James Boyce, author of Van Diemens Land, is giving a lecture at the University on Tuesday night.
18 March History and Classics Free Public Lecture
Celebrating New Tasmanian History Writing - Lecture Series
1. Dr James Boyce, Van Diemen's Land: How the Tasmanian Environment Shaped Convict Culture, Tuesday March 18.
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All lectures start 6pm, Centenary Lecture Theatre, Sandy Bay Campus.
Further Information: Lyn Richards, 03 6226 2298
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Snowy South - 15th March 2008
Alex was invited to come to Lake Skinner, but not knowing where it was, he was a little reticent. So I said we could climb Collins Bonnet instead. All agreed on Friday night. Come Saturday morning, the prospect of walking up a hill had palled for him, and he declined. Anyway, if I was going to go to Snowy South, the original idea, I was now running a little later than I'd have liked. Eventually started walking at 11:15am. The new track start (well, from a few years ago) is easy to find, just follow the signs.
The first part of the track, which was cut to move the track away from forestry operations, can be very wet underfoot, but right now it is predictably dry. I was feeling a little slow yesterday, and took the opportunity to take a photo here and there. The unfortunate result of my stop-start approach was that when I got to Lake Skinner, my new pedometer said I hadn't done any aerobic steps, just normal ones. It requires you to walk at a certain speed for 10 minutes or more, without any break of over a minute. I must have kept stopping before it quite got there. Felt aerobic to me.
The lake level is quite low, but the creek was flowing gently. The lakeside here is a very pleasant place to stop for a rest. Tyrone Thomas' book, 100 Walks In Tasmania, used to to suggest that either side of the lake could be used to ascend Snowy South. I'm assuming that since that time a better effort has been made to delineate the track northwest through the cliffs above Lake Skinner, because it's been very clear for the last 12 years at least. I suspect a route around the south of the lake would be long and scrubby. The track northwest through the cliffs is easy to follow and ascends steadily then steeply, with a couple of clambers.
The track is easy to follow once on the plateau. However, the easiest route to the summit is around to the left of the little tarn, and up the Pineapple Grass slopes, rather than following the cairns to their end and assaulting the final climb directly. I'll put the details in the Google Map and fix the walk description in my upcoming major edit. Mind you, I'm unclear whether it's really OK to walk on Pineapple Grass. It doesn't hurt when one person walks carefully, but I should think that a lot of traffic would be quite damaging.
Some of the Weld Valley logging is visible quite clearly from the summit, although you have to move around a little on the large boulders. Personally, I think this is an area that should have been left completely alone, along with the Picton Valley, and the Huon Valley above Tahune. The logging in these places really does damage the continuity and security of these beautiful forests in the World Heritage Area. Given their distance from export facilities, I suspect the extraction of timber here is extremely marginal, and we are probably all subsidising it to the hilt without anyone being able to see the cost clearly.
Monday, 10 March 2008
Mt Wellington Plateau - 10th March 2008
In the gap between transport duties today, I had a nice walk up the Icehouse Track, across the summit plateau and down the ZigZag Track on Mt Wellington. Warm day today, only got down to about 16 degrees on top of Mt Wellington last night, and Hobart had over 30 at 10:30am. Wasn't too bad on the hill, with a bit of cloud cover from the westerly change coming through, and a cooler breeze once out on the plateau. There were lots of nice white fluffy clouds around, making for attractive scenery. I did meet a hippie at South Wellington, with appropriate(?) bare feet. Not my idea of a comfortable way to walk, hope he got down uninjured, as the track is fairly pointy in places. Probably had some shoes hidden in his pack anyway.There were lots of people running, or at least staggering, down the ZigZag Track today. This was the end of the Cradle to Coast race, which started on Saturday at Lake Dove. Now I know why a couple of them appeared so tired, they've run, cycled and kayaked all the way from the far side of Cradle Mountain over the last three days. I must say they looked rather fit, even if tired.
Hazy day today. Betsey Island was visible, but the Tasman Peninsula was hidden. The views were interestingly softened by the haze. It actually looked like it was raining out over South Arm and Bruny Island, but I don't think so.
Sunday, 9 March 2008
I think this hill has mange
This unattractive sight is clearly visible just to the east of Hartz now (Map Ref approx 55GDN860125, Waterloo map). I think it's what Forestry Tasmania calls an "aggregated retention" coupe, also referred to as "clump clear-felling". Whatever they were trying to do here, I think it didn't work. As reported by the Greens, the subsequent burns appear to destroy some or all of the supposedly retained areas. Anyway, this area looks worse than if it had just been clearfelled. Looks like a tragic waste actually. To quote from Tim Morris' media release:"Mr Morris explained that the ‘clump clearfelling’ system, or aggregated retention was first flagged by Forestry Tasmania a few years ago. It was objected to by the conservation movement as a soft-sell to pacify growing community concern without really changing the destructive forestry practices in the State’s native forests. Also the island clumps themselves would be logged in a later second stage of the regime."
Good one!
Saturday, 8 March 2008
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.
Sunday, 2 March 2008
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.
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