Launceston

We’ve now headed inland to Tasmania’s second largest city, Launceston. It has a long history; much of the original colonial architecture has gone, but many fine Victorian buildings remain. However, the beauty of Launceston lies in its natural assets, being situated on the river Tamar with a splendid gorge. We walked along the gorge and explored the remains of a hydroelectric power station build in the late 19th century.

Pub in the Paddock

We continued north up the east coast of Tasmania and headed inland and down a quiet country lane to find the tallest waterfall in Tasmania, the St. Columbus Falls. We also found the Pub in the Paddock complete with beer-swilling pig; we just had to stay here for the night.

Maria Island

We caught the small ferry across to Maria Island along with other walkers and bush campers. Maria island is very peaceful and unspoilt; there are no cars. It has some dramatic scenery and some interesting history including a part of the convict story and a now defunct cement factory. While quarrying for lime for the factory, they discovered rich seams of fossils which are densely packed in the rocks.

Freycinet Peninsula

As we drove up from the Maria Island ferry marina, we saw wonderful views of the Freycinet peninsula where we were heading for a long walk the next day. The walk was very varied, taking in a lookout over the much-hyped Wineglass Bay. We then descended to the bay itself and then across an isthmus to the ocean on the other side where we caught the full brunt of a cold onshore wind. Walking around the headland, we caught further glimpses of the ocean and once out of the wind and with a little sun, we were stripping off all the clothes we’d put on earlier!

Eaglehawk Neck

Eaglehawk Neck is a narrow isthmus that joins the Port Arthur peninsula with the mainland. In the early 19th century, the only means of getting to or from Port Arthur was by ship, as the land was covered in dense forest and there were no roads. Escaping by sea was well-nigh impossible and any that tried to escape by land had to cross the Neck. So the Neck was heavily guarded by a line of fierce dogs.

As well as the Neck’s history, the area has some interesting and scenic places to explore.

Port Arthur

It took a whole day to explore the site at Port Arthur, learning about life at the penal colony and what the buildings were used for. It’s at a beautiful location on the sea and many of the buildings remain intact or have been restored. Liz thought it might be macabre to visit such a place, but it was presented in an upbeat manner and it seems many of the convicts learnt valuable trades that enabled them to be successful on release into the newly developing country.

Salamanca Market and MONA

We returned to Hobart for the Salamanca market and browsed around the numerous stalls and listened to the buskers. The market has quite an alternative feel.

A local we got talking to said we must go to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), so we headed off there in the afternoon. It’s certainly very different to any other art gallery we’ve been to. For a start, the premises are built into the cliffs so it’s very vertical. The displays are very modern art and certainly poke you in the eye and make you think; in other words, it was mostly over our heads.

Fairy Penguins

One of the highlights of our visit to Bruni Island was waiting up until after sunset to watch firstly short-tailed shearwaters returning to roost and then fairy penguins returning to feed their young.

Short-tailed shearwaters are amazing birds. They raise their young in burrows in locations around Tasmania and parts of the south coast of mainland Australia. By day, they fly out as far as the Antarctic to collect krill to feed their young by night. As summer ends in Australia they fly all the way up to the North Atlantic and Baring Sea to spend the summer up there before flying back south to mate and raise young.

The fairy penguin adults also spend the daytime catching fish and return at dusk to feed their young in the burrows. It was completely dark by the time they started coming in, but we were able to see them by red light of the parker ranger’s torch.

Our return walk along the beach was under a star-lit sky. Both the lack of light pollution and the fact there are more stars in the southern hemisphere made the walk a memorable experience.

Bruni Island

We caught the car ferry across to Bruni Island where we spent a couple of days enjoying the amazing scenery, bush walks and wildlife.

Hobart

We enjoyed a day strolling around exploring Hobart. We particularly liked Battery Point with its quaint cottages and a wonderful bakery selling excellent rye bread and scallop pies. Salamanca Square was also interesting but really comes to life on Saturday when the market is held; we’ll have to come back for that. We also liked the harbour which retains its historical buildings.

Mount Field’s National Park

It didn’t rain today! For the first day since arriving in Tasmania a week ago, it didn’t rain; in fact the sun shone and we felt warm. It seems incredible that in a few days driving and a ferry crossing, the climate changed from the extreme dry heat of the outback to weather similar to a bad summer in the Lake District. Still, no rain, no rain forest! Travelling east across Tasmania, we expected the weather to improve as it’s more protected from the Roaring Forties that blow across a vast ocean from South America. This is reflected in a change in the vegetation from rain forest to less dense eucalypt forests and open heath land.

We spent a very pleasant day walking from one lovely waterfall to another and through an area of the tallest hard-wood trees in the world, a species of eucalyptus endemic to Tasmania.

Lake St. Clair

Continuing south and west, we reached lake St. Clair and enjoyed a walk around part of the lake and up into the hills.

The Western Wilderness

The road took us through the rain forest with opportunities to stop and take short walks. First stop was Nelson Falls, a powerful waterfall after all the rain (that continues to fall).

Then up to a look out over the rainforest and a high level view of the Franklin river cutting through the trees. This river flows into the Gordon river at the point where the proposed dam was to have been.

Finally we were able to walk to the Franklin river and sense its wildness and power. We have the 1982 protestors to thank that we can experience this wilderness.

Gordon River Cruise

A cruise on the Gordon River is about the only way to penetrate the wilderness of temperate rainforest and mountains on the west coast of Tasmania. The area is now protected by having world heritage status, after huge protests over a proposed dam in the 80’s.

We were taken around Macquarie harbour to Hells Gates (the narrow entrance to the harbour) and then to Sarah Island. We alighted on the island and learnt the story of its notorious past as a ruthless penal colony and then how it became a centre for ship building using convict labour and the endemic Huon Pine. The trees are now protected and can no longer be felled.

We then went up the Gordon River itself and stopped off for a board walk through the dense rainforest. Here we could get close up to the Huon Pines. They were prized for their properties of floating high in the water (making them easy to send them down river to the saw mills) and for the fact that they don’t rot (due to a high concentration of oil). They grow very slowly but can live for up to 3000 years so can become very tall and wide.