wait a minute its stopped raining


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Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Cradle Mountain
February 11th 2007
Published: February 11th 2007
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echidnaechidnaechidna

any one for termites
Blog 11 hello mudder hello fadder is best read before this one it was published on 7th February but interested people weren’t informed by email I don’t know why. jo

Blog 12
Wait a minute it’s stopped raining.

The weather was worsening at lake St Clair in fact it snowed after we left, and so we decided we would move on east even though there were still things we had wanted to do, we stopped at Fortescue Bay just outside port Arthur. Here we met a group of Tasmanians who had been coming here every year for the past four years the enjoyed the fishing and just that day had caught forty ,something beginning with T, Trivelly I think, and four lobsters. They had a good game they would play which involved a rubber snake and a fishing rod. They would launch the snake across the path that led to the toilets , after a new comer had arrived, because the first thing you checked on arrival was the toilets, so while the toilet was being checked the snake was in place for their return, the funniest one was a man , he had read the same book as
interesting signinteresting signinteresting sign

have a read of this
us , he began running on the spot, the book says walk heavily and noisily , the snake will turn and go, but of course the lads started reeling it in across the path , the man then picked up a handful of stones and threw at it , then he made a dash for it , running between Dave and our van , dave was doing all he could not to laugh , but what we couldn’t understand was in passing the man didn’t warn him there was a snake nearby. Whether it would have been quite so funny had they done it to us I don’t know .
The next morning we headed for Port Arthur, this is where there was a penal settlement established in 1830, as a timber camp gathering wood for government projects, I also purchased a raincoat, now the whole of Tasmania was a penal settlement but the prisoners that were transported here were allowed to work in the trade they had before their misdemeanour , they weren’t paid wages , but they were provided with accommodation and a small plot of ground on which they could grow fresh vegetables to supplement any meat
guilty or innocent?guilty or innocent?guilty or innocent?

interesting crime
they were given. After their sentence was served they were then free to apply to the governor for land and they would live as free people. This worked very well , and there are some beautiful buildings and bridges which are as good today as when they were built. Architects would design them stone masons would carve the fancy bits , those without a trade would quarry the stone. If you were a teacher you would be set up in a school to teach the free settlers children, and so on.
It was only when they committed a crime in Tasmania that they were sent to the prisons here to do hard labour. It wasn’t until 1833 that it became a penal colony for repeat offenders . By 1840 over 2000 convicts , soldiers and civilian staff worked here. When you first enter port Arthur you are amazed at the upper class Englishness of it all , there are sweeping lawns edged with English flowers , lupins, dahlia’s , gladioli , lavender, down the middle of this is a little path which opens up in a circle and there stands a majestic fountain , the path stops at an avenue
do you know this mando you know this mando you know this man

found a palmer not a short
of trees planted so that the governor and his wife and other gentle people wouldn’t have to view the misery beyond. This is where the convicts dressed in their two tone woollen suits covered in broad arrows were to be found making bricks , coalmining , logging , building ships , making shoes , furniture . The convicts were housed in weatherboard huts A mill was built in 1845 to try and supply the settlement with flour it had a convict driven treadmill , the men dreaded it as it was exhausting and could lead to serious injury , it never operated as hoped and in 1848 was change into a new penitentiary .Many of the convicts were manacled, they were beaten with a cat of nine tails , which was made of leather , soaked in sea water and left to harden, slowly being ground down . But this was only the baddies , if you toed the line , kept your head down , you had the opportunity to learn a trade , the prison had a library with over 30,000 books , you were encouraged to better yourself .In the middle of the bay is an island
guilty or innocentguilty or innocentguilty or innocent

couldn't find a budden
, called the island of the dead , here there are over a thousand graves , the island is shaped like a wedge , the elite were buried at the high end with ornate headstones the convicts in unmarked graves at the bottom. After a time it was decided not to use violence , a new prison was built this had separate cells and each prisoner was kept in isolation , they had to wear caps that were pulled down over their faces when they left the cell for exercise or church , there are 3 churches here. Even the warders wore cloths over their shoes , there was no noise, many of the inmates went insane, they then built an asylum .Over the bay there was a boys prison here separated from the main prison where boys as young as 9 years old were held, one lad of 9 was James Lynch , his crime , he had stolen a toy. These boys were taught a trade and there was one thing they were given that they had never had before, they were given playtime, if they misbehaved , playtime was denied them ,a punishment indeed.
After leaving Port
another interesting signanother interesting signanother interesting sign

