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Our journey to Taz began in Melbourne when we drove our unsellable camper onto the ferry and not into the sea like Colin wanted. We departed Melbourne dock at 19:30 on our 11 hour voyage to Devonport-Tasmania. Before the ferry had even left Melbourne dock Colin had found his way around the ferry and had us sitting eating a buffet heaped plate of food. Our evening on ship entertainment was a film at the cinema -Ice age 3. We arrived in Devonport Tasmania at 06:30 and it was freezing as it was 16C (which may not seem cold to you at home but after leaving 40C two days previous it was for us) luckily we managed to hang onto our blankets we had been given on the ferry and wrapped them around us in the van to keep us warm while driving.
Devonport to Hobart
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As usual we had no plan and after a brief read of lonely planet we decided to drive straight to Hobart (which is 250km South of Devonport and Australia's 2nd oldest city) that way we could work our way back up to catch the ferry in a weeks time. It was a nice drive to Hobart as there was lots of green scenery and sheep to look at along the way which reminded us of home. We arrived in Hobart for 10ish and checked in to a hostel to get freshened up. After this we went to the tourist info to discover what the main attractions were about the area the two which interested us were Cadbury's factory and Mount Wellington so we decided that we would attempt to do these with our 1st day.
Cadbury's Factory
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We headed for Cadburys 2nd largest factory in the world. Unfortunately we discovered that a tour of the factory is no longer permitted due to the change in health & Safety laws in 2008. Instead there was a 15 min video on the history of how the company was built and how chocolate was made.
When we first entered the factory and paid at the entrance we were greeted with a few treat size chocs then after walking into the factory we were greeted with a box of roses each from a chest full of them! We then went to a stall and were briefly told how chocolate was made and were able to taste each of the raw ingredients involved in making chocolate some of which tasted disguisting which we were both shocked by. We were also surprised to learn that it actually grew on trees unlike what your parents tell you. We were shown the raw cocoa seeds that were oringally discovered in south America by the Spanish and were shown how they produce chocolate from these plants.
There were also a few other stalls which showed us how they moulded the chocolates amongst other things, as well as some other free samples. Whilst talking to one of the staff he commented on there being no Taz bars and how it would be good for Cadbury's to make a bar designed on the Tasmanian Devil. When we told them there has been one in the U.K. for the last 15 years he couldn't believe it and said he would look into the matter. The best part of the tour was that you were allowed access to the discounted shop at the end after making our way almost all the way through the shop and avoiding so much temptation we surrendered and bought two big bags of dairy milks! Colin wanted an advent calendar but he was told to act his age.
Mount Wellington
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There is not much written about Mount Wellington before the arrival of the Europeans however there is evidence that Aboriginals once used this land. The summit of the mountain range stands at 1270m above sea level and is only a short 0 minute drive outside of Hobart.
The view from the summit can be a completely different experience depending on the weather at the time of your visit. You either have the view that you would expect, that of overlooking the city of Hobart or you can have the one that we experienced - a blanket of pure white clouds! The peak is so high that in order to get there you have to drive through the clouds which was a weird experience before emerging at the top.
The mountain was renamed after the Duke of Wellington in 1824 and like the other mountains we have visited, provides great viewing lookouts and walks with fantastic scenery such as waterfalls.
Hobart to Port Arthur
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After spending one night in Hobart we decided to drive 150km South to Port Arthur. As we were both eager to visit the Port Arthur Prison as this is where all the worst British convicts were sent in the early 1800s. Port Arthur is Australias most significant historic site as it is the best preserved convict site. It originated from a small flour producing town into the home of a large jail for the most serious offenders in the Colony.
In 1830 Governor Arthur chose the Tasman peninsula as a place to confine prisoners who had committed further crimes in the colony. He called the peninsula "A Natural Penitentiary" because it was connected to the mainland by a strip of land less than 100m wide, called Eaglehawk Neck. Between 1830 and 1877 around 12,500 sentences were served by convicts at Port Arthur. The site is spread over 40 hectares of land right on the harbourside.
Port Arthur became the centre of a network of penal stations on the peninsula but was much more than just a prison town, with fine buildings and thriving industries built on convict labour, including ship building, coal mining, shoe making and brick and nail production. Australias first railway was also built here and was operated by convicts pushing the carriages along the 7km tracks.
A semaphore telegraph system allowed instant communication between Port Arthur, the penal outstations and Hobart to account for any escaped cons.
It also housed the worlds first juvenile prison. Which was part of the new way of thinking on how to rehabilitate the prisoners by educating them as well as providing religious guidance instead of solely punishing them. The idea behind the juvenile prison was to cater for juvenile prisoners as young as 9 (the legal age to be tried as an adult was 6 and you could be sentenced to death at 8 and at 9 you could be deported as this is going back into the era of Oliver Twist) to 18 as before hand they would be locked up with adult prisoners who had most likely committed more serious crimes and could influence the juvenile prisoners, perhaps even teaching them more severe crimes and eventually lead to the juvenille convicts leaving prison more harmful than when they entered.
When we arrived we were taken on a boat tour around the harbour where we were shown the island that the boys prison was situated on as well as another island that was home to the settlements graveyard, The Isle of the Dead.
From here we were allowed to walk freely through the old buildings before we were taken on a walking tour around the grounds. This tour was quite informative and we learned that Port Arthur was described as a "machine" to process convicts and rehabilitate them as we mentioned previously through education and religion. We were shown some of the other buildings that were also part of this new idea of prison which included a full scale library that would rival any university, a Paupers Depot for old ex cons that had nowhere else to go and a lunatic asylum.
