This was my second time in Oatlands and my second time visiting the Callington Mill.
My first time, I arrived late for the tour of the mill and this time, well I arrived just at the right time.
For it to be closed.
The Callington Mill is the only example of a Georgian windmill in Australia, and its history is fairly interesting. Basically by the time it was built it was already out of date and not many people used it.
It's also burnt down at least once in its history leaving only the stone tower.
On this occasion, when I visited, and after chatting to the head miller, I found out that tours are no longer being run; because the tours and the tour office didn't make any money.
The tourist office and the mill are run by the council, and the miller, who told me he'd been brought on to run the mill a few years ago had been improving the milling operation. Up to the point where the flours and other products they produced there were in demand, and they were now making money.
However...the tourist office, little cafe and building that they were located in, along with the staff, weren't making money. In fact, they were costing the council money, and dragging down the profits of the mill.
Eventually it came to a head and the head miller said to the council that the tourist office needed to either pull in more cash or they had to go. The unions got involved and it all ended in a bit of a stoush where the council was taken to court, looked at the books and finally had to pay the tourist office / union out to get rid of them.
Which suggests the mill, producing flour, is pulling in a lot of money.
The miller also told me that if there's tours running, that basically means he's not able to mill flour, and if he's not milling flour, then they're not making money.
I can see that perspective, if they're not milling flour that's making money, then the tour office, either through sales or tours should be replacing the money that would be made from milling. If they're not, then that's not good business.
According to Mark, the host of my Air BnB, whom I spoke to regarding the mill later that afternoon, the tourist office would get turned into a whisky making facility and that tours would begin again, once things were worked out between the whisky makers and the mill operations.
So maybe when I make another visit to Tasmania I'll try a third time to have a tour of the mill.