The Wrights of Glenorchy

The Wright family had lived in West London for a century. Well-to-do property owners, shrewd investors, responsible job holders, friends of painters, poets and scholars. Their lives were comfortable and enjoyable until rural flight brought thousands of west country peasants across the Thames to their corner of the world. With increasing crime and squalor and poverty destroying the communities they had built and served, the Wrights became increasingly dispossessed over their perceived entitlements. Australia, with its rapid progress from a criminal state to a semi-free society seemed to be moving the other way, and the opportunities for investment and business pursuit appealed to the young adult men of the family. So they crossed the dangerous seas to Adelaide, with parents following a few years later. They took their place in society with two sons eventually rising to the station of Mayor. Their industry, intelligence, business acumen and networking skills helped create powerful and influential friends. And when they moved to Tasmania, their experience and creativity transferred with them. The family settled north of Hobart at O'Brien's Bridge, later part of Glenorchy, on a fertile 100 acre property bounded by a plentiful rivulet of fresh flowing water and the majestic Derwent River. There the family established a beautiful estate called The Grove - raising hops and apples, and became pioneers in establishing the Tasmanian fruit industry, and in exporting apples back to the motherland. Yet never forgetting their workers, they built churches and sporting facilities that encouraged a flourishing, thankful community. A story of innovation, and risk taking, and a love for fellow man that set standards and values in fruit growing, architecture, and landscaping - influencing Tasmanian society for nearly 100 years.