Mersey Bluff

‘Oh, days at the Bluff. The big day was New Year’s Day when you’d have to be there early in the morning with your blanket to get your family spot. And I can remember the train coming from other parts of Tasmania, bringing loads of people to spend a picnic day at the Bluff on New Year’s Day. And the memories of my mother in her hat, and I was a pale white little boy, who was subject to sunburn and still am. I used to get dressed to go in to swim. My mother wouldn’t let me go in swimming until an hour after lunch, so all the food I’d eaten for lunch had settled… I’d drown if I went in too early after lunch.’
— Jim

‘There was this lovely old kiosk, and it had a big old veranda around it where you could go and have afternoon tea. We used to often go over on the rocks, round towards where the walk is now up to the lookout… So we used to often spend times sunbaking over there, cause that was what you did in the summer, you went to the beach and covered yourself in oil and got as brown as you could be. You didn’t know anything about skin cancer or anything like that, so you didn’t worry about that.’
— Judy

‘When we were kids, we’d take mum’s hamper out and just sit it on the table and that’d be for when mum got out there, the table would be reserved. That’s the way it was.’
— Arden