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!)

downunder 08 - the ship that never was

This evening we took in some local theater in Strahan at the performance of "The Ship That Never Was", Australia's longest running play with over 5,000 perfomances. The play is based on the true story of the last ship built by convicts on Sarah Island that was commandeered by 10 convict ship-builders who were supposed to sail it to Port Arthur but instead sailed it thousands of miles across the ocean to freedom in South America. With only 3 local cast members and selected "volunteers" from the audience it was a funny and very entertaining way to learn a little more about local history.

downunder 08 - tasmania

On Sunday we left Melbourne and flew across Bass Strait to the island of Tasmania. Once we arrived in Hobart we picked up a rental car and headed off across the mountainous central highlands to the rugged south west coast. This region of Tasmania has a very high rainfall (average 3.5m or 11.5ft a year) so it is often misty and rainy with very lush vegetation as seen in this shot of Surprise Valley, which was formed by glaciers during the last ice age.

The western coast of Tasmania is rich in mineral deposits. Silver, lead, zince, tin, copper & gold have all been mined in the region. The road to Strahan descends from the mountains through the mining town of Queenstown (above). Established in the 1880's as a gold mining town, the later discovery of copper is what supports the small town today.

We ended our day's drive in the picturesque port of Strahan (pronounced "straw-n"). It lies within a large natural harbor (Macquarie Harbour) on the south-west coast of Tasmania. It was originally established in the late 1800's as a port for the nearby mining settlements and the timber industry. Today, timber-getting has ceased and mining material is shipped by road. Tourism and fishing are the primary uses of the port today.