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.
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