Go West! part 3

Continuing the series on the West Coast weekend, some three weeks later (I blame a combination of a very heavy workload and illness - why the two always seem to coincide I'll never know - and a sick child), here are some photos from our morning in Zeehan.

Zeehan is about 40 km from Strahan.  It’s a very good road, and there’s a nice lookout along the way where you can see the coastline with that view to South America on one side, and the spectacular mountainscape of Mt Heemskirk, Mt Agnew and Mt Zeehan on the other. 

Zeehan is in one of Tasmania’s early mining areas, dating back to the 1880s when deposits of silver and lead were discovered, and got its name from one of Abel Tasman’s ships, the Zeehaen, which, if you are familiar with the Dutch language, means ‘sea hen’.  (That’s something I didn’t know before.)

It’s also the birthplace of my grandmother (daughter of my great-great grandfather of the Dunalley Hotel fame), and her father worked at the Post Office in Zeehan in the 1890s and 1900s.

We went to the West Coast Pioneers Museum, which I thought was going to be focused mainly on mining – which is true – but there was so much more to see in there. The West Coast Heritage Centre incorporates several old buildings on the Main Street, including the restored Gaiety Theatre, the police station and court house, and the Freemasons Lodge, all of which are open to museum visitors.  The Freemasons Lodge is set up to give visitors a glimpse of how the Lodge operated, which was particularly interesting.

The museum also includes a display of classic cars, some wonderful old trains and a replica underground mine. It was well worth the cost of admission and was one of the highlights of our trip.

Part of the underground mining display

Zeehan Court House with Magistrate Juniordwarf & defendant Slabs

Zeehan Police Station

Another one that required some explanation for Juniordwarf

Old school desk

Mt Lyell map camera (I would love a setup like this to take photos of my layouts...)

Steering wheel of an old Plymouth

Byer-Peacock train 1902 (these ran in Tasmania 1884-1961)

Zeehan Post Office

Zeehan Main Street with the Gaiety Theatre in the foreground

Go West! part 2

Following on from our journey to the West Coast, today's post is some pictures from in and around Strahan, where we stayed for three nights.

We didn't do any of the cruises, or the train trip or the seaplane flights that Strahan has in abundance. Instead we pottered around the town, went to the edge of Tasmania, walked through a beautiful forest to Hogarth Falls, and saw a play.  (The play (The Ship That Never Was) was great - it has been running in Strahan for 20 years.)

Here's some of what we did and saw.

My take on the postcard shot of Strahan

Strahan wharf

Strahan wharf

Strahan wharf - I loved how the shimmering water was reflected on the boat

Strahan from across the bay

Strahan from across the bay

Entrance to the harbour, from the Strahan cemetery

The very funny play "The Ship That Never Was"

Some of the interesting old buildings near the waterfront

Ocean Beach. Next stop: South America

Arty boaty shot

Ocean Beach. Wild West

Near Hogarth Falls in Strahan

Cool rainbow in Hogarth Falls

Go West! part 1

This weekend we headed off on an adventure to Tasmania's West Coast. We stayed three nights in Strahan, which is a small town near Macquarie Harbour, with a history of fishing, timber, convicts and mining.

The West Coast is a fascinating area less than 300 km away, but getting there takes pretty much all day (taking into account your relatively late start, the winding road through the mountains, and the various stops you need to make along the way).

The thing that captured my attention on our journey was the ever-changing scenery - from the burnt out areas and sheep grazing of the Central Highlands, to the massive pipes of the hydro-electric scheme, the sclerophyll forests, the rainforests of the Franklin river, the massive mountains of the south-west and then the bare hills coming into Queenstown. It's times like this trip that I wish I could remember what sclerophyll vegetation actually is and how those mountains came to be formed.

I've got too many photos for one post, so I'm aiming to spread them out over the next few posts.

Tonight, some things you might see on your way to the West Coast.

Some of the bushfire affected land near Hamilton

From Tarraleah

Tungatinah Power Station near Tarraleah

Franklin River

Nelson Falls, Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park

Near Nelson Falls

Near Nelson Falls

On the road to Queenstown

I really wanted to stop and take a better picture of this mountain - it was overwhelming

Iron Blow lookout near Queenstown

Iron Blow lookout near Queenstown

Coming into Queenstown

Coming into Queenstown

Coming into Queenstown

picnics

Yesterday was the last of my school holiday days at home with Juniordwarf. It seems like these holidays have flown by. While they are a week shorter than we’re used to, due to Tasmania’s move to a four-term year, the holiday period has gone by in a flash. Next Tuesday Juniordwarf will be back at school.

