TASMANIAN TRIP - DECEMBER 2006-JANUARY 2007
TASMANIAN TRIP
DECEMBER 2006-JANUARY 2007
Monday 15 January to Sunday 21 January
Beauty Point to Launceston
Blog 7
There was a lot to see on the west side of the Tamar River. We drove to the top of West Point which is where the Tamar River flows into Bass Straight. It is called Port Dalrymple at that point. We stopped at Greens Beach and then drove into Narawntapu National Park to the West Head Lookout which gave us spectacular views of the Bass Straight Coast where the water was a magnificent green blue colour and there were lots of sand dunes on the long beach.
The next explore was Badger Head, on the north coast, a beautiful beach with quite a lot of rocks. The day was too hot to do much more walking so we headed to Beaconsfield, which is where the miners were trapped in the mine collapse April 2006 and saved after 10 days of being trapped. It is a lovely little town with a great mining museum. We always learn lots of things on these explores most of which we unfortunately forget again.
Beaconsfield was the first place in Australia to introduce fluoride into the water in 1953. When it was found to be successful fluoride was introduced into other cities.
Back across the Batman Bridge to the east side of the Tamar River and on to the Hillwood Strawberry Farm which grew strawberries, raspberries and other berries as well. The specialty of the house was strawberries and cream which were yummy.
Still on the east side of the Tamar River we drove south to Windermere to look at St Matthias Church and the old cemetery which dated back to the 1800s like many of the beautiful buildings in Tasmania.
I was enjoying the hot weather and the challenge of the games at the Glengarry Bush Maze. We had such a good laugh.
In the middle of the Tasmanian Aussie Bush setting is the Swiss Village of Grindewald. Every building, the houses and shops, was of Swiss design. Further south we stopped at Rosevears which is a vineyard with a beautiful little old hotel on the river.
Our last stop at Beauty Point was the Platypus House which breeds platypus and echidas and runs tours. We watched the platypus feed on live yabbies, worms and grubs and the echidas lick their plates clean with their long sticky tongues.
We drove the 50km south along the Tamar River to Launceston which was to be our base for the next week.
Princes Park in Launceston was the first place we wandered around before we took a cruise on the Tamar River to Cataract Gorge.
The river was like glass and we went a little way up the North Esk River to the new development at the Old Sea Port. We then went under the old Kings Bridge where the South Esk River runs into the Tamar River. Kings Bridge was built in 1864.
The Gorge has steep sides of dolerite rock and is quite narrow so we could only go in a short way.
After the boat trip we drove further up the Cataract Gorge to the First Basin and walked across the Alexandra Suspension Bridge which was built in 1830s, up to Alexandra Lookout and from the other side of the Gorge we walked back along the track of the Gorge to where the boat had to turn around so that we actually got to see the whole Gorge.
We then took the chairlift back to the side of the gorge where we started our journey. It gave us a beautiful bird’s eye view of the area.
Launceston is the 3rd city that was established in Australia after Sydney and then Hobart. It certainly was a bustling town which came into its own with the discovery of gold in Beaconsfield and tin in the north east at Poimena.
We decided to wander through the city and look at some of historical buildings and parks. We started with the Town Hall, the original Post Office, and the Old Umbrella Shop which has an historical collection of umbrellas from the last 100 years. The Batman and Fawkner Inn was owned by Fawkner and is the place where Batman and Fawkner planned their separate trips across Bass Straight to establish Melbourne.
We drove down to City Park which is the 2nd oldest park in Australia after Hyde Park in Sydney. We walked through the John Hart Conservatory which is quite small but has lots of lovely plants. The Lithgow Rotunda still has the original Huon Pine timber even though it is now on a concrete base. The Jubilee Fountain which was built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year had no water running, I suspect due to the draught. We stopped off at the Macaque Monkey enclosure where there were lots of monkeys many of them quite young. There is an old house just inside the park that had a Wisteria plant that was over 160 years old.
The Boags Brewery tour was next on our agenda but unlike the Cascade Brewery photographs were not allowed.
One of the highlights for us in Tasmania was our trip to Ben Lomond National Park. As we climbed to the top of the mountain the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, the vegetation became sparse and the trees changed to snow gums. The beautiful dolerite tall columns were spectacular. The final steep climb to the plateau is known as Jacob’s ladder and is VERY steep and zigzag bends but breathtaking. The village at the top was quite small and reminded us of Illulisat (Greenland) except that it lacked the colour. The colours of the shrubs were great and there were wallabies bouncing around and very curious.
On the way back to Launceston we took the back dirt road to Evandale as we always like to travel new roads where ever possible just to see a different part of the countryside which in this case was mainly cattle farms with some vineyards. Evandale is a National Trust Village with many intact Georgian Houses converted into cafes and accommodation places. We wandered around town, enjoyed the 3 sculptures, the traveller and his penny farthing bike, John Glover the artist and the WW1 soldier Harry Murray who was the most decorated soldier in Australia??
We visited the Bridestowe Lavender Farm, apparently the largest in the southern hemisphere, which also extracts the pure oil on the premises 80% of which is sent to USA, England and Europe to be used in perfumes for various products. They only plant one kind of French Lavender and it only blooms once a year.
On the way back to Launceston we stopped at Lilydale Falls Reserve and walked to the beautiful Lilydale Falls. They were not large but the forest is always beautiful to walk through with its large ferns and fresh smell.
Our last stop for the day was Lilydale to look at the paintings on the electricity poles.
