With 186 architectural decorations carved in relief by convicts, the Ross Bridge is an expression of defiance against the monarchy and the establishment – a rare, historic document written in stone. Some stones are poignant, but many are subversive, satirical, cynical and lewd. They depict crime and punishment, home and separation, ever-present death and hope of re-birth.

The bridge sculptures are one of the great enigmas of Tasmanian art. Nobody knows whence came the strange shapes in the carvings: anthropomorphic and hybrid animals, human-like creatures from a fairy world, floral forms, images of water, the crushed earth, the U-forms that look like wombs, the lozenges that look like vulvas, and the phalli on ubiquitous hares, as well as weird masks, ropes and tools.

As a descendant of convict quarryman, Thomas Herbert, of the Ross Bridge party, Jennie Jackson was drawn to research the details of the carvings. Thanks to developments in photographic technology and easier access to archives, Jackson has been able to reconsider earlier interpretations and explore the intrigue of these stones.

THE AUTHOR: Jennie Jackson’s work as a general practitioner in the midlands of Tasmania took her across the Ross Bridge between Oatlands and Campbell Town every rostered day, while she was majoring in sculpture at the Tasmanian School of Art. As she researched and interpreted the details of the carvings, she realised the value of her practice of Jungian psychology and women’s health. Over eight years, she has prepared biographies of Daniel Herbert, Charles Atkinson, Rum John Conn and Mary Witherington and has developed an archive, a web site, lectured, written essays and published a small book with The People’s Library, The Ross Bridge, A Cast of Characters (2018). Her aim is to educate everyone about the historical significance and rarity of the convicts’ subversive art before the carvings weather away.