Hartz Peak - 8th March 2008

Went with a couple of new chums and an old lag for a walk to Hartz Peak (Map). The old lag was well equipped for the conditions, and Mick (Miguel) has been in Tassie for a while, so the chill wasn't too much of a shock. He also has experience on high mountains in Bolivia. But Steve is fresh from geological surveys in the deep north of the country, and the cold was a little more invigorating for him. In fact, on top of the mountain the ladies picked him from his red cheeks (and accent).

---

Good walk today with high cloud making for a textured sky and improving some of the photos. Views were quite good, with most mountains visible. There was cloud around the peaks to the south and west, which obscured some of the more distant ones, but gave the Eastern Arthurs and Southern Ranges a slightly different aspect for once. Good views northwards, with Frenchmans quite clear. Chilly breeze at times, but the winds were a lot calmer than early in the morning.

---

The crew were as follows:

Old lag, Phil Rush, not even reciting poetry, but we did learn some interesting facts about some of his more colourful customers. He doesn't earn as much as Troy Cassar-Daly for an evening's entertainment - I just don't understand why. Phil got to the top of the hill first today. Phil spent most of his time (about 70 years as far as I can tell) as a teacher driving from one school to another, drinking tea, killing snakes and eating morning tea.
Mick (Miguel) once called his wife from the top of a 5200m peak in Bolivia and told her he was waving to her! At work, Mick does all the difficult jobs but gets paid the least. Mick and his wife served as missionaries in Bolivia with SIM for about 13 years. He speaks fluent Spanish, is an accomplished joiner, and is keen to make his own musical instruments. He hasn't yet fixed our ukelele. (Joke, Mick).
Steve thought it was quite cold - actually it was for much of the time, so that's OK. Steve has been attacked by a taipan twice, and a freshwater crocodile once. Steve COULD tell us what he's been doing for a living (somewhere oop norf), but then he'd have to kill us. Steve appeared to have a large sack of junk food with him today, but it kept him well fed. He works as a surveyor, and I suspect he could be as mathematically adept as Phil. They both seem to enjoy playing with the GPS anyway, but only Phil knew off pat how many hours there were in a year (8784, this year only!). Steve has been picking pears for Clark's at North Franklin, and apparently the pear is imperfectly shaped, such that it is difficult to pick. (Me: Dear God, you made the pear the wrong shape! God: For whom, you or the tree? Me: Oh....good point God.)

---

All in all, the scenery was well received. As far as I'm concerned, this peak has the highest view/effort ratio of any peak in Tasmania.

Snow Berries, Gaultheria hispida

The Snow Berries (Gaultheria hispida) were very obvious along the ZigZag Track the other day, making for a very attractive display. The Snow Berrry grows all over Mt Wellington, and really brightens up the bush in the autumn. The plant flowers in the spring and early summer, but this is far less obvious than the fruiting in the autumn. Apparently it can be grown from the seed contained in the white fruits. The name is derived from the Latin, hispidus (hispidus -a -um [rough , hairy, bristly]) = bristling, alluding to the coarse reddish-brown hairs on the leaves. (R. Minchin) This plant is endemic to Tasmania.

---

The foliage comes in a range of colours, but the most dramatic plants have an iridescent, red-blue look to them. The leaves do turn a very bright red colour at times too - perhaps this is as they die? The ZigZag Track is a great place to see them right now, and they appear in a good range of colours along the way.

---

The fruits are very attractive here, contrasting superbly with the various deep, glowing and dull greens of the Tasmanian bush (which Fuji film used to pick up so well). The fruits vary in colour somewhat from plant to plant, as does the foliage. The white-cream-pink-red colours are very attractive against the greens.

Mt Wellington - 2 March 2008

Nice sunny autumn day today, and having a spare afternoon, I thought I'd go to Mt Wellington. Had a good walk to the pinnacle from The Springs. There were quite a lot of other people on the track, and round about, some of them a little weird! Never mind. There was a gentle cool breeze at the summit, just enough so if you'd sat in the breeze for long, you might have needed to cover up. I sat in the doorway of the rock shelter and glared at tourists who wanted to check it out, as is my wont. They can go and shelter in Doone's Folly.

---

The Snow Berry (Gaultheria hispida) bushes are in full swing, making for a very attractive display.

---

The Pink Mountain Berry (Cyathodes parvifolia) is also on display, and in places they are very attractively juxtaposed with the Snow Berry. Coming across this while looking for photos of particular plants, I need to note that this plant is now classified as Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia. Its official common name (not sure why we go to these lengths) is the Mountain Pinkberry.

Book Review: Van Diemen’s Land by James Boyce

As someone who enjoys the Tasmanian bush, particularly its accessibility, cleanness, and wildness, the concept of Tasmania as being different and comparatively special is important. On most measures I just think the rest of Australia can’t compare, but the things which make our state special are sometimes not obvious, even to those who live here, and they are so easy to destroy or degrade. Here we have a history book which actually makes some interesting observations about how we might relate to our situation today.

This is a very interesting book, in which James Boyce throws new light on the early white settlement of Tasmania. He makes the distinction between “Van Diemen’s Land” and “Tasmania” very clearly. He says in the introduction that his hypothesis is “the character of the island which became the enforced home of over 72,000 sentenced criminals (42 percent of the convicts transported to Australia) does matter. The fact that protein-rich shellfish were there for the taking , that wallaby and kangaroo could be killed with nothing more than a hunting dog, and that abundant fresh water and a mild climate made travel by foot relatively easy, does change the story. The convict’s hell was, thank God, a human creation alone. This book is about the tension produced by siting the principal gaol of the empire in what proved to be a remarkably benevolent land. It sees this paradox to be at the heart of early Tasmanian history, and to have important implications for the nation as a whole.”

