Going Further Down Under

Tasmania! Who knew? South east of Melbourne across the treacherous Bass Strait, 240 km (by air 1 1/2 hr or ferry 9 1/2 hrs) Tassie, as it’s known around these parts is Australia’s smallest state but is a huge heart-shaped island, the 26th largest island in the world, twice the size of Vancouver Island and 6 times the size of the Big Island of Hawaii and surrounded by 334 other small islands. Population is a half million, 40% in Hobart on the south coast where we are now so it’s pretty rural elsewhere. Over 40% of Tassie is reserved as national park and world heritage area. And Hobart has regularly scheduled flights to Antarctica! It is also the site of the famous Sydney to Hobart sailing race that just concluded.

Tassie had the world’s first green political party, the United Tasmania Group (UTG), created in 1972, by protest groups opposed to the construction of a dam that was flooding a lake in the southwest. The UTG disbanded in 1979 but its founding charter, “The New Ethic,” identified principles—such as the principle that development should proceed only after considering the long-term benefits of conserving environmental and aesthetic resources (something we are struggling with on Galiano at the moment). It also catalyzed the creation of new environmental groups, such as the Wilderness Society in Australia and elsewhere and paved the way for later green political parties around the globe.

Joanne, family and friends explored and camped in Tassie a number of years ago and loved it - laidback, stunning scenery and beaches, great hiking, lots of artists, very foody, a wine industry. To us it sounded a lot like a giant Gulf Island but in the Southern Hemisphere with the bonus of quiet roads to practice our driving on the “wrong” side. AndIt’s a more moderate climate than Australia, a pleasant high of 24C today and we are having much longer days here at a latitude of 42.8 S. it is a relief to see clear blue skies again though Tassie has also had fires this year and you can see the potential.

The Feb. 7, 1967 Tasmanian fires known as the Black Tuesday bushfires were the most deadly bushfires that Tasmania has ever experienced, leaving 62 people dead, 900 injured and over seven thousand homeless. The conditions that caused it were similar to the fires this fall in California, wet spring weather causing lots of vegetation growth, then a prolonged period of drought, then very high temperatures and high winds. 110 separate fire fronts burnt through some 2,640 square kilometres (652,000 acres) of land in southern Tasmania and into Hobart, within the space of five hours.

So before you could say Tasmanian Devil, here we are in Hobart for 4 nights in a sweet little stone (yellow sandstone being a beautiful traditional building material here) converted stable of a cottage with a grape arbor porch, a short walk up the hill from downtown Hobart. We even have a double stable door to hang our sorry heads over. Jim’s head is the sorry one today as his long dormant sciatica seems to have flared up. Too much hard labour at home plus a lot of walking here. Heading to a chiropractor appointment this aft.

Like our Melbourne neighbourhood, this is a real neighbourhood away from the tourist throngs, not that we are finding even downtown Hobart too “throngy”. We are in a bit of a valley between two steep hills and have even steeper Mt. Wellington as a backdrop. Just up our road, called Cascade Road, is the Cascade Brewery, the oldest brewery in Australian with a lovely garden and restaurant (where we saw a wallaby!). The brewery burned in the 1967 fire.

Just down the road is the old Cascade Hotel, a genuine local eatery where we had a wonderful dinner the other night - roast lamb and all the trimmings. We are surrounded by streets of lovely traditional cottages and if we don’t wish to walk on the road, we can follow the Rivlet Trail from the brewery, a lovely shady walk along a small stream that takes us right into town.

The trail took us past the Female Factory, part of Tasmania’s grim convict history. From Wikipedia: “The island was permanently settled by Europeans in 1803 as a penal settlement of the British Empire in order to prevent claims to the land by the First French Empire the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. It became a separate, self-governing colony under the name Van Dieman’s Land (named after Anthony Van Diemans, the Governor of the Dutch East Indies) in 1825. Approximately 75,000 convicts, men, women and children were sent to Van Diemen's Land before transportation ceased in 1853.”

Tassie also has a grim aboriginal history, an all too familiar story. Again from Wikipedia: “Evidence indicates the presence of Aborigines in Tasmania about 42,000 years ago. Rising sea levels cut Tasmania off from mainland Australia about 10,000 years ago and by the time of European contact, the Aboriginal people in Tasmania had nine major nations or ethnic groups. At the time of the British occupation and colonisation in 1803, the indigenous population was estimated at between 3,000 and 10,000.” It did not take long to wipe them all out.

From the arrival of sealers and whalers in 1798, the extermination of the native population was efficiently pursued. “By 1824, the rapid colonization transformed traditional kangaroo hunting grounds into farms with grazing livestock as well as fences, hedges and stone walls, while police and military patrols were increased to control the convict farm labourers. Violence began to spiral rapidly from the mid-1820s in what became known as the “Black War”. While black inhabitants were driven to desperation by dwindling food supplies as well as anger at the prevalence of abductions of women and girls, whites carried out attacks as a means of exacting revenge and suppressing the native threat. Van Diemen's Land had an enormous gender imbalance, with male colonists outnumbering females six to one in 1822—and 16 to one among the convict population. Historian Nicholas Clements has suggested the "voracious appetite" for native women was the most important trigger for the explosion of violence from the late 1820s.”

“In November 1828 martial law was declared, giving soldiers the right to shoot on sight any Aboriginal in the Settled Districts. Martial law would remain in force for more than three years, the longest period of martial law in Australian history. Then in November 1830 the so-called "Black Line" was instituted, ordering every able-bodied male colonist to assemble at one of seven designated places in the Settled Districts to join a massive drive to sweep Aboriginals out of the region and on to the Tasman Peninsula. The campaign failed and was abandoned seven weeks later, but by then Tasmania's Aboriginal population had fallen to about 300.”

“After hostilities between settlers and Aboriginals ceased in 1832, almost all of the remnants of the indigenous population were persuaded or forced to move to Flinders Island. They quickly succumbed to infectious diseases to which they had no immunity, reducing the population further. Of those removed from Tasmania, the last to die was Truganini in 1876. The near-destruction of Tasmania's Aboriginal population has been described as an act of genocide by historians.” Couldn’t get much sadder.

Yesterday, we explored downtown Hobart around the harbour and an area known as Salamanca - lots of restaurants and art galleries.

We have 1 more night in Hobart. Today we were planning to take a short ferry ride on a weirdly camouflaged boat, to MONA, the Museum of New Art that we have heard so much about. However, Jim is having a rest day and we will see this on our return to Hobart before flying out on the 20th.

Lonely Planet ranked Hobart as one of the ten must-visit cities in 2013, citing MONA as a major tourist attraction in a small city, similar to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. This largely underground private museum houses over 1,900 artistic works from billionaire gambler David Walsh's private collection, main themes being sex and death apparently. Stay tuned - Tasmania will continue to surprise I think.