how to catch a ferry
Arthur we headed for Hobart .
The first settlers arrived in 1803 ,The New South Wales Governor King was afraid the French would settle here and directed lieutenant John Bowen to form an establishment on the island, and so with 48 other settlers 35 of these being convicts John Bowen landed in The Lady Nelson ( you will remember we saw a replica of this ship at Mount Gambier )at Risdon Cove on the Derwent river, naming the little settlement Hobart. The following February David Collins also reached the Derwent river at Sullivans Cove , where he was later joined by Bowen’s group. In 1804 another settlement was led by William Paterson at Dalrymple ( now called Launceston )in the north. For some years the settlements struggled to become self sufficient in food, extra supplies had to be sent from Sydney or England . We just passed through , big town with traffic and round abouts we were heading for Ross Bridge, here was a good example of the workmanship of some of the convicts, the carvings are beautiful. While here I was looking through the local paper and guess who was appearing in Hobart that weekend…. Only Bill Bryson we went back to try and get tickets alas they were sold out, it didn’t matter how far we had come .The sun now decided to shine ,so as we were again in the south we went across the ferry to Bruney Island. We found a nice sight overlooking Adventure bay , which was just 2 kilometres along the beach from where the Fairy penguins were nesting, we worked on the theory that they came ashore at 8.30 in Phillip Island on the main land so we would aim for that. And so we set off passing two dead seals on the way , we are the second couple to arrive , Ranger Tom tells us they don’t come ashore until 9.30 - 10.00clock, we take a seat soon the small hide is full of people ,we manage to see one penguin, we are told we can’t return via the beach between dusk and dawn , we cant see out of the hide it is full of people, its now dark and we have to walk down the road without a torch , to say we are pissed off may be an understatement.
Never mind the sun was shining the next morning and so we ambled around the island , it is lovely , very green and full of history , no don’t skip the next bit just briefly , Captain Cook landed here to take on fresh water , and Banks came ashore and took a few flora samples, spotted the first echidna, also Captain Bligh , him from mutiny on the Bounty , he planted apple trees and watercress. We sat at Cooks Cove and watched the rich people coming back from a trip around the bay , to see seals , dolphins and penguins feeding out to sea , we didn’t care, after all we had seen two dead seals and one penguin.(in fact we met a couple who had been on this trip and they had only seen penguins , and an albatross.)
As the day wore on we were making our way back to the campsite and we saw a white wallaby, then another , we thought they were albino , but in fact we learnt there were a mob of about 150 on the island, and they really are white wallabies , in all we saw four. Back at camp we lit a fire and settled down to watch for wildlife, we had seen a possum the night before. The wild life did appear very shortly , in two white campervans , there was two families with ten children between them aged between 4years and 14 years, it was chaos , the older children set about erecting their tents the smaller ones tripping over guy ropes , it reminded me of camping with the Palmers ( happy days ). But of course we were now looking at it from the other side of the fence , we left next morning. The sun continues to shine and we are heading north , we stop at Hamilton, you’ll never guess who is there, Julie and Hugh , they were the first or second couple we met when we started our trip , in NSW, her with the adapted plunger washing system, They are over the moon at seeing us again, it is late when we arrive but we will catch up in the morning. (where the bloody hell can we get a plunger from at this time of night and only a village shop that sells tins of spam or baked beans and David refuses to make me a washing machine out of two empty bean cans and an empty spam tin. )In the morning I decide to come clean and tell Julie when she asks ‘’how’s the washing going ‘ that we had to unload the van in Melbourne ready for the service and it was among several useful gadgets that we omitted to reload.
We stayed the next day and caught up, the sun was hot at last the weather was improving. The next day we set off for Mount Field to see some falls and big swamp gum trees and they were big. We also went to Russell Falls very pretty.. The next morning we headed north to George Town , this was where the second settlement on Tasmania was established but later moved down the river to Launceston, here in George Town we saw the first long drop toilet and it is a double sweater , from here we decided to head for the bay of fires, it has beautiful white sand , blue seas , wonderful rocks, it was named by Bass and Flinders, as when they sailed by while circumnavigating the islands the aborigines would light a fire to send the message to other groups of their approach. The weather worsened again and so we headed north stopping at Campbell town on he way , this is another town steeped in history , but briefly the convicts built another bridge here thus joining the road from one end of Tasmania to the other, Hobart to Launceston straight up he middle. The people of Campbell Town are in the throes of building a brick walk in memory of all the convicts who perished here for really quite minor crimes, many of whom are buried in unmarked graves, they have taken the records from ships that transported them. Here are a couple of photo examples , do you recognise any of the names. The first line is the name followed by the name of the ship they were transported on then the crime and sentence.
And so to sum up Tasmania, it is a land of extremes, the hop fields of Kent the rocky streams of Wales , the craggy Mountains of Scotland, all to be seen along one piece of road. You can get up in the morning wearing a t shirt and shorts and go to bed wearing all the clothes you possess . A land of lakes, dams sheep and logging .Ancient forests, wonderful seas and mammals, colourful birds, echidnas , platypus , and white wallabies. Little towns , country fairs like we had 50 years ago, we went to one in Middleton , it had attracted 2,500 people, the entertainment was second to none , there was a brass band playing , circle of life , folk singers , country singers , a group of warbling women, punch and Judy show. Not here burgers and egg and bacon rolls , there were crepes , fresh strawberries, and lemon sorbet, with strawberry sauce and cream , the good old Australian meat pie , bratwurst and sauerkraut , Japanese pancakes, home made fudge , I could go on. The beautiful buildings built by convicts, as good as if they were built yesterday, whole towns of them , red telephone boxes. An easy going way of life , and a past they are proud of, and look how far they have come, their only shame is of the treatment of the aborigines, which they don’t try to hide .
Governor George Arthur (1824-1836) faced serious problems between the settlers and aborigines, he decided on a policy of segregation, he tried to round up the remaining aborigines in 1830, in a drive involving 3,000 men, this was a failure. George Robinson and others persuaded the aborigines to put themselves under government protection and they were finally sent to Flinders island in the Bass Strait, there however they failed to survive and in 1876 the last full blooded aboriginal who had inhabited Tasmania died.
In 1834 George Loveless and four other Dorsetshire labourers were sent here for seven years for their connection with Friendly Society of Agricultural Labourers , which pledged its members not to work for less than ten shillings a week , we called them the Tollpuddle Martyrs.


