Down under, Down under

The Tasmanians don't necessarily think of themselves as Australians. We didn't realize this until recently. They think of themselves as...Tasmanians...a world apart from “Australia”, which they seem to consider a separate country. It's not so different from the way Alaska and Hawaii view the contiguous 48 states. Tasmanians say that they're down under, down under and in fact, we are pretty far south of “down under”, truth be told. We've actually found this same feeling evident in many isolated islands that we've visited. The islanders feel the central government and happenings “on the mainland” have little to do with their lives here. Being an island, Tasmania has its own unique flora and fauna. The Tasmanian devil is found nowhere else in the world, but we'd certainly heard of them before. We'd never heard of the extinct Tasmanian tiger though. Other animals such as the spotted quoll, pademelon and bettong are less well-known. Tasmania has many species which have become, or are on the verge of extinction on mainland Australia which means that this island is a last chance for many species.

There are lots of jokes about Tasmania and its inhabitants, mostly made by Australians who haven't visited and consider the island twenty years behind the times. The main joke stems from the fact that the people from this isolated island are inbred and a true Tasmanian has two heads. "Watch out for people with a scar on the shoulder"! (The scar is left after the second head was removed). The MONA website states that Tasmanian residents may enter for free with proof of residence (ID card and/or proof of two heads). Six fingers are sometimes mentioned as well.

Tasmania holds its own when it comes to specialty foods. The longer we live here, the more discoveries we make. I talked about “pink eyes” before, the potato that all the veggie stands were advertising. Come to find out, it's the traditional potato grown here in Tassie and lots of folks we've met from Australia didn't know about them either. Another Tassie specialty comes from King Island in the middle of the Bass Strait which is known for its dairy products, especially wonderful cheeses. We can vouch for the richness and quality of the their double brie variety. We're hooked on it.

And then there's Valhalla ice cream. Oh, my, this is a “died and gone to heaven” experience for ice cream lovers. Fifty flavors of heaven, in fact, made right here in Tasmania. One interesting flavor is pepperberry, made with native Tasmanian bush pepper. It's spicy, a little hot and combined with the cold, creamy sweetness of the ice cream, it's pretty good.

There are all those fine Tasmanian cool climate wines and there's smoked salmon from the local salmon farms and oysters and don't forget the apples. Since Captain Bligh planted the first Granny Smith apple tree on Bruny Island, Tasmania has been the Apple Isle.

What's particularly interesting is that Tasmania is considered the mainland to several other unique islands like Bruny, Maria, Flinders, and King Islands and the natives there probably feel the same way about Tassie as the Taswegians feel about Australia. Hobart is a small city by metro standards, but compared to Alonnah on Bruny Island, it's a metropolis.

All things are relative, I guess. Being resident in the Roaring 40's for these last few months, we can definitely attest to feeling down under, down under...and loving it.

66th Annual Huon Show

It seems that a celebration as big as a birthday should not be confined to a single day and so it was that the celebration continued. The 66th annual Huon Show was recommended to us as a “real” Tasmanian show. Americans would know it as a county fair. It was overcast, but we were still in celebration mode, so off we went to the Ranelagh show grounds near Huonville. There was that air of expectancy and excitement as we walked past the animals being unloaded from crates, trucks and vans. All the critters were coiffed and ready to compete. We could hear the noise from the midway. The earthy aroma of manure blended with the odor of deep-fried carnival food, permeating the morning air.

I had read a short program description and we were most interested in the competitive woodchopping events. Huon pine is endemic to Tasmania and lumbering was a huge industry here when the early “piners” exploited the stands of this slow-growing, long-living, durable tree. The modern sport of woodchopping is said to have had its birth in Ulverstone, Tasmania in 1870 as the result of a £25 ($50) bet between two axemen as to who could first fell a tree. The world's first woodchopping championship was held in 1891 at Bell's Parade, Latrobe, Tasmania, now the home of The Australian Axemen's Hall of Fame and Timberworks. Though similar lumberjacking competitions take place in the US, we'd never attended one.

How could we have known how many events would be involved in a woodchopping competition? There was chopping, sawing, climbing, felling ... singles, doubles, jack and jills, relays. Handicaps were assigned to contestants in most events. This was serious. We'd watch, then wander off to admire draft horses or check out the goats and pigs, horse jumping or dog's playing flyball, then come back for more woodchopping events.

The most exciting event was the three-board tree felling competition. The axemen ascended a standing pole by making scarfs (notches) in the side of the pole into which they wedged narrow planks to stand on, working their way to the top of the pole. At the top, they chopped a wood block half way through, then scampered down, removing the planks as they descended. They started the whole process again on the other side of the pole to complete the chop through of the block at the top. We were exhausted watching the energy expended during this competition that lasted only a few minutes.

