unique and original product but it’s like there is another dimension altogether. I call it soul. Something you can’t manufacture. It’s humbling to feel that we have created something that moves people so deeply. We feel privileged to do so.

Sad but true – locals are not terribly interested in what’s on their own doorstep! As mentioned in a previous post, we have recently returned from a great holiday in Port Macquarie. Apart from enjoying wonderful weather (we came back with mid-winter tans!) we “did” all the touristy things, including most of their history attractions – it’s what you do when you’re on holiday. If it were not for the fact that at “Live History – Louisa’s Walk” we interpret the history of Tasmania for a living, it is doubtful that we would have visited half the historic places in Tasmania that we have. As it is, we have become fascinated with anything to do with Tasmania’s history – it is a rich and compelling tapestry.
Ask most locals where the Female Factory is & what it is and you would get a variety of answers, most of them incorrect. Many would walk through Degraves Street with, perhaps, some awareness of the site and its past but no great desire to explore this further. Whilst a few locals do express an interest and have visited us at “Louisa’s Walk”, the majority of our audience are from interstate or are international visitors. However, when this pattern changes is when locals have visiting friends or relatives – known in the industry as “V.F.R.”. This is when locals come & visit us and “do” all the local attractions and very welcome you are!
The above is not a criticism it is just an observation; most of us locals “do” the attractions when we have a friend or relative to show them off to!
So, welcome all of you Tasmanians with “Visiting friends and relatives”. Come and learn about your local history, particularly the part that women have played in shaping it. Expect to be educated, entertained and informed as the “Louisa’s Walk” actors take you back to the 1840’s and play out Louisa’s story. Laughter and tears and a roller coaster ride of emotions lie in store for you as her story engages you. Storytelling – it’s the oldest form of entertainment known to mankind – Judith and Chris at “Louisa’s Walk” are experts in the craft, come and see for yourself.

We had some brave visitors from the Gold Coast today. Hobart’s temperature was ten degrees if that. The drizzle held off – just. However, as I trotted off down the path ready to start Louisa’s Walk for what must be the 750th time, my eyes were distracted by the promise of Spring. Just under the plane trees where we finish up, thousands of bulbs, planted by Hobart City Council’s dedicated band of gardeners, are just beginning to bud. It is always the promise of hope that makes us, as human beings, feel encouraged and, this sight today, did just that. I imagined that, in a few week’s time, the spot will be alive with colour and something to behold.

We have just returned from our annual break which, this year, we spent in sunny Port Macquarie. I still have a tan but it is fading fast. One of the things about going away on holiday, is that it makes you appreciate where you live. Whilst we loved the sunshine, the beaches and the friendly people of Port it is wonderful to be back in familiar territory. Hobart is a beautiful place and we love the work that we do, bringing history alive for locals and tourists alike. Yes, the grey skies were lowering today, the temperature a chilly ten degrees or even less, but the history and the beauty of our buildings withstand the winter just as they have done for over two centuries.

Experiencing Louisa’s Walk in less than ideal conditions, brings home to our audience a starker reality than the sunny days. The Cascades Female Factory was not sited to catch the sun. The high, stone, surrounding walls blocked out any sun that did shine. Being a female convict was grim, cruel and without any form of comfort. Visitors to Louisa’s Walk, in winter, can better identify with conditions than on the bright, sunny days. The Hobart Rivulet is cascading down the mountain, at present, adding a dramatic touch to the already beautiful surroundings. And,at the conclusion to Louisa’s Walk, the beautiful, spring bulbs promise HOPE – something the convict women hardly dared to dream about. Looking for something to do in Hobart on a winter’s afternoon? Try Louisa’s Walk – as our visitors said today “You’ve made a dull day seem bright!”.

Prompted by the nomination for World Heritage Listing, some vital work has been undertaken at the Cascades Female Factory recently . Visitors to the site in the past few months, would have met piles of building materials, including steel, to help stabilise the leaning wall, and stones to create gabion walls instead of the wooden fences previously in place.

A section of the perimeter wall in Yard One had been temporarily buttressed out into the street to stop it bowing further. Now, as part of the ongoing Conservation Management Plan, a steel structure has been built inside the wall and bolted to the wall to prevent any further deterioration. If you think this is just any old bracing however, think again. An archaeological dig, earlier this year, established the location of the administration buildings and prison gates which greeted the inmates on their arrival at the Female Factory. The steel structure has been erected so as to replicate, as far as possible, the shape and size of these buildings. Whilst not attempting to “reconstruct” these buildings, the steel frame, which will include an observation deck, maintains the integrity of Yard One of the Female Factory.

At the time of writing, we have not performed Louisa’s Walk with this structure in place, but we know it will enhance the experience of Louisa’s life in the Female Factory, and will give us all an important visual grasp of the scale of this forbidding place. Audience members who have experienced Louisa’s Walk almost all say “You really take us back there!” Our drama is so compelling it matters little that most of the buildings on this important site are no longer there. However, even though imagination is a wonderful thing, it will really help to have this structure to help visitors see the scale of the original prison.

We have just returned from a wonderful five week break, ready to inform and entertain you anew of the plight of early convict women in the unique way that is, Louisa’s Walk. History comes alive for another year!

Whilst Louisa’s Walk will always be the core and flagship of our Live History business, a glance at the pages of our web site will reveal that we can be commissioned to research,script & perform any historic event at a chosen venue. Last year we received just such a commission from Hydro Tasmania to script and perform a play portraying the history of the Hydro in this State for the National Trust Heritage Festival this month. The theme for this year’s Festival is ” Water- Our Island’s Life Force” a gift for the Hydro and a gift for us! Last year, Hydro Tasmania launched a book entitled “Ticklebelly Tales” written by Heather Felton. This is an excellent book for anyone with an interest in the history of the development of hydro-electric power in Tasmania. It’s also a huge tome & took Chris (the author and playwright of Live History) many hours unpacking and scrutinising its pages for stories and anecdotes that he felt could be dramatically re-lived.
Last Saturday saw the Premiere performance of “Ticklebelly Tales” (we decided that such a delightful quirky title deserved to be re-used, in fact it’s the name for the married men’s quarters at Tarraleah, one of the early power stations). This was actually performed at Tarraleah, a fitting site given the content of the play! This old Hydro village has now been converted into a prestigious tourism complex. It’s luxurious yet completely preserves the integrity and feel of the Village. With our cast of four – we had to employ a couple of male actors as Chris found it too difficult to write about such a blokey history just using he and I – we performed the World Premiere of “Ticklebelly Tales” in the old Highland Church (now beautifully converted to a conference centre).
We had been unsure about what houses we would receive as Tarraleah is a good two hours from Hobart but, we played to two nearly full houses. Our audiences were so appreciative and gathered around the “Stage Door” afterward or spoke to us whilst we were on the Power Station tour which followed, all saying how informative and entertaining they had found the show.

As we drove home through the highlands of beautiful Tasmania, through the bush and along the winding road to Hobart we realised that we would never again take switching on an electric light for granted. Now we had seen the surge towers, the penstocks, the canal. We had seen the huge pylons marching down the valley bringing power to the people and because of Heather Felton’s book and our play we now understood some of the hardship endured by those early workers to bring about this great power scheme.

We have six more performances: four in Hobart on the 14th & 15th of May and two right over on the West coast on the 23rd May.

Bringing history to life in this way is fascinating for us and our audiences. We have learned so much.