He’s had a fairly full-on month, with his grandmother lining up a vast array of activities for him on the days he was with her, including the circus, horse riding and activities on the beach. He’s done guest appearances on Slabs’ Monday afternoon radio shows and had a playdate with a school friend.

So this week we took things easy. 

Yesterday, after our trip to the Child and Family Centre, we had a picnic in a nearby park. We were accompanied by some of Juniordwarf’s teddies. I thought he might take one or two when he said that some teddies would come with us, but he said no, he’d be taking 16 of them. 

If you ever wanted to know how many teddies you can fit in two of the thinner green bags, the answer is 16.

Fortunately they brought their own food and I didn’t have to cater for 16 teddies.

Yesterday, I vaguely thought it might be fun to go to the beach. (Thinking of something to do and then actually getting out of the house and doing it on the same day is a rare combination for me.) Let’s just forget about the weather forecast for rain. We are going to have fun.

Juniordwarf has been getting into a Hi 5 DVD that he borrowed from the library, where the presenters create their own imaginary place out of all the places they’d like to be. 

Snowy mountains on a beach on a tropical island? Yep, Hi 5 can make it happen. It’s called Beach Island (or something like that). In his version, the chooks are seagulls, and he makes snowballs by stripping plants of their leaves.

Following this, he hides “jellyfish treasure” in the garden and we go and look for it.

So, I wondered, would he like to go to the beach and look for treasure? After a bit of consideration he decided that yes, he would.

We packed up another picnic and he put his treasure that he was going to hide for us into the basket he uses to collect the eggs, collected Zoe from her shop, and off we went.

We went to Cornelian Bay, which is not the beachiest of beaches, so our beach treasure hunt was more of a woodland treasure hunt. What this meant was that I had to look away while Juniordwarf hid the treasure he’d brought with him. This consisted of some plastic toast, a plastic mug, a spatula and the basket, which we then had to search for. He was delighted when we found something.

 After finding all the treasure, we went for a short walk along the Boat Shed track. 

Juniordwarf picked up a few more treasures along the way – a huge oyster shell, a stripy stone and some pretty feathers – and then it was time to head back for our picnic.

By this stage the promised rain was starting to get a bit heavier, so we sought out the tree with the thickest cover to set up the picnic under. We were immediately discovered by seagulls, which distressed Juniordwarf at first. But even thought they looked menacing, they didn’t come too close and he eventually relaxed.

Most of them left eventually, leaving just one, who I presume was the scout that would signal the others if there was any sign we were going to send any food its way. 

Once we started packing up it too left, disappointed.

I was glad that something so simple kept Juniordwarf happy. It was one of my favourite days of the holidays.

I was also glad that nothing happened to Zoe.

camping

Last week Slabs, Juniordwarf and I went camping at Mt Field National Park.

We really love going there, and it's been the subject of several previous posts (examples here and  here). It's wonderful to be so close to such a beautiful place, so peaceful and so far removed from the rest of our lives.

I've already told the story of how Zoe went swimming on our walk to Russell Falls. Here are some photos to tell the rest of the story.

Slabs and Junordwarf did some fishing

Lake Fenton, where we had hoped to see a glorious sunset, but it wasn't to be

The amazing colours of these trees almost made up for the lack of a sunset

They were beautiful trees

Pandani on the Urquhart Track near Lake Dobson

Eagle Tarn

Mt Field from Maydena

Russell Falls

A grateful Juniordwarf and Zoe after the great rescue

Juniordwarf is getting the hang of using the camera

Tyenna River, right where we camped

Tall trees at dusk. They really are massive!

We had only intended to stay for two days, so we weren't too put out when we were told on the Thursday night we would have to leave by 9 am the next morning as they were closing the park due to the forecast high temperatures (forecast 39 degrees, it actually reached 41 in Hobart) and strong winds, combined with the fact that there was a bushfire relatively nearby.

It seemed impossible to imagine, in the cool and still of the evening, that such conditions could eventuate. But eventuate they did, and not long after we got home, the sun came out, the clouds disappeared and Tasmania sweltered and burned.

Late on Friday afternoon, the sky around town looked like this

from the fire that had prompted the precautionary closure of the park. It was nowhere near us, but it was still a fearsome sight. In the following days we heard of heartbreaking losses from communities around the state, especially around the Tasman Peninsula.

Today it is a lot cooler, even though the rest of Australia had its turn for record temperatures, but the fires are still burning and everyone is hoping for some relief very soon.