We watched as blue ribbons were presented to the best-fleeced alpacas, the cutest cows, the most handsome roosters, the tastiest cakes, the best contribution by a senior citizen (??), the highest jump by a dog … there was absolutely no lack of high end entertainment. A country-western band crooned throughout the day...hopefully they had not given up their day jobs. One display was entitled “Old Bits and Pieces”. We couldn't tell if “old bits and pieces” referred to the old men sitting around or the various old machines that chugged away next to them.

There was a midway in small town carnival fashion offering huge plush toys in exchange for beaucoup bucks and the opportunity to test your skills. We could hear the screams from the kids getting whipped around in the more adventuresome amusement rides. All sorts of food was offered. Tornado potatoes, spirals of deep fried potatoes on a stick, were popular. More Tasmanian offerings like salmon burgers and Valhalla ice cream had waiting lines. Kids were sticky with fairy floss (cotton candy) and cranky with fatigue and too much sugar by day's end.

The show lasted only one day and was breaking down by 5pm. The finale included a “ute muster” (lots of pick-up trucks on display...wow!) and a Grand Parade in which horses, cows, alpacas, pigs, sheep, trucks, tractors, lawn mowers and basically anything capable of moving in line, participated. There were even wood chippers and wooden boats on trailers for this grand event.

All in all, a fine way to end my annual celebration. Wonder where we'll be next year at this time?

In Search of the White Wallaby

We rose with the sun, packed our picnic lunch and headed in the marina's courtesy van to the ferry dock. We caught the 0745 car ferry to Bruny Island and began my day late, but not forgotten, birthday celebration. First and foremost today, I wished to see and photograph a Bruny Island white wallaby. Previously, we'd only walked a few kilometers from the ferry dock on our mini on-foot excursion. We hoped today to cover all the roads, paved and gravel, that criss-cross the island. It actually looks like two islands on the map, separated by a narrow isthmus called The Neck. We headed there first.

This area is a blue penguin aka fairy penguin rookery with blinds for watching the penguins go to and from the sea each day at dawn and dusk. The timing was wrong to see the bluies, but we did climb the wooden stairs to the top of the hill for spectacular views of both sides of the Neck...D'Entrecasteaux Channel on one side and the Tasman Sea on the other. There is also a memorial to Truganini, the last Tasmanian Aborigine who died in 1876 after a miserable life at the hands of the violent white settlers.

We headed down the east side of south Bruny to Adventure Bay. We had read about the Bligh Museum and stopped in for a look. If you're interested in early explorers of Tasmania, this is the place to visit. All manner of information and memorabilia about Tasman, Furneaux, Bligh, D'Entrecasteaux, Flinders and of course, our hero, Captain James Cook. All of these early navigators found refuge here in Adventure Bay. There's a very lackluster monument to Captain Cook in an overgrown nook beside the road and a stone marker where he supposedly left a copper plaque on tree showing he visited. We had hoped to take some hikes during the course of the day, but high winds, cold temps and frequent showers thwarted our plans a bit. We were glad we were in the van.

The road ends at Adventure Bay, so we backtracked a bit and took a quick 15 minute walk through the Mavista Reserve. This area is rain forest and true to its name, it did rain about every 10 minutes or so. The trees were dripping; the trail was muddy; thick foliage and ferns were glistening with raindrops.

Across the island, we traveled through scenic little villages like Lunawanna and Alonnah … together those town names are what the Aborigines originally called Bruny Island. We headed south to Cape Bruny Lighthouse which is part of South Bruny National Park. The views along the way, especially at Mabel Bay, were stunning.

At the Cape Bruny Lighthouse, we wimped out when greeted by 40 knot cold winds blowing and rain pelting down. We waited for nearly an hour while picnicking on cheese and apples in the van. The sun would peek out for a minute or two, but the wind and cold did not abate and thus the lighthouse was not given any closer inspection.

Our birdwatching netted us superb fairy wrens, New Holland honeyeaters, eastern rosellas, a flame robin and a spotted pardalote plus innumerable Tasmanian native hens which roamed about the island like feral chickens.

The island is about 100 km from the northern point to the southern tip. Though the coastal areas are mostly rugged, the interior is rich and verdant. Farms, fruit orchards and grazing stock abound. We saw Australia's southernmost vineyard, cheese shops, berry farms, an oyster shack and a smoked salmon outlet. The Bruny Islanders are an ambitious lot.

We retraced our route and headed to Dennes Point on the very northern tip of North Bruny. This was an especially pretty little place with lots of little coves and possible anchorages along the protected channel side of the island. We checked out Barnes Bay which looked to be a very protected anchorage for our impending visit.

An absolutely lovely day, despite wind and rain. Oh, and did I forget to mention? I got my birthday wish. Just in case, you're wondering. This guy was NOT penned up. He had jumped INTO a farmer's paddock with a couple of buddies and was munching some lunch.