Text Kiln

Beside this barn is a disused waterwheel which generated electricity to dry the hops

Bushy Park is a quaint town of old houses, deciduous trees, moral fervour, and hop fields which seem to envelop every building and road. The tall wooden and metal frames holding up the hop vines are broken by lines of Lombardy Poplars, with neat and unusually shaped oast houses scattered in the fields away from the road.

Where is it?: Tasmania: South. 58 km from Hobart on the Lyell Highway between Hobart and Queenstown.

Things to see and do:

• Text Kiln constructed by Ebeneezer Shoobridge in 1867. On the walls of the Text Kiln are quotations from the Bible, such as 'And these words that I command thee this day shall be in thine heart and thy shall write them on the posts of thine house and on thine gate'.
• Hawthorn Lodge (1869), the original home of Robert Shoobridge (son of Ebenezer) and his family. It has been turned into a guest house.
• Water Race (3km) built by William Shoobridge, son of Ebenezer, which takes water from a dam on the Styx River and runs it to the Oast House.

Events: The Derwent Valley Community Market operates on the 3rd Sunday of each month in the old hospital grounds - lots of bric-a-brac, fresh produce and crafts.

Surrounding area:

New Norfolk (19km south east): main town in the region.

Mt Field National Park (16km west): featuring Russell Falls, Marriotts Falls; Lady Barron Falls; Horseshoe Falls; Lake Dobson, Tarn Shelf walk, Wylds Craig walk; Florentine Valley walk; Tall Trees walk.

Magra (22km south east): In the grave yard of the Methodist Church is the grave of Betty King, the first white woman to set foot on Australian soil.

Black Hills (24km south east): Olmec Alpaccas

Plenty (11km south east) The Salmon Ponds is the oldest trout hatchery in the Southern Hemisphere - in operation since 1864. Includes Museau of Trout Fishing and Hall of Fame.

About Bushy Park

Bushy Park is located about 58 km from Hobart in the Derwent Valley. Its attractions include the Text Kiln, Hawthorn Lodge, and The Water Race, not to mention its olde worlde charm. The village is close to Russell Falls and the Styx Valley.
The first person to settle in the dramatically named Styx valley was AWH Humphrey who arrived in the area as early as 1812. The tiny settlement which grew up at this time was named Humphreyville but this was later changed to Bushy Park.
In 1822 William Shoobridge arrived in Van Diemen's Land with some hops. He is credited with being the first person to grow hops in Tasmania although there are other claims. In 1824 a bushranger, John Logan, shot at Shoobridge as he tended his hops. In a stroke of good fortune, the bullet was deflected off a metal object in the pocket of Shoobridge - the event was put down to providence and hence the name of the valley.
In 1867 William Shoobridge's son, Ebenezer, came to the Styx valley and began growing and processing hops. He was, by any definition, a remarkable man who, with a combination of religious zeal and hard nosed capitalism, managed to make Bushy Park the largest producer of hops in both Australia and, that dubious accolade, the Southern Hemisphere. He built the iconic Bushy Park Text Kiln.
Behind the town is a 3 km water race (built by William Shoobridge - son of Ebenezer) which takes water from a dam on the Styx River and runs it to the Oast House. The water was used to drive a huge waterwheel which generated electricity to dry the hops. It is claimed that Bushy Park had electricity before Hobart.
The hop industry flourished over the proceeding years with 2,600 people making the journey to Bushy Park to harvest the crop. Henry Jones of IXL Jam fame became involved in the hop industry in the early 1900's by becoming a hop trader.
In 1970 the first signs of over production became apparent in the markets. This led to smaller producers leaving the industry and by 1980 all the existing Hop properties were amalgamated at Bushy Park. In 1988 the present owners of the property, Haas Investments purchased the property from Elders IXL. The new owners began a period of upgrade including the present harvest complex that was built in 1992.
The harvest complex is one of the largest and most modern in the world with a capacity to pick 35-40 tons of dry hops per day. The two picking machines will pick 80 vines (max) per minute and dryers dry a floor in 8 hours.
The present area of hops being grown at Bushy Park Estates is 227 hectares. From this area we expect a yield of 650 tons of dry hops. With new varieties bred from the research station at Bushy Park Estates this yield is expected to increase. Sheep are grazed in the hop growing areas to eat the base growth from the hop plant before harvest.

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