Mr Edmund Tyler has a nice little mill, up to 20000ft per week, at Wheelbarrow Bay —- this employs one vessel per week, and there are also craft constantly going with logs for the mills of Messrs Risby and Cheverton at Hobart. There are about a dozen families at Wheelbarrow Bay.
(Edmund Tyler was an ex-convict, important to the history of the area – but that is another story).
The Hastings mill is supplied with power by two 16hp engines, and is a large establishment, the largest sawmill I believe in Tasmania. Fifty two men are on the books —- Exclusive of this number there are always one, two, or three gangs of contractors extending trams or making branches.
The working week is, as in England 58 ½ hours. There is an Independent Chapel —- a public hall, —- and post and telegraph offices. Besides the mill and timber people there are about ten small freeholders scattered within a mile of the township, who grow fruit and other produce, work at contracts, etc.
(As you drive to the railway, a couple of houses either side of the road, just before Tongue Road, mark the place where once was the town of Hastings. First town in Tasmania with electric light – but that is another story).
