Fact sheet

Saving Ancanthe Fact Sheet:

  

• Ancanthe Park was originally purchased 170 years ago and will celebrate its bicentennial in 2041.
• It was the vision of Lady Jane Franklin, the wife of Arctic explorer and Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen’s Land Sir John Franklin.
• Lady Jane Franklin’s vision was to create a museum, a centre for learning, and was inspired by nature. She chose Ancanthe, on the lower slopes of Mount Wellington, surrounded by farmland and trees.
• The Franklins were very interested in natural history, literature and the arts. They introduced a system for secondary education and helped to make Tasmania the intellectual centre of the Australian colonies during their stay.
• Lady Jane and Sir John Franklin purchased 410 acres of land at Ancanthe, including 10 acres of garden and later 400 acres of working farm land adjacent.
• She created a unique sandstone Grecian temple in the garden which has now become the Lady Franklin Museum.  
• The land has been progressively sold and subdivided. It now consists of merely 4 acres.
• The Lady Franklin Museum is now home to The Arts Society of Tasmania, which hosts exhibitions all through the year.
• The park provides the community with a unique environment to enjoy its winding paths and grassy embankments, while surrounded by the native wilderness and its wildlife.
• The proposed subdivision of the adjoining land will sever the final link to Mount Wellington, making Ancanthe a small island in suburbia, and offending its cultural and historical significance. 

Further information can be found at www.facebook.com/Ancanthe