Tassie Tales

Picture : Lake Mackintosh


We had been thinking about going across to Tasmania and so got our dear friend Wendy in Melbourne to check out the fares for us. We could get a package on the Spirit of Tasmania for $692 return so we decided to go for it. The trip across Bass Straight to Devonport is an overnighter although they do have day trips in the peak season. We opted to rough it with the recliner seat option like you would have on an airline though these were bigger and a bit more comfortable, sort of like a 'lazy boy' chair. In fact they were so comfortable that I got a small pillow flicked my way in the night on account of my snoring - not hard to tell who is writing this!!! We had to go through the ag check on departure and again on arrival with the usual dumping of fruit, spuds, etc. You'd think we'd learn. Got in at Devonport at 7am and found a place that did a big English breakfast to start our day off. Didn't travel far that day as we both needed a top up nap, so we camped up at Coles Beach in Devonport which is a freedom camp.

We didn't travel far the first few days stopping off at Ulverstone, Penguin and Peggs Beach near Stanley, all with very nice views of the sea. Stanley is an interesting (perfectly preserved) historic town and the giant rock called the Nut with it's cableway up. There is a cemetery overlooking the sea and looked a good spot for a final resting place. There was a stranding of whales while we were there - we happened to see one on the back of a flat trailer being carted back by officials for analysis...or was that a Japanese guy driving the 4 x 4? After that we headed down to the East Coast stopping off at Lake Mackintosh near Tullah for a couple of nights. Also camped there at the dam site were a great couple Alan and Julie who live at Cremorne near Hobart. We had our happy hour drinkies round the camp fire with them and had a good chat about various places to stop off at in Tassie. Next day a 'fair dinkum Aussie' called Jim stopped in with his caravan and a tinnie on top of his ute. He was there for the fishing and that day caught a couple of good sized trout which he gave to all of us so we cooked them up on the camp fire for our tea. The weather was very unsettled for the whole time we were in Tassie and so we moved on to Strahan which is a 'touristy' estuary port in Macquarie Harbour. They do the Gordon River Cruise from there but because the weather wasn't good, we opted out. They also do a train trip through to Queenstown up steep hills sort of like the Rimutakas in NZ but with cogs in a centre rail for extra grip. I had to check it out but it was diesel powered and only went half way because the steam loco had broken down. We went to an evening show at Strahan by the visitor centre called 'The Ship That Never Was'. The audience were given character roles to play out and Maureen and I were given characters who got hissed and booed every time our names were mentioned. It was a convict story about a ship that was built on Sarah Island nearby and the convicts took control of it after it was launched and instead of sailing to Port Arthur near Hobart, they set course for South America. Great stuff - they assembled the pre-fabricated the ship as part of the play and acted out the mutiny with everyone enjoying their parts. No animals (viz. the ship's cat and the parrot) were harmed during this performance and the key players eventually ended up in New Zealand.

Onward we went to Queenstown - nothing like it's namesake in NZ. It's in amongst high mountains and is very desolate country on account of the sulphur fumes from the mining days. The greenies apparently want it to be restored but the locals don't and so have been killing off any new growth (strange!!!) because they want it to be a visible example of what uncontrolled mining does to the landscape. We had a thunderstorm and downpour while in this area so moved on fast to Cradle Mountain National Park. This is where the well known 5-day bush walk through Cradle Mountain finishes. We camped up for the night only and the weather was cool after the storm. You can buy a 2-month national park pass for $56 instead of paying $22 each day you visit a Park but you have to pay any camping fees on top of that. We drove on to Hamilton and en-route passed a bus that had caught fire and was blazing away with a large pall of black smoke from the burning tyres. There were people on the scene helping and directing traffic so we carried on past. We had a meal that evening in the interesting old local pub in front of an open fire...this is December in Tassie! Next it was Hobart where our trusty navigator (Maureen) directed us to the wharf area and then promptly took off to the nearby Salamander Market. We camped up at the Show grounds at Glenorchy and they too had a Sunday Market. Problem with all these markets is that we have no space and no real reason to be buying up stuff, books being the exception, but little things seem to appear now and then after such visits.

