Bridport is 91 km from Launceston and decades back in time. Swim at Mermaids’ Pool or buy a tray of oysters. The Seventies newspapers in the RSL Club just add to a great retro holiday.
The $15 Oyster Plate
I came to Bridport to admire the dazzling, starry night sky for a potential astrology event. I came back three times in three months. It’s very special.
Around 1500 people live in Bridport and although that number goes up at Christmas and during the school holidays, it’s still wonderfully empty.
Peace and quiet, room to move, the whole beach to yourself and clear night skies – this is old-fashioned Tasmania at its best.
Camping in Bridport
Tents and caravans are hidden in acres of trees facing a chain of stunning sandy beaches, but I was lucky to see one other person in the water when I went for a swim on a hot February afternoon.
It may as well be the 1950s here (I did in fact find a stash of New Idea magazines dated from the Fifties at the local C.W.A. or Countrywomen’s Association book stall).
If you are nostalgic for Australian summers past, this place will remind you. Lawn bowls. This being Tasmania, even a sweltering day cools down at sunset.
$15 Trays of Oysters
Buy trays of half-a-dozen oysters to take home for $15 in the local takeaway (The Bridge), fried scallops in batter – or self-cater on one of the many barbecues dotted around the waterfront, with local Scottsdale Pork (the farm is just up the road).
Scottsdale pork is in the pantries of many famous Australian restaurants. (It’s free range and probably the best sweet, crackling bacon you’ll ever try).
One good thing about self-catering in Bridport is the local produce, which is outstanding. Oh – and can we include Tasmanian wine as produce?
If you eat meat, though, you need to know about Scottsdale pork and buy locally to cook in your Air BnB or on the camp fire, barbecue or caravan grill. It’s not like any other pork you’ve tasted.
Make Your Own Sashimi
I bought a huge piece of sweet Blue Eye Trevalla for $50.85 over the counter at a place called At The Bridge, a café and takeaway at the entrance to town. It made sashimi for three, back at the Air BnB. The Bridge is at 2B Main Street, next to the delightful old fishing boats.
Bridport Takeaway Fish’n’Chips (everything is on Main Street) has battered scallops and crumbed prawn cutlets for $3.50 each. The prices are retro in Bridport as well as the atmosphere.
The Bridport Hotel is also big on scallops (crumbed) and has Scottsdale pork on the menu if you want to try it in the hands of a chef – and really good trivia quiz nights.
Cyclists like the pistachio yoyo biscuits and home-made carrot cake and lemon slice at the Bridport Café. It’s full of lycra lovelies on the weekend, those Mamils who can be spotted in the wild, drinking cappuccinos.
The One Dog Town
Bridport is one of those towns when you’ll walk past a noteworthy white dog on the way to the supermarket, then recognise the same noteworthy white dog for the rest of your holiday.
Beyond the shops, though, the beaches goes on for miles in both directions. Flat and shallow at one end and body board friendly, at the other.
Rent an AirBnB if you’d rather not camp. Or try the excellent local hotels and cottages.
The upmarket Barnbougle Lost Farm golf resort has off-season bargain rates for its luxury accommodation here, too. And the great thing is, you don’t have to play golf.
St Marks
We had a wonderful lunch at St. Marks (a converted church) and the bill was also a wonderful $80 for wine and a platter of cheese, smoked salmon, crackers and olives. You can go upmarket or campsite basic, in Bridport, as you wish.
One of Everything
Bridport has one supermarket, one pharmacy, one post office and general store, one police station, one bowls club…in fact it’s an ABC-TV sea change drama waiting to happen.
The Bridport Newsagency is one of those bait/ice/Tattslotto/magazine/soap/candles/fishing gear/toys/birthday cards/dry cleaning places that every great Australian beach town has.
It’s a galah town too. Some days in Bridport I saw more pink and grey galahs than people. Rosellas and wallabies can also be spotted in the bushland reserve, down town.
The Bridport Food Truck Park
In summer, mobile food vans cluster at the top end of town, to serve the campers, but everybody goes. The Bridport Food Truck Park also has live music.
You can’t get lost here either. The streets in the northern half of Bridport have male person names and those in the southern half have female names.
Things To Do
There’s almost nothing to do here. The whole point of time-travelling to Bridport is unwinding. Nothing happens, unless it’s a summer romance. Watch television, read a book, look at the stars, fall asleep.
If it’s fresh fish you want, and you’re not cooking at home, visit The Bunker Club (but book ahead) and enjoy retro card games and extremely retro copies of The Examiner from 1972 and 1974. Headlines include PM Gough Whitlam having tomatoes thrown at him. Those were the days. (The Bunker Club also uses The Examiner, Launceston’s historic newspaper as wallpaper).
Interesting rifles hang above the doorway, but then again, this is Bridport’s RSL Club.
Mermaids Alert
Mermaids’ Pool in Bridport is beautiful, with crystal-clear turquoise water and plenty of half-naked women combing their hair on rocks, singing.
