For some 70 years - from 1853 - Tasmanian Steam Navigation vessels would pass by Queenscliffe’s shore enrolee from Hobart and Launceston to Melbourne.
Now, reminders of the long- since defunct company grace beautiful hand-made mosaics that give a nod to our region’s rich heritage.
From a kitchen table inside one of Queenscliff’s most stately heritage homes, artist Camilla Watson creates plates, bowls and garden ornaments from broken pieces of crockery and glassware, including remnants of local shipwrecks.
Around her, the trained art teacher delves into buckets full of small treasures. There’s a bucket just for pieces from shipwrecks and others filled with pieces donated by family and friends, dug up in local gardens and broken cups and plates from former grand guest houses - including the Baillieu family-owned Ozone Hotel and the Grand Hotel - now the Vue Grand.
“I get so excited when I find something, I just lose myself in the process and I get transported to that age,” Watson says. “It takes over, I just wanted to get started and make something straight away.
“I will see something, an old company logo on a plate, a flower on a teacup and I will make that a hero piece and work around it.
“I try to be faithful to the history of that remnant,” she says.
Watson’s mosaics can be found at Queenscliff Harbour’s House Warming and online. She is currently taking bookings for upcoming classes from her local studio. Details can be found at and online at; madebymill.stokedev.cc/about-us/
Now, reminders of the long- since defunct company grace beautiful hand-made mosaics that give a nod to our region’s rich heritage.
From a kitchen table inside one of Queenscliff’s most stately heritage homes, artist Camilla Watson creates plates, bowls and garden ornaments from broken pieces of crockery and glassware, including remnants of local shipwrecks.
Around her, the trained art teacher delves into buckets full of small treasures. There’s a bucket just for pieces from shipwrecks and others filled with pieces donated by family and friends, dug up in local gardens and broken cups and plates from former grand guest houses - including the Baillieu family-owned Ozone Hotel and the Grand Hotel - now the Vue Grand.
“I get so excited when I find something, I just lose myself in the process and I get transported to that age,” Watson says. “It takes over, I just wanted to get started and make something straight away.
“I will see something, an old company logo on a plate, a flower on a teacup and I will make that a hero piece and work around it.
“I try to be faithful to the history of that remnant,” she says.
Watson’s mosaics can be found at Queenscliff Harbour’s House Warming and online. She is currently taking bookings for upcoming classes from her local studio. Details can be found at and online at; madebymill.stokedev.cc/about-us/