Vineyard & Wine Sales
Holiday Accommodation
About Middleton
Middleton is a small settlement located on the D'Entrecasteaux Channel about 50 km (45 mins drive) south of Hobart.
The area has an abundance of Wildlife, Orchards, Vineyards, Restaurants, Cafes, Cheeseries and local stores. Middleton itself has a local store, a boat ramp and beach, with a children's play area. The Channel has an abundance of fish, with a good supply of Flathead!
The area's big event is Middleton Country Fair, held annually on the first Saturday in February and on your way down the channel in the weeks running up to the fair you will become aware of Scarecrows on fences, in paddocks and up trees. These are no ordinary scarecrows, they are humorously attired and their job is not to scare crows but rather to win a competition, the famous Middleton Country Fair Scarecrow Competition. Each year around 2,000 people attend with over 70 stalls with crafts, tasty foods, plants, animal displays, trade displays, pony rides, sheep shearing, bands, performers, vintage, veteran and classic cars collection, raffles, kid's games.
History
The first Europeans in the area were the explorer, Bruni D'Entrecasteaux and his crew, who discovered the Derwent River, Bruni (Bruny) Island, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and other inlets in 1792-93. Looking out from Middleton however, across the Channel and over Bruny Island, you can see Adventure Bay, where Captain Cook anchored in 1777. This Bay was also visited 11 years later by Captain Bligh in HMS Bounty.
The area was inhabited from the early 19th century, mainly by whalers, sealers and timber cutters. They were mostly brutish men who lived hard lives and treated the local Aborigines badly.
In 1852 a piece of timber 148 ft long 22 inches broad and 6 inches thick was pit sawn at Middleton for the Great Timber Exhibition in London where it was hailed by London newspapers as the 'Largest Plank in the World'.
Middleton was devastated in February 1967 by great bushfires which overall killed 62 people, destroyed over 1400 buildings and 1500 cars and burnt out large areas of the South West. At Middleton nearly 40 people survived the fire by standing in the sea around a small boat where a pregnant women and small children sat whilst the fire burnt the seaweed on the beach and at the edge of the water.