Gentle Annie Falls - Pipeline Track

From the sign below Gentle Annie Falls at the Waterworks Reserve.

Before the Europeans came to Tasmania in 1803-04, these mountain foothills were visited by Palawa people. They came here hunting game, but never travelled far from natural water sources. These two factors – food and water – determined the seasonal travel patterns of the Palawa.

Settlers were more demanding. As soon as they landed on western Derwent shores they had to think about a water supply for a growing community. An early supply from Hobart Rivulet was limited by the size of the rivulet and by property owners exercising prior rights. In 1860 the Hobart Town Corporation decided to tap the water from Mt Wellington’s southeastern slopes. As you walk the Pipeline Track you can see evidence of changing construction techniques along the Pipeline Track with improving water management technologies. The first stages of construction (1861) used wooden and masonry troughing. Extensions and redevelopment use earthenware pipes (1873), cast iron pipes (1901) and steel and concrete pipes (from 1917).

If you look up at the stone outcrop you can see a channel cut into the natural sandstone, where water from the mountain cascaded down to the Upper Reservoir at Waterworks Reserve. The cascade soon became known as Gentle Annie Falls (possibly after “Gentle Annie” in the Irish folk song), a name which it has kept even [though] it has been dry since about 1940 when its water was re-directed to the higher-level Ridgeway Reservoir.

The local sandstone was also used for other pipeline works, including the stone aqueducts built at Fern Tree in 1881.To the right of the channel you can see a quarry from where building stone was cut.

From Hobart City Council sign: The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

Woodchip-pile-cam - 18th and 19th Feb 2008

Our forests continue to go overseas from Burnie, including whole logs. Now if Gunns manage to "replace" woodchip exports with pulp production in the Tamar Valley, how many of these woodchips will travel to Bell Bay rather than getting exported from here? Careful, it's a trick question.

Saul Eslake says in various places and forums:

"Tasmania's future cannot possibly lie predominantly in the volume production of essentially unprocessed commodities at lower prices than competitors with better access to; larger and cheaper resources of labour and capital, and to markets (by virtue of proximity of membership of trade blocs). But, instead depends on its capacity to produce and market highly differentiated goods and services, embodying a relatively high intellectual content, for which customers are willing to pay premium prices."

Read the Worrying Conjunction post to get some more background.

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The operation at Burnie goes day and night. I noticed the woodchip pile either steaming or smoking. Must be hot in there. Maybe the two bulldozers were trying to uncover the hotspot? Wouldn't be a good look for it all to go up in smoke.

EucaFlip - "Book" Review

I found this marvellous little identikit for Tasmanian eucalypts, called EucaFlip. It's by Rob Wiltshire and Brad Potts, and is a "Life-size guide to the eucalypts of Tasmania". I was taken by the thought of a "life-sized" guide including the Eucalyptus regnans, so I bought it on impulse. Crikey!! It's only the leaves and fruits that are "life-size". I was dudded! No seriously, this little fold-out is great. It's small and lightweight, and folds out like a map. It seems to have all the Tasmanian eucalypts. (I'm not exactly the utlimate expert, although I do know those eucalypts confuse us by producing naughty mixed species, intermediate between some of the main ones.) It's also covered in plastic and is quite stiff, so it looks like it'll tolerate my usual "care" when out walking. The pictures are great, very clear, and life-size. No guessing: "that picture looks like about 3/4 of the size of that gumnut!". It has a short key based on the number of buds per umbel. Each species guide has life-size pictures of the leaves, both juvenile and adult, plus the buds and capsules. Some include the flowers. For each species there is also a small distribution map and a picture of the bark. All are in vivid colour. The overall impression is very attractive (can I just say my photo of part of the cover doesn't do it justice, it's very well produced, lush and glossy). I got it at Angus and Robertson in Burnie, but I assume it's available lots of places. It was $10 there. Incidentally, A&R in Burnie have a good Tasmaniana section, better than their Hobart shop, and better than Fullers. This guide is published by the School of Plant Science, University of Tasmania, and CRC for Forestry.

