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downunder 08 - gordon river cruise
Today we set off on one of the highlights of our visit to Tasmania - a cruise around Macquarie Harbour and up the Gordon River. We were totally pampered during the day on our 70 tonne (77 tons), 32 metre (105ft) catarmaran. We had comfy leather seats, an outdoor viewing deck and were served delicious appetizers, tasmanian cheeses and wines and a smogasboard lunch during our 6 hours of cruising and sightseeing.
We set out from the port of Strahan south across Macquarie Harbour - 110 square miles of natural waterway to the entrance of the harbour where it meets the southern ocean. 
The narrow harbour entrance is known as "Hells Gates", so named by the early convicts that were sent to the area because the place was so remote and forbidding, the seas often rough and the life ahead harsh. 20 metre (65ft) swells are common here. Luckily for us, the weather today was overcast but calm and the seas kind.
At the mouth of the harbour lies "Entrance Island". The lighthouse was built in 1892 and was manned until the 1920's. It is now automated. It must have been a lonely isolated life in this remote area. Beyond the island lies the great Southern Ocean. Sail straight ahead (west) and you'll skip right beneath Africa and won't hit land until the southern tip of South America (42 degrees south).
We then headed back into the huge harbour to witness the new "growth industry" of the area - fish farming. The waters here are pristine and the cold climate ideal for raising atlantic salmon and ocean trout. The fish are reared in large round pens (about 25,000 fish per pen!).
At the south eastern end of Macquarie Harbour we entered the Gordon River. The Franklin & Gordon Rivers received world-wide attention in the 1980's when a government move to dam the rivers for a hydro-electric scheme were met with mass protests from citizens and conservationists. It lead to the birth of the "green movement" in Australia and Europe and changed the way the world looked at wild places. Today tourism has replaced the employment and income the hydro-electric scheme would have brought.
We stopped along the river at Heritage Landing for a walk through the cool temperate rainforest.
Here the trees grow tall and green and the high rainfall sees that even the tree trunks grow green with thick mosses and lichens.
We also encountered a "local" curled up on a log. The Tasmanian Tiger Snake ranks among the deadliest in the world, killing about 45% of its human victims. Luckily it is not an agressive snake and on this day it was more interested in sleeping than in the tourists snapping photos as they passed by!
Back in Macquarie Harbour our next stop was Sarah Island. A convict penal colony operated on the island for 12 years from 1821 until it was closed in favor of the larger Port Arthur convict settlement on the opposite coast of Tasmania. During its operation the convicts of Sarah Island were used to harvest the valuable Huon Pine that grew around the shores of the harbour and up the Gordon River. Huon Pine, found only in Tasmania, is a remnant of the last ice age and is a very fine grained wood that contains an oil the makes it unattractive to insects and borers and it never rots even if left sitting in mud or water for years. This made it an extremely attractive wood for boat-building. After floating the logs downstream to Sarah Island more convicts were used to saw the logs and later to build ships, the sale of which then returned an income to the government.
We did a walking tour around the island, surveying the many stone ruins left behind and hearing interesting stories about what life was like on the island more than 100 years ago.
In the late afternoon we returned to the peaceful port of Strahan, where we found a couple of local fishing trawlers that had returned home (with some of the fresh seafood we then enjoyed at a dockside restaurant for dinner!)
Today we set off on one of the highlights of our visit to Tasmania - a cruise around Macquarie Harbour and up the Gordon River. We were totally pampered during the day on our 70 tonne (77 tons), 32 metre (105ft) catarmaran. We had comfy leather seats, an outdoor viewing deck and were served delicious appetizers, tasmanian cheeses and wines and a smogasboard lunch during our 6 hours of cruising and sightseeing.
We set out from the port of Strahan south across Macquarie Harbour - 110 square miles of natural waterway to the entrance of the harbour where it meets the southern ocean. 
The narrow harbour entrance is known as "Hells Gates", so named by the early convicts that were sent to the area because the place was so remote and forbidding, the seas often rough and the life ahead harsh. 20 metre (65ft) swells are common here. Luckily for us, the weather today was overcast but calm and the seas kind.
At the mouth of the harbour lies "Entrance Island". The lighthouse was built in 1892 and was manned until the 1920's. It is now automated. It must have been a lonely isolated life in this remote area. Beyond the island lies the great Southern Ocean. Sail straight ahead (west) and you'll skip right beneath Africa and won't hit land until the southern tip of South America (42 degrees south).
At the south eastern end of Macquarie Harbour we entered the Gordon River. The Franklin & Gordon Rivers received world-wide attention in the 1980's when a government move to dam the rivers for a hydro-electric scheme were met with mass protests from citizens and conservationists. It lead to the birth of the "green movement" in Australia and Europe and changed the way the world looked at wild places. Today tourism has replaced the employment and income the hydro-electric scheme would have brought.
We stopped along the river at Heritage Landing for a walk through the cool temperate rainforest.
Here the trees grow tall and green and the high rainfall sees that even the tree trunks grow green with thick mosses and lichens.
Back in Macquarie Harbour our next stop was Sarah Island. A convict penal colony operated on the island for 12 years from 1821 until it was closed in favor of the larger Port Arthur convict settlement on the opposite coast of Tasmania. During its operation the convicts of Sarah Island were used to harvest the valuable Huon Pine that grew around the shores of the harbour and up the Gordon River. Huon Pine, found only in Tasmania, is a remnant of the last ice age and is a very fine grained wood that contains an oil the makes it unattractive to insects and borers and it never rots even if left sitting in mud or water for years. This made it an extremely attractive wood for boat-building. After floating the logs downstream to Sarah Island more convicts were used to saw the logs and later to build ships, the sale of which then returned an income to the government.
We did a walking tour around the island, surveying the many stone ruins left behind and hearing interesting stories about what life was like on the island more than 100 years ago.
In the late afternoon we returned to the peaceful port of Strahan, where we found a couple of local fishing trawlers that had returned home (with some of the fresh seafood we then enjoyed at a dockside restaurant for dinner!)
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