Tasmania

• see also:
  • Travel
  • Climate Tips for travellers
  • Victoria

Introduction:

• getting there:
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• history:
  • despite its small size, the exploration of Tasmania took many years, with some areas in mountainous south-west still being opened up as late as the 1970's.
  • 1st explorer to explore more than a few km's inland was Lieutenant John Hayes who sailed up the Derwent River in 1793 as far as New Norfolk.
  • Matthew Flinders & George Bass surveyed the estuary of the Tamar River to within kilometers of present day Launceston.
  • last consignment of convicts arrived in 1853.
• geography:
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Hobart:

• historic city and state capital on the Derwent River at the base of Mt Wellington
• the base for Australia's Antarctic expeditions and research
• nearby attractions:
  • Cadbury chocolate factory
  • Australia's largest private art gallery opening 2009 - moorilla.com.au  which emphasises art's representations of life's two main motivations - sex and avoidance of death.

North coast:

• Launceston:
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West coast:

• Queenstown:
  • founded on the discovery of gold, copper and tin which was to change the West Coast forever, with 11 smelters working between 1886 and 1922 when the Mt Lyell Copper Mine was an industrial titan
  • Its hills are permanently scarred by years of sulphur fumes while Queen River was choked with sludge & tailings, and yet many find it disturbingly romantic even in the drizzle, & unlike Strahan, it  seems impervious to change. 
  • make sure you make time to walk around the town & pop into the magnificent Empire Hotel.
  • the West Coast Wilderness Railway:
    • the copper barons who ran Queenstown, built the Abt Wilderness railway, workers living for months in rain-soaked tents in the forest in fearsome terrain which took 18 months just to survey the route
    • although only 34km long it had 50 hand built bridges
    • when the price of copper collapsed in the 1960's, the smelters were shut & the railway was abandoned in 1963. Queenstown station became a supermarket, the salvage gangs took everything except one loco & a few meters of rusting track.
    • the track has been rebuilt & 39 bridges replaced, and the old Mt Lyell No.3 loco built in Glasgow in 1898 is now used burning oil instead of coal but still producing plenty of steam and still uses the 2nd set of toothed rack-and-pinion rails - a steam-age version of 4WD invented by the Swiss engineer Dr Roman Abt, to negotiate the steep 1:16 inclines
    • the railway penetrates some of the toughest & most remote mountain country in Australia providing fine river & forest views
    • passengers can:
      • pan for gold at Lynchford
      • explore a mine at Rinadeena
      • bushwalk along forest trails around Dubbil Barril Station where the train stops for lunch
      • finally, explore the fishing port of Strahan at journey's end, a mecca for tourists who want to explore either Tasmania's blood-curdling convict past or the hauntingly beautiful Gordon & Franklin rivers.
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