DECEMBER 2006-JANUARY 2007
Monday 15 January to Sunday 21 January
Beauty Point to Launceston
Blog 7
There was a lot to see on the west side of the Tamar River. We drove to the top of West Point which is where the Tamar River flows into Bass Straight. It is called Port Dalrymple at that point. We stopped at Greens Beach and then drove into Narawntapu National Park to the West Head Lookout which gave us spectacular views of the Bass Straight Coast where the water was a magnificent green blue colour and there were lots of sand dunes on the long beach.
The next explore was Badger Head, on the north coast, a beautiful beach with quite a lot of rocks. The day was too hot to do much more walking so we headed to Beaconsfield, which is where the miners were trapped in the mine collapse April 2006 and saved after 10 days of being trapped. It is a lovely little town with a great mining museum. We always learn lots of things on these explores most of which we unfortunately forget again.
Beaconsfield was the first place in Australia to introduce fluoride into the water in 1953. When it was found to be successful fluoride was introduced into other cities.
Back across the Batman Bridge to the east side of the Tamar River and on to the Hillwood Strawberry Farm which grew strawberries, raspberries and other berries as well. The specialty of the house was strawberries and cream which were yummy.
Still on the east side of the Tamar River we drove south to Windermere to look at St Matthias Church and the old cemetery which dated back to the 1800s like many of the beautiful buildings in Tasmania.
I was enjoying the hot weather and the challenge of the games at the Glengarry Bush Maze. We had such a good laugh.
In the middle of the Tasmanian Aussie Bush setting is the Swiss Village of Grindewald. Every building, the houses and shops, was of Swiss design. Further south we stopped at Rosevears which is a vineyard with a beautiful little old hotel on the river.
Our last stop at Beauty Point was the Platypus House which breeds platypus and echidas and runs tours. We watched the platypus feed on live yabbies, worms and grubs and the echidas lick their plates clean with their long sticky tongues.
We drove the 50km south along the Tamar River to Launceston which was to be our base for the next week.
Princes Park in Launceston was the first place we wandered around before we took a cruise on the Tamar River to Cataract Gorge.
The river was like glass and we went a little way up the North Esk River to the new development at the Old Sea Port. We then went under the old Kings Bridge where the South Esk River runs into the Tamar River. Kings Bridge was built in 1864.
The Gorge has steep sides of dolerite rock and is quite narrow so we could only go in a short way.
After the boat trip we drove further up the Cataract Gorge to the First Basin and walked across the Alexandra Suspension Bridge which was built in 1830s, up to Alexandra Lookout and from the other side of the Gorge we walked back along the track of the Gorge to where the boat had to turn around so that we actually got to see the whole Gorge.
We then took the chairlift back to the side of the gorge where we started our journey. It gave us a beautiful bird’s eye view of the area.
Launceston is the 3rd city that was established in Australia after Sydney and then Hobart. It certainly was a bustling town which came into its own with the discovery of gold in Beaconsfield and tin in the north east at Poimena.
We decided to wander through the city and look at some of historical buildings and parks. We started with the Town Hall, the original Post Office, and the Old Umbrella Shop which has an historical collection of umbrellas from the last 100 years. The Batman and Fawkner Inn was owned by Fawkner and is the place where Batman and Fawkner planned their separate trips across Bass Straight to establish Melbourne.
We drove down to City Park which is the 2nd oldest park in Australia after Hyde Park in Sydney. We walked through the John Hart Conservatory which is quite small but has lots of lovely plants. The Lithgow Rotunda still has the original Huon Pine timber even though it is now on a concrete base. The Jubilee Fountain which was built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee Year had no water running, I suspect due to the draught. We stopped off at the Macaque Monkey enclosure where there were lots of monkeys many of them quite young. There is an old house just inside the park that had a Wisteria plant that was over 160 years old.
The Boags Brewery tour was next on our agenda but unlike the Cascade Brewery photographs were not allowed.
One of the highlights for us in Tasmania was our trip to Ben Lomond National Park. As we climbed to the top of the mountain the temperature dropped, the wind picked up, the vegetation became sparse and the trees changed to snow gums. The beautiful dolerite tall columns were spectacular. The final steep climb to the plateau is known as Jacob’s ladder and is VERY steep and zigzag bends but breathtaking. The village at the top was quite small and reminded us of Illulisat (Greenland) except that it lacked the colour. The colours of the shrubs were great and there were wallabies bouncing around and very curious.
On the way back to Launceston we took the back dirt road to Evandale as we always like to travel new roads where ever possible just to see a different part of the countryside which in this case was mainly cattle farms with some vineyards. Evandale is a National Trust Village with many intact Georgian Houses converted into cafes and accommodation places. We wandered around town, enjoyed the 3 sculptures, the traveller and his penny farthing bike, John Glover the artist and the WW1 soldier Harry Murray who was the most decorated soldier in Australia??
We visited the Bridestowe Lavender Farm, apparently the largest in the southern hemisphere, which also extracts the pure oil on the premises 80% of which is sent to USA, England and Europe to be used in perfumes for various products. They only plant one kind of French Lavender and it only blooms once a year.
On the way back to Launceston we stopped at Lilydale Falls Reserve and walked to the beautiful Lilydale Falls. They were not large but the forest is always beautiful to walk through with its large ferns and fresh smell.
Our last stop for the day was Lilydale to look at the paintings on the electricity poles.
posted by Mike and Carol at
10:47 AM
