Ross Visitor Information Centre

Origionally built to house the male convicts working on the Ross Bridge and the road between Hobart and Launceston.  From 1848 to 1854 it operated as the Ross Female Factory, housing female convicts and their babies.  The 'factory' accomodated two classes of convicts.  The crime class these women were kept on the site and worked in either the kitchen, laundry or garden.  The hiring class were the better behaved women and they would be 'hired out' to the surrounding farms and houses as domestic servants.   Today the site has the remains of the assistant superintendant's and overseer's cottages which includes a scale model of what the site used to look like as well as other interpretive displays. 

The site will undergo some major changes within the next 12 months as the result of a grant to update the interpretation.  Including the new fence completed in December 2008.
Further information can be obtained at the Tasmanian Wool Centre.

This not for profit organisation was formed in 1988 as a bi-centenial project.  It was funded two thirds by private and local interest and one third by the government.  It not only houses a fantastic woollen retail area, and the Ross Visitor Information Centre, but also has two museums.  The History museum showcases  early life in Ross,  the feel and touch Wool exhibition shows the importance of the wool industry to this region.  Both have audio visual displays.  The centre also organises guided tours for pre-booked groups, contact us for more information.
Open Daily (except for Christmas Day and Good Friday)
Monday - Friday 9.00am - 5.30pm - Sat & Sunday 9.00am - 5.00pm

Located on a windswept hill overlooking Ross and the surrounding countryside.  Many of these stones date back to the 1830's and 1840's.  Some of them have been attributed to stonemason Daniel Herbert.  Herbert's own grave is here marked by a table-top tombstone he designed for his son who died in infancy. 
There is also a substantial monument built for two young children of the McCraken family wo both died on 3rd June 1853 from scarlet fever.  Another stone honors Phillip Maher, barrack sargent of Ross who also served in the Waterloo campaign.

Located at the crossroad intersection of Bridge and Church Streets. 

They have been named:
Temptation (Man O Ross Hotel),
Recreation (Town Hall),
Salvation (Roman Catholic Church) and
Damnation (Original Goal now a private residence)

The Uniting Church was opened in 1885. The church is in a traditional gothic style, with an interior ceiling made of oregon pine and tasmanian blackwood pews.  The uniting church replaced the First Methodist church which fell into disrepair.

Completed in 1868 and consecrated the following year by Charles Brumby the Bishop of  Tasmania at the time. 

It was erected using stone from the original church built in 1835 that had to be demolished due to the failure of the foundations. The clock in the tower  was made in Birmingham, England and the organ inside is  over 100 years old.

The catholics were mainly convicts and emancipits and were too poor to build their own place of worship and the earlier  services were conducted at the female factory site after it closed as a prison.
In 1920 Father John Graham arranged for the present church to be converted from a store, bakery and residence. 
The walls were raised and the roof and tower added.  The spire was rebuilt with a cross on top in the early 1980's.

The old stables on the hill, south of the bridge were part of the early military establishment. 

 The stables, along with the cowshed and chicken house are all built into the side of the hill with the natural rock providing part of the structure. 
The manger in the cowshed is carved out of the rock.

The war memorial commemorates the young men of the district who served their country in times of war.  The earliest is a memorial to Trooper Fitzallen aged 20 who died in service at the Boer War in 1902. 

There is a 15 pound field gun which is also a relic from the Boer War, it is one of only two left in Australia and is a bit of a mystery as to why it is here in Ross. 

The World War I memorial, topped by a statue of an infantryman, is unusual in that it also includes the rank of the soldier. A plaque recognising Lewis McGee who was awarded the Victoria Cross in WWI.  There are other plaques that list the servicemen of World War II and the Korean War.

 The library was the original headquarters of the Royal Army Ordnance Corps whose crest is carved above the lintel of the door. 

The building dates from 1836.  The recreation rooms were added as a memorial to the soldiers of WWII.  In the 1840s it also housed the office of the visiting magistrate dealing with convict misdemeanours.

Built in the 1830's this cottage was the first headquarters of the imperial troops when Ross was a garrison town.  It is now a Private Residence.

The Barracks were built to house the soldiers responsible for maintaining law and order during the early settlement of Ross.  In 1831 there was one officer, one sargent and eighteen men stationed here. This building is now a Private Residence.

Built in 1875 and operational from 1877 to 1999 when falling pupil numbers forced it's closure. 

This was one af a handful of schools that operated in Ross in those early days.

Completed in 1908 and used for the training of the milita and volunteers of the Commonwealth Defence Force.