Callington Mill

Callington Mill is a Lincolnshire tower mill built in 1837 in Oatlands, Tasmania by John Vincent. It has recently been restored so that it is now in full working order and is the only operating mill of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the third oldest windmill in Australia. Traditional baker and blacksmith Alan Scott was a central figure at the mill. Today the mill is a major tourist attraction of Oatlands. Visitors are able to climb the internal stairs for a view across Oatlands and surrounds. The mill site comprises the windmill, a granary, stable, miller’s cottage and mill owner’s house.

John Vincent was born in 1779 in Cornwall, England. In 1803 he married in London Susannah Rivers who was the same age. Over the next twenty years the couple had seven children while they were living in England. In 1823 at the age of 44 they decided to move to Tasmania. They immigrated with their children on the ship Elizabeth which arrived in Hobart in 1823. After they came to Tasmania they had two more children.

Over the next decade John became the proprietor of two licensed hotels, one in Bothwell called the Norwood Inn and one at Spring Hill called the London. His eldest son John Jubilee Vincent was also an innkeeper and ran the Lake Frederick Inn (later Lake Dulverton Inn) at Oatlands. This hotel still stands today.

In about 1836 at the age of 57 John decided to build the flour windmill at Oatlands. He used the best technology available in this project. It seems that he was very proud of this investment and he announced its opening in the newspaper in 1837. The advertisement is shown on the right. However his interest in the mill was short-lived and the following year he tried to rent it. He advertised it in the newspaper giving a good description of the mill and its surrounds. It said:

His attempt to let the mill appears to have been unsuccessful and two years later he sold it to his eldest son John Jubilee Vincent.

John Jubilee Vincent (John Vincent Junior) was born in England in 1809 and was fourteen when he came with his parents to Tasmania. During the early 1830s he was the pound keeper at Oatlands. and then for several years was an innkeeper as mentioned above. In about 1840 he bought the mill from his father. An advertisement appeared in the Hobart Colonial Times announcing his new ownership. In 1846 he installed a steam engine in the mill and again he publicised this with an advertisement in the newspaper. It stated that the prices for milling would be:

He operated the mill for about ten years but in the early 1850 when the gold rush began in Victoria he left Tasmania and moved to the goldfields. He died at Mountain Creek, Moonambel near Bendigo in 1862. In 1853 shortly after leaving Tasmania, John Jubilee Vincent sold the mill to Thomas Jillett

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