Boyce shows how early Tasmania was quite unlike early New South Wales. He points out that the Van Diemen's Land settlers were probably the healthiest people in the British Empire, and this arose from the nature of the land they had settled. Life in early Van Diemen's Land was, while not always idyllic, quite unlike the way we imagine it from our understanding of later history – for example, under Governor Arthur, or as portrayed by Marcus Clarke in For The Term Of His Natural Life. Eventually the authorities realised that the life of the convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land appeared to be better than that which they left behind. It didn’t seem to be a punishment at all.

The view of Tasmania as cold, wet, poor, backward and unimportant continues today. When you read Saul Eslake’s assessment (Talk transcript here) of Tasmania from the point of view of his economic and social data, it can seem a little bleak, although much improved from the deep dark days of the Gray administration. I sat in a room where Saul’s view was presented to a senior manager from Canberra. She took it all in, understanding the implications of some of the negatives for particular segments of the population, but at the end waved her hand out the window at the tremendous view of blue sky and fluffy white clouds behind a sunlit Mount Wellington, speechlessly implying “well yes, some of those things aren’t great, but look where you live!!”

Our value as a state, a people, as communities, is not measured by our wealth, our sophistication, our adoption of new technology and the ways of the “mainland”. Tasmania really is a little different, and Boyce suggests some of the ways this difference developed and perhaps remains.

It just isn’t quite the way it’s seen. We have our problems, but we also have the compensations that come from living in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The original Eden was brought undone, often in evil, corrupt and incompetent ways. How true that is of today.

The violence towards the aboriginals, and the poor whites, is all in this book. Boyce makes the interesting suggestion that one of our major environmental problems was caused by our racism. He offers the opinion that the reason the trees no longer grow properly in much of the southern midlands is the possum population, a population that was kept in check by the aboriginals. Once they were gone, our trees had no hope.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s easy to read, interesting and challenges us to see Tasmania in a different light.

Here's a link to an extract.

Here's Richard Flanagan's review of the book in the SMH.

Henry Reynolds' review is here.

Published by Black Inc. Books (www.blackincbooks.com) Melbourne 2008

Haughton Forrest and Mt Wellington

This beautiful view of Mt Wellington behind Hobart, painted by Haughton Forrest in 1886, hangs in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. I especially like his rendering of the snow in the gullies above where the Zigzag Track now runs. It's worth a visit to see for yourself. The original is 86.7 x 183 cm and is very impressive.

McDermott's Farm - Pipeline Track

From the sign at the site of McDermott's Farm on the Pipeline Track.

For all its continuing natural appeal, Mount Wellington has many reminders of the impact of settlement. Around this point is much evidence of such impacts, including land clearing, building construction, the effects of fire and the channelling of water for human need. Studies point to significant use of the Mountain foothills by Palawa, Mouheneenner and other peoples of pre-European times. The Palawas helped to create the open grasslands of the Chimney-Pot Hill area through regular burning of forests to assist them in hunting game. There is evidence of seasonal occupation: rock shelters in sandstone outcrops and pieces of flaked stone on the banks of Sandy Bay Rivulet north of here.

This open area, occupied by the McDermott family from the late 1880s, was one of many private holdings in the Mount Wellington foothills at that time. Behind you on the opposite hillside is Turnip Fields, a subdivision of another of the early private mountain landholdings. Under the track about 50 metres below here you can see a stone culvert made in the early 1860s for the original water supply line. There are several more of these between here and Halls Saddle.

Bill McDermott ran a farm on this property for many decades. A unmarried recluse, his only companion a dog called Brandy Shamrock McShane. Bill left his property once a week to buy groceries in town. Bill allowed his cattle to graze on the adjacent Ridgeway Reserve, leading to a long-running dispute with the Hobart City Council. On 7th February 1967 the Black Tuesday bushfires destroyed most of the farm, but 80-year-old Bill managed to save his home and his six cattle. He planned to rebuild, but only 10 days after the fire he was gored to death by one of his fire-traumatised bulls. The location of his homw, demolished by the Council, is marked each spring by blooming daffodils.

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.

Halls Saddle - Pipeline Track

From the sign at Halls Saddle on the Pipeline Track.

Welcome to the Halls Saddle entrance to the Pipeline Track, an easy walking trail that follows the historic Pipeline to its source at the North-West Bay River.
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. This saddle joining the lower slopes of Mt Wellington and Chimney Pot Hill, to the east, is named after John Hall, an original landowner in the Fern Tree area who built the first Fern Tree Inn in 1861.

Halls Saddle was a key point in Hobart’s Mountain supply system. Water from streams flowing southeast had to be diverted across this saddle to reach the Sandy Bay Rivulat reservoirs at Waterworks Reserve, from which the city could obtain its water. From about 1940, virtually all water from mountain streams above the Pipeline Track was diverted near this point to the higher-level Ridgeway reservoir. Drinking water collected from Mount Wellington is still fed to the community through pipes that are directly under the walking track ahead.

The original road between Hobart and the Huon Valley wound up the Sandy Bay Rivulet to the north of here and across this sadlle. It is the route most likely used by Charles Darwin in his ascent of the mountain when he visited Hobart Town in 1836. He later complained that his guide had led him up the wetter, more difficult southern side of the mountain.

“Timber built, bark roof, stone chimney, two storeys with upper and lower verandahs likened to Hobart’s old double-decker trams.” Situated north from here on the Sandy Bay Rivulat, Fern Grove Hut was the only privately-built two-story timber hut near the Pipeline Track. Many huts were privately built on the mountain during the 1800s, but only one has survived; Lone Cabin near the Lenah Valley Track.

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.