An enigma is a puzzling thing or person; a riddle or paradox. Looking at the Ross bridge from the riverbank, do you perceive an enigma, a riddle – is your resourcefulness, inventiveness and cleverness tested in divining its answer or meaning? Who designed and built the bridge, and of what? Why is this unique bridge at a village in the midlands of Tasmania? Ingenuity is not needed for these questions. However,
What are the forms and content of the carvings? What was the context in which they were carved? Who carved the 180 arch stones and six keystones? What particular experiences influenced the stone carvers? How did they get away with it?
This talk will examine these questions.
Jennie Jackson is a descendant of nine convicts, one being Thomas Herbert who was a quarryman in the Ross Bridge road party. She is Tasmanian born and educated with degrees from the University of Tasmania in medicine and fine arts. While studying at the School of Art, majoring in sculpture, she was working weekends as a GP at Oatlands, doing the afternoon clinics at Campbell Town, crossing the Ross Bridge and lunching on the riverbank, entranced by the carvings. Hence her ten-year long research culminating in the book, The Enigmatic Art of the Ross Bridge.