The Paupers Depot was built for the old men who were unable to look after themselves upon their release and had no homes to go to. When they went here they still ended up being treated like prisoners as they were given jobs to do such as cooking and washing. Ultimately though it became too expensive to maintain and the men here were transferred to Hobart and this became the start of the modern welfare system in Australia.
The lunatic asylum was designed to cater for the most untrustworthy and serious of criminals, however today most of these patients would be diagnosed with illnesses such as depression, dementia and other mental disabilities. Patients were kept in a calm, well lit environment but they were still put to work so elements of the prison system still existed.
The final building we were shown was the "Seperate Prison" which was an early form of solitary confinement. This was the worst place a prisoner could be sent to as they could spend between several hours and 30 days in a tiny, cramped cell in total darkness and silence and fed on bread and water. After 3 days the prisoners would be taken out seperately for 1 hours exercise. In this prison they really played with their minds as meals would be served at random times throughout the day with no set pattern. Guards also wore slippers and would communicate in sign language so as to avoid making noise when walking between cells and the prisoners were blindfolded when being taken out the cells so they could have no human interaction whatsoever.
Tasman's Arch, Devils Kitchen & Blowhole
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From Port Arthur to Eagleshawk Neck we took a slight detour to see some of the natural coastal formations that were created by the powerful sea of the east coast of Tasmania. These were Tasman's Arch, Devils Kitchen & the Blowhole. They are all at differnet stages in the erosion process with Devils Kitchen being the oldest and the Blowhole being the youngest. All 3 started as caves before weathering took place.
The Blowhole was a tunnel with a cave at the end before the roof of the cave collapsed to create the following:
Tasmans Arch is what's left of the roof of a large sea cave. This process happened over thousands of years and there is now a new cave forming at the back wall of the old cave.
The Devils Kitchen started off as a cave before developing into a tunnel until the roof collapsed also.
Eaglehawks Neck
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After stopping off it was time to head for Eaglehawk Neck which is the strip of land less than 100m wide North of Port Arthur that connected it to the mainland which convinced the British to locate their penitentiary here. Not only was it difficult for the prisoners to escape but when they did as we mentioned they had semaphore signals in place which alerted the guards at Eaglehawk Neck instantly of an escape. This was not the only security measure in place however as this was guarded by a line of vicious starved guard dogs who would be alerted by any prisoner trying to escape. This left the only option for the prisoners to swim but many were too scared of the sharks to try that.
There is the story here of one prisoner who had escaped and got to this guard line and found a kangaroo carcus so he cut the skin off and put it over him. He was hopping towards the line and thought he was going to be able to get past the guards. What he didn't count on though was the fact that the guards were starving and saw this large kangaroo and thought they had found dinner. When they took aim to shoot it the prisoner jumped out to give himself in instead of being shot.
We were able to walk around one of the guards offices that had been used as a house after the jail closed until 1991. It is now a small museum that gives a little bit of history about the area. This building is believed to be the oldest timber military building in Australia and was built by convict labour.
East Coast
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It was time to head North back up the coast again and our first stop was another slight detour to get some amazing pancakes at a place called Mt Elephant!
It was then onto another one of Australias great beaches - Lagoon Beach. The pictures speak for themselves, it was perfect and so quiet! We took time out of our busy schedule to make our Christmas post cards for you all here as well!
Another of the highlights of the East Coast is Bay of Fires. It is named this after the European settlers seen all the Aboriginal fires from their boats as they were coming in to land.
Launceston
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After travelling up the coast we headed inland to spend the night in Launceston. Launceston is Australias 3rd oldest city behind Sydney and Hobart and was founded in 1805. This city was the 3rd attempt by the British to create a settlement on the Tamar river. The city was originally called Patersonia after its founder but was renamed in 1907 after the Governor King who was born in Launceston, England.
This city has a fantastic park just outside the city center called Cataract Gorge which features large vertical cliff lines along the riverbanks and there are some great walks you can do. Again like the rest of Tasmania the scenery was fantastic.
Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park
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The only complaint that we have about Tasmania is the fact that they charge for entry to National Parks unlike Queensland and New South wales (we would have been skint if they did since every bit of forest, beach and even sea seems to be a National Park!) The Cradle Mounains though were another great peice of natural landscape and it was good to go for a walk about. This NP is the best known in Tasmania as it is one of the most affected areas of the ice age in Australia. It also covers a huge area of land spread over 1262 square km and features Mt Ossa which at 1617m is Tasmanias highest peak as well as Lake St Clair which is the deepest freshwater lake in Australia.
We only spent the afternoon here so went on the Dove Lake walk which has a bit of everything. It takes you on a good walk around the lake and offers some fantastic views of the mountains that overlook it. You will notice from the pictures how cold we look and for us it was freezing at such a cold temperature of 16C!
Devonport
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Our last stop in Tasmania was Devonport where we had begun earlier in the week. Devonport is a small town and only really exists as a transit location for the ferry to and from the mainland of Australia. Therefore the majority of people here are usually just off the ferry and heading elsewhere or waiting around for the ferry back again. Over the last couple of years they have tried to provide attractions to keep tourists here for a day or 2 however we didn't read or here about any of these. The 1 attraction they do have here is the penguins that nest on the beach however when we went to check it out we found out that they spend all day at sea and only come in to nest after it gets dark. Therefore we spent the day in the cinema waiting for the ferry.
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