Back
Home
Map
Next
Helen flew back to Sydney to spend a little time with her mum, and lay Stan to rest. Bill hung out in Tassie and watched the weather turn wintry. Willow infested rivers are now yellow ribbons across a green landscape.
When Helen finally winged her way back, we headed south onto the Tasman Peninsula. An overly expensive cabin in the caravan park gave us a base to hike some of the spectacular coastal cliffs in the area, and explore Port Arthur and the nearby convict coal mines. Returning wet from hikes where the view was obscured by clouds, a warm cabin is more welcome than a wet tent.
Convicts were transported to New South Wales and Tasmania for use as slave labour.
Men who stepped out of line were sent to Port Arthur, a prison factory producing many requirements of the new settlement.
A prison built entirely by convicts, it is a testament to human subjugation.
Its current form, extensive lawns between stone ruins, romanticises a very harsh existence.
Women who didn't co-operate were sent to Ross, explaining why it has so many convict era buildings.
After another couple of days in the beach house, we headed back into the south east corner of Tassie. We met Jo and Ted in Ross, and followed them to the campground at Cockle Creek (one of many excellent campgrounds in Recherche Bay). Along the way, Ted was taking shortcuts and scenic routes as it took his fancy, all the way providing a commentary of the tourist highlights on the UHF. The trip was probably our longest single day's drive in Tassie, the tents going up just before sunset.
As it was on our last tag-along tour with J&T, the weather was remarkably co-operative.
Although it rained on and off most of the time, it was only a slight inconvenience.
We hiked across the peninsula to South Cape Bay under overcast skies.
The next day we awoke to a beautiful sunny, warm, and still day, perfect for a kayak on the (chilly) southern ocean.
Not long after we packed up to head slowly north, the rain began. As we weaved our way along one picturesque bay after another, the showers became longer and heavier. By the time we made it to the Tahune Air Walk, it was pouring. After wandering about in the tops of celery pine, myrtle and sassafras in the rain, we set out on the long drive back to the beach house.
To get a bit of a break from Sydney, Rosie flew down to join us for a week. She was keen to explore the south west, so we headed to Strahan on Macquarie Harbour. On the way down, we drove the 4WD track into Montezuma Falls through spectacular forests along the path of the former mine railway. (We'd highly recommend it as one of the more interesting four wheel drive tracks we've found in Tassie.)
This being our third visit to Strahan, we finally took one of the harbour cruises. It gave us a look at Hells Gate, the treacherous entrance to the harbour. In the upper harbour is Sara Island, the original penal colony prison. It lasted eleven years before being replaced by Port Arthur due to remoteness from the rest of the settlement. The harbour remained a port for logging and mining, until its recent transition into a tourist town.
Our tour boat also took us a short way up the Gordon River.
The Gordon is part of Tasmania's World Heritage Area, and was the focus of one of Australia's biggest environmental conflicts (stopping the Gordon-below-Franklin dam) just a few decades ago.
During the last 150 years, virtually every Huon Pine worth logging on the Gordon and its tributaries has been felled.
More than 100 years ago, reports to parliament outlined this destruction, what the results would be, and the fact that the crown was not being adequately compensated for the loss of its most valuable resource.
Then, like now, the advice of those with open eyes was ignored by corrupt politicians.
It will be at least 500 years before the area recovers to a shadow of its former self.
Also draining into Macquarie Harbour (but not part of the boat tour) and just outside the WHA is the King River, which happens to be the most polluted river in Australia. For more than 100 years it was a waste dump and sewer for the mining town of Queenstown, and there was not a single living thing anywhere along its length. Interestingly, a few species of migratory fish remain trapped in the river's tributaries. A couple of decades ago a new electric power dam dramatically altered the flow of pollutants. Perhaps this will slow the flow of toxic silt that has virtually eliminated the birds and fish that the harbour was once famous for.
After a couple of days of warm sunny weather, we headed through snowy mountain roads to replace a power supply in a remote tourism venture on the way back to Turners Beach.