We had an invite from Alan and Julie to call in at Cremorne and so we camped the night in their driveway overlooking the lagoon. They put on a wonderful meal for us with locally caught fish entree, home made chicken pie and mango with ice cream for dessert and wine to go with it. Not bad this camping eh! We drove on down to Port Arthur which was the old convict prison back in the mid 1800's. Many of the main buildings are in ruin having been burnt out by bush fires but the cottages have survived or been rebuilt. The tour includes a scenic boat trip as well. The caravan park we stayed at here was one of the best we have been to with plenty of space and good facilities. Park at this place meant grassy reserve whereas at most it means a place on a hard surface, not necessary level, where you park your van.

We headed up the east coast stopping at a great little (free) beach camp at Mayfield Bay, again with a view of the sea, after which we cut inland up to Launceston so I could check out the Tramway Museum. Had a ride and a drive and wrote up my article for the Ferrymead Tramway newsletter. We then returned to the East Coast to Freycinet National Park - Tassie is not that big so you can cut across and back like that quite easily. However the roads are quite uneven and I found myself cruising at 60 to 70 k's even though the speed limit was 100 or sometimes 110 k's. I don't like hearing clunks as things fall out of the cupboards while you drive. At Freycinet we did the well known walk up to Wineglass Bay lookout and camped by the ocean at Friendly Beach which actually was a better spot than the one by the NP Headquarters. On this coast, we also found a couple of really good beaches to camp up at - Lagoons Beach near St Mary's and Bay of Fires. We took the Tasman Highway back towards Launceston and that was just as winding as the other two mountain roads on the east coast and, on the way through we found a great camping spot by St Patricks River (which is Launceston's water supply). It's a domain run by Launceston Council and they charged only $3 per night for the van. Had good facilities also. Here we caught our first glimpse of a Platypus.

Our last night before catching the boat back was at the Narawntapu National Park not far from Devonport, alongside the estuary and with little wallabies galore. We had heard the saying in national Parks that 'a fed bird is a dead bird' but it's hard not to throw a small piece of bread at a wallabie especially when it has a little joey sticking it's head out the pouch underneath. Our impressions of Tassie - beautiful lakes and seaside views, a bit like NZ with the bush and mountains, roads are a bit uneven and not as wide and not many passing places, drivers are cautious and a bit slow when you signal the left hand indicator to pass but very courteous, a bit slower pace, many small towns and people friendly and even though we didn't have great weather it is a great place to visit. It wasn't till our last day that we discovered why Tasmanians are happy and very laid back people. Passing through La Trobe on the way to Devonport, we saw what must be thousands of acres of opium poppies. This is the only place in Australia where they are permitted to grow poppies...for pharmaceutical purposes, of course.

