Meet your hosts
Glen and Karen Fry - Cambridge House B & B, Geeveston
Cambridge House is Geeveston's historic home, built by the town's founders, the Geeves family, who came from Cambridge in England. There is some debate about the year of construction, believed to be 1868 or 1870.
From early grand beginnings
The Geeves family owned a large sawmill across the road, so had ready access to great timbers and the house was fitted out with Huon pine doors and a Blackwood staircase. Karen and Glen believe it's really a stroke of good luck that the house still features unpainted Baltic pine ceilings in all the downstairs rooms, because if they had ever been painted over it would have been far too hard to get up there and strip them.
You can see the old photos of the house surrounded by apple trees, and the large garden and old fruit trees still surround the house today.
To neglect and even bomb damage!
Seemingly, during its chequered past, the house had a small bomb thrown at it in the 1920s, which blew out the back door and windows. There is debate about the cause of this early act of terrorism, but it has been attributed to a union dispute and the fact that scab labour was occupying the house, which was a boarding house at that time.
To the place of quiet beauty it is today
The house became run down, verandah rails were missing and it was very unloved for a period. It was used as a community centre in the 1970s and 1980s, before happily being restored in the late 1980s to its present splendour.
An extra feature which guests particularly enjoy is the permanent platypus population in the stream at the bottom of the garden. So used to visitors, these usually shy creatures are quite happy to go about their business whilst being watched from up close.
Sea(food) change for Brisbane couple
With over 55 years' experience between Karen and Glen in the Queensland seafood industry, the new hosts of Cambridge house bring a wealth of knowledge of the fruits of the Australian waters with them to their new life in southern Tasmania.
Glen is a keen cook. His forte is breakfast and he has built quite a reputation for his hearty breakfasts.
Karen has travelled extensively and has an eclectic collection of curios from far and wide, most of which have an interesting story attached to them. She's an avid amateur photographer and has an impressive photo library of her travels.
Before moving to Tasmania, they played host to family and friends from all over the globe in their Brisbane home and their hospitality is legendary. With their knack for making visitors feel welcome and relaxed, no one is a stranger for long with this gregarious couple.
Read more at Karen and Glen's Cambridge House B & B website