Hartz Peak - 11th February 2008

Yes, sadly, another Hartz Peak climb (Map here). I had hoped for a nice sunrise morning on the plateau, perhaps with a quick clamber to the summit to see the view. Mmmm. What sunrise? What view? Shouldn't complain. The cloud was restful, the drizzle was light (if horizontal), and the wind wasn't as strong as it could have been. So, no view, no sunrise to photograph, and the wind made it very difficult to get nice close-ups of some of the attractive plants. There was only one thing for it; climb to the top. Actually, I did enjoy being on my own on this long weekend. This was an early-ish walk, setting out at 7am. One of the ladies heading up the hill as I arrived back at the start assumed I had abandoned the attempt. I think I was a little obscure in my response. The sign says it's a 4 hour walk, and used to say 5 hours, so maybe that's a reasonable assumption at 10am.

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The Mountain Rocket (Bellendena montana) is just turning from its flower phase (above, and earlier, properly in flower) to its fruit phase (right). The fruit takes over from the flowers, and is very distinctive, flattened and hanging down, the resulting shape giving rise to the common name.

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Actually I was taken by the appearance of the leaves on this plant, especially with the water droplets. I'm pretty sure it's the Mountain Pepper (Tasmannia lanceolata). The fruits, and I think the dried leaves as well, are now used as premium food seasonings. To quote from "Wildflowers of Tasmania" (King and Burns, 1986) "Tradition has it that the berries were used by early settlers as a substitute for pepper, and the practice still persists in feeding the leaves to unsuspecting strangers under the pretence that they are delicious." Who knows!

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Now this one took me a while, but I think it's Lomatia polymorpha. I'm sure it's a Lomatia, but picking between the various pictures of L. polymorpha and L. tinctoria was a bit tricky. Apparently it's widespread on mountains and flowers in January. Check! The leaves also vary in shape to trick amateur botanists.

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I think this last one is the Dwarf Leatherwood, Eucryphia milliganii. Interesting historical fact: "The name 'leatherwood' was originally given to Acradenia franklinii, possibly on account of the toughness of its wood, but by 1903 was being transferred to the Eucryphias, which produce honey". (King & Burns, 1986)

Bird's Nest

Now, this is from the garden, but I suspect the bird that made it also inhabits the nearby bush. The kids found this in the garden the other day, fallen from a tree. We were amazed at the affort some small bird had gone to in making it. Uncertain about what sort of bird would have made this, but we have quite a variety of small birds here, despite the cat!

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The intricacy of the "basket-work" is very impressive, as is the range of materials they collect and work into the structure. The moss included in this one adds a certain decor to the whole thing.

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Most interesting is the way the bird has incorporated what appears to be tufts of wool into the base of the nest, making a very cosy bed for a newly hatched chick. It's not clear whether it's found the wool on a sheep or from a manufactured item. It does go to show you one more way in which wild animals incorporate the man-made environment into their world. I imagine this is quite useful, keeps the chick warm and comfortable...

A worrying conjunction

Several reports recently suggest Tasmania faces a bleak future:

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The Mercury reported on 31 January that Access Economics' investment forecast for Tasmania shows we are reliant on large projects.:

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Tasmanian Times reported that a respected economist (in a report completed at the behest of the Wilderness Society) has suggested the median likely result of building the pulp mill will be a $300 million dollar loss for Tasmania. This doesn't include the impenetrable web of govenrment subsidies propping up the whole forest industry, because he assumes these will continue whether or not the mill goes ahead.

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Meanwhile The Australian reports that the Australian Government view is that "TASMANIA'S forest industry faces a bleak outlook", in a report prepared for the federal Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, and only released publicly after an FOI request.

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Just to remind you, as we go back in time, Naomi Edwards wrote a clear warning about this to the RPDC and anyone else who would listen. Of course the government did a quick and dirty assessment of the benefits of the pulpmill, ignoring the costs and risks, thus demonstrating appalling mis-management of Tasmania and its future. Sure, the pulpmill might be of benefit to the shareholders of Gunns (although it appears the ANZ are still considering that), and maybe to a small number of remaining forestry employees. The overall value to Tasmania has to be seriously in doubt. Don't expect any coherent rebuttal of these reports from the government.

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Maybe it's time for us to go back and look at some other options for Tasmania's future. They can't be any worse can they. The Greens Forest Transition Strategy (brief version here, Greens' forest site here) might be worth a look.

South East Cape

I realised that I don't have a very clear picture of South East Cape up here, despite having eleventy-seven instances of walks to South Cape Bay. Here's a clear view on a sunny day of South East Cape from the cliffs at the eastern end of South Cape Bay. South East Cape is the southernmost point of mainland Tasmania. It is apparently accessible via an illegally-cut track which requires some tide-dependent sea-level traversing to the east. I might go and try to find it one day.