Bathurst and the Murray

On leaving the Blue Mountains we drove to Bathhurst as Allen decided he must drive the van around the famous race circuit. Naturally as the only contestant in the race he also won it! It's a great place the way the circuit is part of the public roadway so anyone can have a drive around it without being a danger to the public at large. I wasn't tempted to have a go myself tho.
We drove further south as Allen was looking to visit some of his distant relatives about family tree matters. We arrived at Cootamundra which also happens to be the birthplace of famous cricketer Don Bradman so we took a quick visit to see his old house. We found the relations Ian and Ena Harbrow, and the connection goes a long way back as Allen and Ian's Great Grandfathers were brothers.What we found really surprising was how alike Ian's grandson and Alan's bothers grandson of the same age are. After a bit of a catch up and being fed with lovely food we hit the road to visit the next relations in the same area. This brought us inland from Junee and whilst driving there we met up with a plague of locusts drumming against the windscreen. The locals were not happy to see these as they eat everything in sight especially if its green, even the plastic turf of the bowling club we were told!
When we arrived at Yvonne and Robs were were welcomed with more food and then dinner. After a sample of the home made cherry brandy and a sing along around the piano it was as much as we could do to stagger out to sleep in the van in the yard for the night. Next day took us to visit 2 more of the families and these are rather removed from Allen's branch, but everyone seemed pleased to meet up with any Harbrow no matter how distant.
After this we decided to get onto the Hume Highway and get on the road to Melbourne. We pulled off at a very small place called Barnawatha for just a quick snack, but this turned out to be a very nice pub with some lovely food so I had to sample the curried seafood which was delicious. Here we met a lady who decided to take our travel plans in hand and told us that we had to spend the night parked by the Murray River, she even drew us a map where to go and then organised where we were to go the next day and where to get back onto the Hume Highway. Later on she also brought us a cutting out of the newspaper on cheap boat fares to Tasmania. We followed her plans and were rewarded with a red sun set on the Murray and a visit to the lovely historical towns of Chilton and Beechwood. We finally got back on to the highway and stayed the night in a rest area and drove down to Melbourne through the Yara Valley with a visit to the De Bortelli vineyard on the way.
All the way down this valley we kept on noticing signs saying 'no pipes' and a huge pipe lying there. Later on we started to see the actual pipeline being laid. This is a very controversial pipeline bringing water from the Murray River down to Melbourne. We had heard about this but did not realise it had actually started.
We finally arrived in Melbourne at friend Wendy's on Sunday night (and more delicious food ) 6 days after leaving The Blue Mountains, ready to make plans to visit Tasmania.

Blue Mountains Blitz

After our day at the races celebrating the Melbourne Cup we finally left the New England highway heading off to Mudgee and the wine growing country on the other side of the Hunter Valley towards the Blue Mountains .
We arrived in Lithgrow on Friday ready to meet up with our NZ friends Ray and Sheila in Katoomba on Sunday. We decided to camp at Lake Lyall Dam for the night to see at first hand how little water there is in the dams down here and why everyone is so concerned about it. There was certainly a lack of water in this dam, but we had a nice site overlooking it so we chilled out there and read up on the Blue Mountains area ready for our tourist attack. On Saturday morning the weather had turned chilly and it was drizzling but we headed on back into Lithgrow and take a ride on the zig zag railway on the old steam train.This line is one of the remarkable feats of engineering from 1850's providing a rail line in this rugged mountainous area. There always seem to be a lot of people ready to take a trip on a steam train whatever the weather.

As the day did not get any better we drove to Katoomba and booked in the camp for 3 nights.We were rather surprised to find this, the only camp in the area, a bit of a concrete jungle. A bit of a contradiction considering the World Heritage rating of the Blue Mountains.

On Sunday morning Ray and Shelia arrived from Sydney bringing some warmer weather and Ray immediately had us organised into tourist mode. We were on the steep incline railway before I got the chance to get cold feet. Next it was on the cable car then across the valley in the glass bottom capsule . It certainly is a great way to get to see the scenery and the place was full of tourists, mainly from overseas. We went down to the lookout to see the sun set on the Three Sisters and later headed off for an Asian meal. - just like old times. Monday morning saw us on the road again with Ray at the wheel so Allen could take a well earned rest from the driving.We drove around all the high spots listed for the tourists and visited the National Parks H/Q at Blackheath. It was a lovely day and we appreciated the company of someone to sightsee with. We can see where the name Blue Mountains comes from as there certainly is a blue haze all around especially when the sun is shining. We also went see the movie The Edge shown on the giant six story high screen. Its a magnificent film of the Blue Mountains and well worth a viewing. We visited the local RSL club and had a few drinks as no one had to drive. We managed to scramble into the last shuttle bus back to our camp, leaving Ray and Sheila to walk back to their accommodation. I had to put my last drink a (small) bottle of bubbly into my bag and did not get around to drinking it til the next weekend. Ray and Sheila left next morning on the road to Canberra whilst we drove across to Bathurst.
We later heard that Ray and Sheila finally arrived back in NZ one day late after four aborted flights from Sydney.