The Bothwell Historical Society
Promoting Bothwell’s rich history since 1975
Welcome to the Bothwell Historical Society
The Bothwell Historical Society aims to preserve and promote the history of Bothwell, Tasmania. The area around Bothwell was inhabited for millenia by the Muriminina people and then, in the early 19th century was colonised by Scottish farmers who left their own enduring historical legacy in both buildings and culture.
The Bothwell Literary Society was formed in 1834 and established one of Australia’s earliest public libraries, and Bothwell is widely considered to have more heritage-listed buildings than any other town in Tasmania, boasting over 50 significant structures, many from the 1800s, making it a remarkably intact colonial townscape. While other towns have historic buildings, Bothwell’s concentration of classified and listed buildings, like St Luke’s Church (1830) and Wentworth House (1832), stands out as a key feature of its historic character.
The modern Society has two main activites: We run a small museum accessible via the Central Highlands Visitors Centre and we run an annual program of walking tours (this year’s schedule coming soon) to places of historical interest in Bothwell and surrounds.
Historical things to do
Visit our Museum
The society has two principal activities. The first is our Museum.
Our small, but fascinating, museum is accesible via the Central Highlands Visitors Centre, 4 Marketplace, Bothwell. We also hold numerous files on family histories, which can be accessed by the public. And it holds thousands of historical images and articles, which we will progressively include as our site grows.
And there are books for sale on Bothwell’s history.
Drop in and take a look!
Come on one our walking tours to places of historical interest
Our second principal activity is our walking tours. We curate an annual program of walking tours to places of historical interest in Bothwell and surrounds. We’ll publish our 2026 program early in 2026.
In short, you drive yourself to the destination, then one of our very knowledgable guides leads you on a fascinating walking tour of the site.
Join our mailing list (lower down the page) to subscribe to our Newsletter which will principally be to provide updates on our 2026 walking tours.
The image is of the Steppes homestead.
A visit to the Steppes historic site was one of our walking tours in 2025.
Do the Bothwell self-guided walking tour
You can take a self-guided walking tour of Bothwell by following a map which you can get from the Central Highlands Visitors Centre and other outlets, like the Post Office. It highlights numerous heritage-listed buildings including landmarks like St Luke’s Uniting Church and the Old Post Office, and can be extended to the Mt. Adelaide Lookout for panoramic views.
If you’d prefer to have it on your phone or tablet, the pdf is here.
(Image is the cover of the self guided leaflet produced by Central Highlands Council)
Subscribe to our newsletter
We promise not to bombard you with emails. They’ll mostly be to let you know that one of our excursions is coming up.
We need only these details:
Join the Historical Society
If you’d like to join the Historical Society, send us an email requesting to join at enquiries@bothwellhistoricalsociety.org.au with a brief explanation of your interest in Bothwell (do you have a history with the town and/or its people, or are you just interested – could be either, we’d just like to know), and whether you are wanting to join as an individual or a family. We’ll join you up once you pay your membership dues for which you’ll receive an invoice:
$30pa for individuals; or
$50pa for a family, being couples or singles and including any children under 18 years of age.
If you are joining as a family, please tell us the names of all of the family members you are including.
Member benefits are: a relatively small annual contribution to the Society’s finances; an ongoing link to Bothwell; plus you get our walking tours for $5 per person. Non-members pay $10 per person.