Mole Hill Fantasy, Tasmania
Mainland Australia has big stuff. The Big Banana. The Big Merino. The Big Prawn. Tasmania, though – Tasmania has always gone the other way. We do little stuff. Miniature villages from Tasmazia to scale models of early colonial Hobart and York Town.
Academic Elizabeth McMahon wrote a paper on what she termed Tasmanian Lilliputianism. If you remember back to your Gulliver’s Travels, Lilliput was somewhere north-west of Van Diemen’s Land –
It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van Diemen’s Land.
Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
McMahon’s argument was that the proliferation of miniature villages in Tasmania reflected the culture of a displaced Europe; an exiled colony recreating memories of England, especially, in small and manageable form. The reference list at the end contains the full details for those interested.
Some of the tiny attractions McMahon discussed, and that I visited in childhood, have since closed. The one I miss most is Mole Hill Fantasy.
Sunday drives were a fixture during my childhood. Mole Creek was a favourite destination. We’d stop at Marakoopa Cave first, my favourite, with its glittering fireflies that lit the dark like scattered stars. Then to Trowunna Wildlife Park. And on the way home, always, Mole Hill Fantasy, which was right next door.
I was perhaps six or seven, and my siblings younger. You walked in from the daylight and the first thing that happened was the dark; the proper kind that asked your eyes to adjust before they’d show you anything. And then, slowly, the dioramas revealed themselves. Tiny scenes, lit just enough. Moles going on about their lives. A grocery shop. A carpenter’s workshop. A crushing mill. A bakery. All of it the size of a dream.
I love animals and I love cosy, intricate, inhabited little scenes. Mole Hill Fantasy was made for children like me. We never visited Trowunna without stopping for the moles on the way home.
The Development of Mole Hill Fantasy
THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOLE HILL FANTASY
Three grade 6 students at Mole Creek Primary School wrote a lovely article about Mole Hill Fantasy for the Western Tiers newspaper in 1986. Max and Valerie Staines were originally from England, where they had moles digging up their back garden. This memory was triggered when they moved to Mole Creek. Mole Hill, wrote the students, was originally a craft shop and the restaurant was in the Staines’ living area.
Max Staines said of the development of Mole Hill –
Fifteen months and hundreds of hours were spent in constructing the Mole Hill. Searching the bush for twisted roots and branches to make the caves look realistic, and to make furniture. One hundred and thirty moles were made and dressed by my wife Valerie, carefully choosing fabrics so that no two lady moles were dressed the same. Clay was extruded, cut into bricks, and fired in our kiln, so that blacksmith’s forge and brickmaker’s kiln looked authentic.
Max Staines, as cited in McMahon 2001
Max, according to this blog by an extended family member, was from an artistic family. He himself went to art school in England and was reportedly always ‘making things’. His artistry was apparent in his attention to detail and the level of craftmanship for Mole Hill.
THE GRAND OPENING AND BEYOND
Mole Hill opened at Easter in 1982, with over 400 people viewing the dioramas during the Easter long weekend.
The moles were around 15 cm (6 inches high), dressed as humans and going about their every day business of pre-industrial life. This included mining, grinding acorn flour, baking and so on, and then moved to the more domestic scene. Nearly all furniture and machinery were hand-crafted miniatures
Magic Moles Open, Western Tiers, 1982
In 1986 it was reported that more than 60,000 people had passed through Mole Hill in the four years since it had opened. At one point it was reported that the Staines’ seriously considered selling the attached restaurant and chalets, to build a bigger and better ‘Disney’ type Mole Hill.
The Staines did sell their Mole Creek Holiday Village, including Mole Hill Fantasy, around 1988. But sadly a Disney style Mole Hill wasn’t on the cards. The little moles remained an attraction for a period after the Staines’ moved on, though.
A 1990 article discussed the impact a highway bypass would have on Deloraine, and therefore on tourists visiting the Meander and Western Tiers areas more broadly. Mentioned in the article was concern for Mole Hill, and that it could be lost to the district. The author writes that the moles hadn’t yet reached their full potential and enthusiastically proclaimed that Mole Hill –
… Could put Mole Creek on the WORLD map let alone the Australian one.
GB Woods, History of Bypass: Early Bypass Proposals, Western Tiers, 1990
Whilst perhaps an overly optimistic view, it demonstrated the level of love and passion there was for the little mole village.
MOLE HILL IN THE MEDIA
According to a newspaper report Mole Hill appeared on an episode of Simon Townsend’s Wonder World as well as on an episode The Leyland Brothers. I’ve been cruising old episodes on YouTube, but I am yet to come across the episodes featuring Mole Hill.
Various sources reported that Max Staines intended to write a trilogy of books about Mole Hill titled The Trip Here, The Arrival, and The Settlement. Perhaps the fictional journey of the tiny moles was to reflect the Staines’ own journey from England to Tasmania. I haven’t been able to locate the books so it doesn’t seem they reached publication.
WHERE IS MOLE HILL NOW?
At some point Mole Hill Fantasy moved to Penny Royal World in Launceston. I saw it there in the mid-1990s. The move to Penny Royal was definitely pre-1997 as an article of that year references a tour bus of travellers viewing Mole Hill Fantasy, amongst other attractions, at Penny Royal World.
Does anyone know where Mole Hill went? Let me know in the comments.
More From Tasmania’s Past
Enjoy this post? You may also enjoy the below.
References
McMahon, Elizabeth. “Tasmanian Lilliputianism: miniature villages and model citizens on the tourist trail.” Southerly, vol. 61, no. 2, summer 2001, pp. 70+. Gale Literature Resource Center, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A83516812/LitRC?u=utas1&sid=bookmark-LitRC&xid=243f01bf. Accessed 6 Feb. 2022.
Swift, Jonathon. Gulliver’s Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/829/829-h/829-h.htm. Accessed 11 Feb. 2022.
Western Tiers, 23 April 1982, Magic Moles Open, p. 3
Western Tiers, 25 July 1986, Fantasy Mole Village, p.17
Western Tiers, 15 December 1988, Mole Creek Holiday Village, p.15
Western Tiers, 24 May 1990, History of Bypass: Early Bypass Proposals, p.3
Western Tiers, 23 September 1997, Tour Breezes into Market, p.39
Researched and Written by Jodie Lee
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