Mount Wellington and the Tasmanian Royal Botanic Gardens

Monday 12 January 2015

We had a sleep in, then off to the supermarket to restock.  

As it was a lovely fine day, and no more of these are forecast for this week, we headed to the top of Mount Wellington.  The views were amazing, even with mild haziness.  The geology and flora at the summit are definitely alpine. I was quite surprised at how many walking options there were on Mount Wellington.  The road to the summit has a series of gates which can be used to close the road as needed, and then a sign at the bottom with lights indicating where the road is currently closed. We had a picnic lunch at the summit and then descended.  

https://www.wellingtonpark.org.au/

On the road back into Hobart’s city centre there are homes very much perched on the side of the hill.  Many homes had garages at street level, with stairs leading down to where the house presumably is below view from the street.  In one particularly steep section there was just a picket type fence with a gate in at street level and a mailbox each – presumably there was a house somewhere below each mailbox.

The Tourist Information Centre in the city was able to give us a map of the city, including parking.  They also gave us a map with details of all the inner city public toilets – this would be particularly useful if travelling with very young children.

https://www.hobarttravelcentre.com.au/

This afternoon we went to the Tasmanian Royal Botanic Gardens, which are the second oldest Botanic Gardens in Australia.  We saw “The Patch” from the “Gardening Australia” show.  Hayden was quite disappointed; it was roughly as I had expected but perhaps not quite as neat and tidy.  We also saw a thirty year old Huon pine – this had a diameter of five to six centimetres and was about one metre high – no wonder the Huon pine forests are expected to take at least one thousand years to recover from logging!

https://gardens.rtbg.tas.gov.au/

Macquarie Harbour and The Ship That Never Was!

Saturday 10 January 2015

Today we went on a Gordon River Cruise with World Heritage Cruises, one of two operators in the area. 

https://worldheritagecruises.com.au/

We walked ten minutes downhill from our accommodation to the port, where we embarked for a 09:00 departure.  We were fortunate enough to have window seating, which had the weather not been good would have made a significant difference. While we did have allocated seating, we were able and encouraged to wander around the ship as desired.  The wind on the front deck as went across Macquarie Harbour was quite impressive.

Cape Sorrell Lighthouse

First we headed out past the lighthouses, through Hells Gates to Cape Sorrell, feeling the swell created by the roaring forties – the next landmark to the West being South America.  Hayden definitely did not enjoy this part!  The lighthouses were originally established to signal to boats what the conditions at Hells Gates were like, as once committed to the passage by turning in at Cape Sorrell, a sailing ship could not turn around against the swell and prevailing winds.  This was a really pretty area, but would allow best photographs of the coastline in the afternoon rather than the morning, due to being on the Western Coast.

Entrance Island Lighthouse

Hayden spent some time in the wheelhouse beside the captain enjoying himself and checking out all the controls.  We also saw Salmon Farms in Macquarie Harbour and watched the salmon being fed with big hoses pumping out the food.  The salmon farms actually looked quite pretty the way they caught the sunlight.

Next, the “Eagle” took us to Sarah Island, this appears to have begun as an earlier experimental version of Port Arthur but later became an industrious boat building venture using convict labour.  It operated as a penal settlement from 1822 to 1833. Sarah Island became the largest Australian shipyard of its time, prior to its closure.  The tour guide (Kiah) was very dramatic, I think Hayden would love, and be good at, a job like this! Kiah showed us many ruins and explained the background.  Kiah laid out seven puzzles that indicated that Sarah Island may have begun life as a venue for severe punishment, but does not appear to have continued in this vein.

 We then journeyed very slowly fourteen kilometres up the Gordon River – slowly so as to avoid damaging the river banks with wash from the boat.  We disembarked at Heritage Landing and had the opportunity to walk through the forest on a boardwalk seeing the variety of trees.  We saw a three hundred year old Huon pine that had fallen over, the former branches then grow upwards forming new trees from the fallen trunk, this particular one was reported to have approximately one hundred and forty.

On our return to Strahan we viewed an old style Huon Pine Saw Mill. The Huon pines are now protected and not permitted to be felled but many that were stuck in the forests and on the river banks are being retrieved as the wood does not rot and is therefore still in excellent condition.  Branches left behind, when the trunks were previously floated downstream, are now being used in the craft industry.

We headed back to the unit to wash some clothes and have dinner.

Then, off to town again to see “The Ship That Never Was” in the town amphitheatre.  This was performed by two actors and selected audience members.  It was the tale of a ship called “Frederick”, which was the last ship built on Sarah Island, with the official plan being that the convicts who built the ship would be the crew to deliver it, and themselves, to Port Arthur.  The convicts however, had other ideas and sailed it to Chile, allowing it to shipwreck there. This meant that there was no proof of its theft and loss of all the papers that showed the ship had indeed been built.  The mutiny to take control of the ship had taken place in Macquarie Harbour, not at sea, so it did not technically constitute piracy.  As a result the few convicts who were eventually apprehended were only able to be charged with a felony.  The play was very well presented and very humorous.  Hayden got to blow up a paper bag and be a “shot”, he also got to provide some of the wild storm with the aid of a spray bottle of water.  Really enjoyed this.

http://www.roundearth.com.au/