Actually I made that bit up, but it does offers a naturally formed swimming pool, at high tide.
Mermaids’ Pool is hard to find. At low tide you might miss it because there’s no sign of anything resembling three metres of turquoise water.
Around 11.00am at high tide, though it appears, but do check the Tasmanian tides here. There’s a map here showing your long walk down Bentley Street, to Mermaids’ Pool, on Mermaids’ Beach, near Mermaids’ Lookout.
Bessie’s Bridport bar pays homage to the mythical mermaids with its Main Street shopfront, complete with mandatory seashell bra.
Body Surfing
If you prefer body surfing, take your board to Adams Beach, nearby.
One Bus, No Taxi, No Uber
If you don’t drive or cycle, you’ll be limited to the bus at Bridport. (There’s a reason why the town is so happily empty of people).
The bus takes you to other little Tasmanian towns like Lilydale and Scottsdale (Scottsdale, as I’ve mentioned, is famous for its free-range, gourmet bacon and pork).
Pick up the latest timetable for the 775, 776 and 777 bus online. Check if you can still pay with coins before you go.
A taxi-driver may have set up shop in Bridport by the time you read this, but then again – he may have been taken by a mermaid. Be warned, if you don’t drive, you can be stranded here.
I missed the only Sunday bus from Scottsdale to Bridport and there was no taxi. I had to get a lift with a kindly nurse.
Lavender Farms and Wineries
A world-famous lavender farm and wine region are a short drive away.
Pipers Brook is part of the Tamar Valley Wine Trail so if you like award-winning plonk and have a car – don’t miss it.
If you prefer essential oil take a 20 minute drive another way you’ll smell Bridestowe before you see it – if you keep your windows open.
Bridestowe is big with the Chinese, who love its lavender-coloured heat-pack teddy bear, Bobbie, as seen lovingly embraced by actress Fan Bingbing and model Zhang Xinyu.
You can buy lavender tea here. Pillow mist. Candles. Fudge. And alcohol.
Bobbie the Bear and the Queen Mother
Bobbie the Bear made Bridestowe famous in Asia. He costs $79. Don’t tell him you’re going to put him in the microwave when you get back to your Air BnB, though.
He’s Chinese heat pack royalty. However Bobbie is no match for real royalty…
When our late Queen Mother was a little girl, she was given a lavender bag (yes, a small lavender bag, nothing too extravagant) from Bridestowe, via her parents, the Duke and Duchess of York, who visited Northern Tasmania. I wonder if she kept it?
The Bridport Distilling Company
I have left one of the best bits until last. Although Tasmania was once alcohol-free (thanks to John and Jane Franklin, the teetotalling governors) it is now laden with distilleries.
The Bridport Distilling Company sells pre-mixed cocktails in cans (Raspberry Gin Fizz, Dark and Stormy) and won a bronze at The Melbourne Royal Show for its Scallop Shell Gin.
The Coastal Gin won the gold and you must try it, if you like the late Queen Mother’s favourite tipple. Try it all at the bar at St. Marks.
The Bridport Bunker Club Entertainment
Personally, my favourite place in Bridport was the outstanding Bunker Club with vintage playing cards from Wrest Point Casino with holes in them. I still don’t understand why. Did somebody point a pistol and shoot through them?
Crumbed scallops in the dining room are hard to resist – and hours of fun can be had, reading 50-year-old Tasmanian newspaper advertisements for $20,000 houses and $7000 blocks of land.
Now, if I really had the gift of time travel…
The Very Best of Bridport
Six Oysters for $22
Pub prices are hard to beat.
Half a dozen delicious oysters with a wedge of lemon costs $22. Twice cooked Scottsdale pork belly is $34.
Sunrise and Sunset Beach Walks
Bridport’s tiny population means your sunrise and sunset beach walks will be mostly to yourself.
Eggs Benedict at St. Marks
Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict at St. Marks is luxurious for breakfast. Bruschetta with fresh, creamy, torn mozzarella and tomatoes and balsamic is a vegetarian-friendly lunch.
The Café For Cyclists
Bridport has its own café for weekend cyclists. Better known as Mamils, these are the Middle-Aged Men In Lycra who make the Bridport Café a destination ride.
Rosellas and Wallabies
Local birdlife and wildlife is plentiful around sunrise and sunset in the bush. Pink and grey galahs also love it in Bridport.
Live Music and Food Vans
Live music, slow-cooked American barbecue specials (beef brisket, pulled pork, chicken wings) and an award-winning Van Diemens Land Creamery Ice Cream van draw campers at sunset, in an old field car park which has been decorated with tables and chairs, with sheltering sun umbrellas. You’ll find it across the road from the IGA Supermarket.
The Bridport Bunker Club
Website https://thebridportbunkerclub.com.au
Address: 67 Main Street, Bridport, Tasmania 7262
Hours: 5.00pm – 8.30pm (Ring to check opening days/hours).
Telephone (03) 6356 1146
