Darshan Carlson

Alternative Health Practitioner

Place of birth: Launceston

Year of birth: 1943

Lived in Launceston: For 21 years

“Growing up in Launceston was a very small world, over 62 years ago. Very village-like with familiar faces you would see on weekly shopping trips. I longed to see people and places I had only read about. Around the age of 12, European workers came for the Hydro-Electric Scheme. My mother used to send me to ‘Healthways’ in the Quadrant, which stocked cheeses, rollmops, pickles, dried sausages, sliced meats, freshly ground coffee, all from Europe - food I had never seen before. There I would stand, delighted with hearing all the strange languages spoken around me, continually moving to the back of the shop so I would not be served and could stay there longer!
My life unfolded in a way that saw me live in South-East Asia and England, travelling widely for over 10 years out of Australia. In 2005 I returned to Tasmania, for a time, and was delighted to see Asian and African faces amongst the population, and much more input into the tiny city I grew up in - while retaining all the things that make Launceston unique.”