Description
About Spikey Bridge Vineyard
Spikey Bridge Vineyard is bounded on the old Midlands Highway by the Kerry Lodge Bridge, also known as Strathroy or Spikey Bridge (our favourite name for it). Spikey Bridge is one of Australia’s oldest surviving convict bridges built in 1835 and still in use today. It was added to the Tasmanian Heritage Register in April 2012 and is well worth taking some time to stop and check it out as you travel around Launceston.
Adjacent to Spikey Bridge was the Kerry Lodge Probation Station, a convict site operated for fourteen years where around forty male convicts endured hard labour of sandstone quarrying, stone cutting and construction of Spikey Bridge and the associated route of the main highway. This site has recently been investigated and the Kerry Lodge Archaeology Project is an initiative of the University of Manchester, Queen Victoria Museum and Arts Gallery and the Launceston Historical Society.
The Spikey Bridge Vineyard is surrounded by our convict history and we know that this land was used and travelled through by those people, likely using the water from Jinglers Creek to bathe in – the same creek that provides water for the vines on this fantastic historical site.
Broad Arrow Wines is a celebration of our convict history and nearly two centuries after their hardship and despair, we are using the broad arrow to point you on a journey of hope and excitement as we capture the natural flavours of this ancient island.
