Tasmania

Tasmania


For the benefit of non-Australian readers we ought to start by explainng that inhabitants of Tasmania are called Taswegians and have two heads. There are endless jokes about Tasmania which are akin to the jokes about Wales or Forest of Dean in England, many of you may know.


Don emigrated to Tassie as a £10 Pom in 1947. We spent the two weeks being enchanted by the stories of his life the in the 50s and 60s with tales of daring-do - shooting crocodiles and kangaroos for a living, of cutting sugar cane in Queensland and all sorts of outback adventures that seemed to be around for young men of that time. With Gaelene, his wife, he bought some land, partially cleared it of forest and set up a small bush farm, and the tales of managing a small farm also brought with it tales of outback living that would make both a good novel and a film.

Until they retired a few years ago, swapping the farm for a delightful modern house, they pumped their own water from a stream, generated their own electricity, raised various livestock depending on the vagaries of the market and were self-sufficient in a way that would probably be the envy of many, although the realities of the life were that it was 'bloody hard work'. We never ceased to enjoy the tales and hope that one day Don will record them.
With “the rellies” we had a traditional Christmas with a full roast dinner on Christmas Day (Gae's cooking is legendary) - and all the trimmings of a northern hemisphere Christmas with the addition of sunshine. Boxing Day was spent at the local sports carnival where the events were running, cycling and wood-chopping.



















Wood chopping

I can't see the latter becoming an Olympic event, but it was impressive to see just how quickly those fellas could cut through a tree trunk with an axe.





















The Boxing Day Carnival in Latrobe

We toured round parts of Tasmania that we had not previously visited.




















Dismal Swamp





















Penguin - yes, that really is the name of a town





















The Nut at Stanley


The countryside is incredibly pretty, very different from any other parts of Australia that we know, and described as “English”. It is more like England but still very different. The crops are different. We saw fields of opium poppies being grown legally for heroin and morphine production - a major Tasmanian export - as well as pyrethrum for manufacturing pesticide, alongside the fields of cereal and dairy land.



















Alum Gorge


But Tasmania is famous for its trees and we spent some time learning more about trees and forestry from Don, who had also been a logger and tree plantation manager for much of his life. There is a lot of controversy about the development of blue gum plantations to provide wood chips for paper. However when you see some of the magnificent old eucalypts and old Huon pines it is awe-inspiring and we enjoyed some good bush walking through old woodlands.





















Virgin forest in the Huon Valley


The English theme continues with place names – we went to Lulworth for New Years Day, having stayed at Margate the day before, and sailing home from Devonport, up the Mersey river. We also visited Weymouth, Bridport and Launceston. There must have been many homesick emigrees in the early days.





















Richmond Bridge

We managed to get to Hobart and have a look at the boats from the famous Sydney to Hobart ocean race – another sporting event not covered by British TV.





















Wild Oats XI - the race winner


We also visited the Taste of Tasmania - a festival of tasmanian food and drink (yummy)




















'Taste of Tasmania'

And we watched a lot of sport covered by Australian TV, notably the Australian v South Africa Test match for cricket. As this is being written Australia is 2 down in the series and there is a huge national debate about whether to sack the captain, or whether the selectors are to blame for the teams poor performance and whether more money should be invested in cricket academies; it has felt just like home, but is an experience that Australians are not used to.





















We sailed back to Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania somewhat heavier than on our outward trip but recharged for new adventures in the outback of Victoria and New South Wales.