Windmill Point Tree Sculptures

 
Once known as Point Macquarie and Hang Tree Point with guns for an intended battery and a flagstaff, it became Windmill Point after a windmill and miller's cottage were built. 
 
The first submarine telegraph cables connecting Tasmania to Victoria came ashore at East Beach at Low Head in 1859 and 1869, with the telegraph station built at Low Head. In 1878 the manager of the Eastern Extension, Australia & China Telegraph Co. purchased land at Windmill Point and built a residence 'Fasifern' on the Esplanade. 
 
An underground cable was extended to George Town and a two-storey wooden building designed by Alexander North was built next door and in 1891 telegraph operations were transferred to the new Cable Station.
 
The Cable Station

After the Commonwealth Government took over, operations were moved to a new Post and Telegraph Office on the corner of Macquarie and Anne Sts in 1909. The Cable Station was then used as holiday accommodation and a boarding house. It was condemned and demolished in 1969 and the land was donated to the Council.
 
The Macrocarpa trees here were planted as a hedge to shelter the Cable Station. In 2016 some were cut down and chainsaw artist Eddie Freeman carved the trunks to reflect some history of the site, including the three men hauling a cable ashore. 
 
Tree sculptures by Eddie Freeman
 
Explorers George Bass and  Matthew Flinders spent over two weeks in the Tamar Estuary during their circumnavigation of the island in the Norfolk in 1798. Flinders' cat Trim is included even though he was not on this trip. 
 
Lt Col William Paterson was in charge of the first 205 Europeans to arrive in Northern Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in Nov. 1804 and camp around the Cove before moving to York Town.
 
The whale and its calf relate to early activities in Bass Strait and more recent seasonal visits to the Tamar and Little Penguins inhabit the Low Head peninsular providing a local tourist attraction.
 
HMS Buffalo, the first of the four ships that brought them, is represented by the playground ship. The Paterson Monument was erected in 1935 by a committee of the Historical Society of Tasmania.
 
The Paterson Monument