Hey guys! Guys!

"Er, hey, dude - don't look behind you, but...I think that's a T-Rex..."

Note: I've been extremely distracted of late, so there haven't been a lot of posts. Yesterday, I picked up a fairly good compact camera which I am getting to know, so hopefully this will put my butt into gear and I'll pick this back up again.

anyone for tennis?

Once upon a time, this was the Alexander Patent Racket Factory (photo). In a line of other Launceston world's firsts, this is the place that produced the world's first laminated tennis rackets. I believe the 1933 Wimbledon champion even used an Alexander racket.

These days, locals know this as the local PCYC, where kids can jump on trampolines, do gymnastics, and the like.

I love the smell of coal tar in the morning...

On Cimitere Street, you'll find the outer supports for one of the former gas cells for the gasworks complex. My understanding is that gas was extracted from coal via heating, in a process known (rather whimsically) as "coal gasification".

When the innards of this gas cell was demolished in the middle of last decade, there was a rather strong lingering smell of coal-tar - the main by-product of gasification - for quite a few months. Not the most unpleasant smell in the world to some of us weirdos!