It must have looked like a scene from the Coen Brothers’ classic film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but these soggy bottom boys had their own astonishing story to tell.

Perhaps they were men of constant sorrow – after all, they spent years doing the backbreaking labour of constructing Sandy Bay’s main thoroughfare, all the way from Hobart Town to what is now known as Kingston.

The year was 1840 and these 80 American convicts were no strangers to toil and trouble. They’d been transported to Van Diemen’s Land in the first place for taking part in a rebellion in what is now known as Ontario, Canada.

Ultimately, most of these men – dubbed the Sandy Bay Road Party – returned home after they were pardoned that same decade.

But their Tasmanian legacy, intricately connected to a historic manor that looms large on that very road, remains to this day.

A house of Hobart history

As the Sandy Bay Road Party toiled away for years on end, a young boy by the name of William Lambert Dobson was attending the nearby Hutchins School.

Dobson went on to big things – he became a well-known Hobart barrister, the state’s Chief Justice and Deputy Governor, and became the Sandy Bay university’s chancellor.

If that’s not impressive enough, he was even knighted in 1886.

But while a fever led to his untimely death in 1898, two stately homes he constructed for his two daughters on Sandy Bay Road in 1891 – in front of the Lambert Rivulet – will punctuate the busy thoroughfare with historic beauty for generations to come.

Luckily, it’s easy to soak up some of this superb Tasmanian history even if you’re not lucky enough to be the descendant of one of Hobart’s colonial founding fathers.

One of the buildings, the original home of Dobson’s daughter Harriet Miller, has been run as a guest lodge under the name Amberley House since the 1990s.

For the past 30 years, the manor at 391 Sandy Bay Road has welcomed travellers wanting something a little different from the city centre, or if they fancy proximity to Wrest Point Casino.

Notably, part of the manor’s modern history includes its ownership by Bill Davies, who was the executive chairman and chairman of Hobart’s daily newspaper, the Mercury, between the 1940s and the 1980s.

New life for an old dame

The year 2018 was a turning point for the Amberley.

It was snapped up by new owners who closed it down for two whole years rewiring the home, replumbing it, and giving it a “full-blown renovation”.

Husband-and-wife team David and Noellene Williams ensured everything they introduced to the manor was Tasmanian, including every tile, every new brick to restore the heritage chimney, and almost every piece of the era-appropriate antique furniture and art.

Even the tradespeople and builders that worked on the restoration were Tasmanian.

The result was a revamped heritage bed and breakfast renamed The Rivulet, in honour of Lambert Rivulet, and given the Williamses’ passionate interest in Hobart’s rivulet system.

A portal to the past

The Rivulet is so well kept, shielded from Sandy Bay Road by a cypress hedge, that it feels like Ms Miller could be waiting inside the front parlour, pouring a cup from her teapot.

Or perhaps Mr Davies could be roaming the halls in his pinstripe suit.

The eight bedrooms are each named in honour of various Tasmanian institutions – from the decadent Salamanca and Regatta rooms, to Cartela, with a nod to Australia’s oldest continually-licensed passenger vessel that once sailed the nearby Derwent River with regular dinner and dancing cruises.

Then there’s Flynn 1909, referencing Hobart’s very own Hollywood Golden Age superstar, Errol Flynn, who lived for a time in Sandy Bay – with a memorial nearby.

Also of note is the La Perouse room, keeping alive the memory of the French naval officer who was lost at sea.

A teenage second-lieutenant Napoleon Bonaparte actually applied for the mission to find him, but in a history-altering chance of fate, but was knocked back from the rescue voyage.

While the shipwreck was never found, the D’Entrecasteaux expedition landed in southern Tasmania at Recherche Bay during 1792.

An additional caretaker’s cottage, the garden room, was more recently added – but it too is a decadent place to rest, with a view over the sculptured hedge gardens that keep the Victorian spirit alive.

Each of the rooms have sumptuous carpets, kingsize beds, era-appropriate antiques, art or wall hangings – and have ensuites with traditional claw-foot bathtubs.

Make a note

Rates at The Rivulet start at $285 per night, which includes a full continental breakfast in the Cascades Room - an historic sitting and dining room with a long table and chesterfield lounges that also gives a nod to the water source flowing from Hobart’s kunanyi / Mt Wellington.

The hotel is located at 391 Sandy Bay Road, about seven minutes south of the city centre.

While you’re there, stroll along Sandy Bay’s popular Long Beach or Nutgrove Beach or visit the waterfront-located Wrest Point Casino. Other options include walking up to historic Battery Point, or bushwalking through the nearby Truganini Track, which ends at the historic Mt Nelson Signal Station

To book, go to www.therivulethobart.com.au

The author was a guest of The Rivulet.