Dorset Places 'Down Under'.

There’s many a link between the county of Dorset and place names ‘down under’.

On the Australian island of Tasmania, nicknamed ‘Tassie’, the Tolpuddle Vineyard can be found. Located in the Coal River Valley, some twenty minutes north-east of Hobart, it is reckoned to produce some of the country’s finest wines. It gained its name from the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were transported to Australia for forming an agricultural trade union. Leader of the Martyrs, George Loveless, served his sentence working on a property which is now the Tolpuddle Vineyard. A bottle of Tolpuddle’s finest can be bought at Fortnum & Mason in London for a modest £100 and a London restaurant can charge even more! While if your preference is for a beer there is a Dorset Lager produced in a brewery a few miles south of Bridport.

Tasmania has its own Land District of Dorset in the north-east of the island. Near the most north-easterly tip is Cape Portland, while some 50 miles to the west is the seaside holiday resort of Bridport. Known as the ‘Riviera of the North Coast’ in its earlier days, the town was reckoned to be a hideaway for both escaped convicts and pirates. In the second half of the 19^th century it enjoyed a boom when gold was discovered nearby. Some 30 miles further west, and also on the coast is Weymouth, which is much smaller than its English namesake as it has a population of only around 130 people. Continuing westward is the equally small village of Lulworth.

Tasmania also has English Dorset placenames such as Lyme Regis, Corfe Castle, Abbotsbury, Melcombe Regis, Swanage, Charmouth and Verwood. In 1982, Verwood sold the world’s most expensive superfine wool, produced by its Saxon merino sheep, to a Japanese textile company. While Verwood has its golden fleece unlike the English Dorset, ‘Tassie’ does not yet have a town or village named Wool!

So, it can still be said there is a little bit of Dorset in the Southern Oceans.

(Illustrations: Tolpuddle Pinot Noir wine label & Bridport, Tasmania.))

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