I saw this on a plaque in one of the towns.
If you could see your ancestors all standing in a row,
There would be some of them perhaps, you wouldn’t care to know ,
but there’s a question that requires a different point of view,
if you could meet your ancestors would they be proud of you?
And there you have Tasmania, there is a lot more we would have liked to explore , but the weather beat us. You will notice this is blog 12 , blog 11 is on the web but the email to interested people didn’t go out for some reason, I’ve called it hello mudder hello fadder. Best read before this one.



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11th February 2007

from one short to another
Well gooday there! I have been reading your blogs, and have to say how bloody impressive you both are! i'm looking forward to my gap year now!!! also good to hear how the boys etc are doin - hi to all! waiting for the next instalment already! bye for now
11th February 2007

welcome
hi karen, welcome, nice to hear from you see your mum logs on too !!! jo and dave
25th February 2007

Sending all our love.
Hello Mum and Dad ! Sending all our love via the medium of Electronic Mail !! I'm not sure how this all works and wether you're able to feel my love? I'm showing it to you now - can you see that ? To be honest I don't think this will catch on. I prefer more traditional methods of communication - such as txt ! Any hoo - speaking of tradition I was glad to find out that I had missed another of fathers' birthdays !! and it was the big 60 !! Bugger !! But what could I possibly give the man who has everything - and then I realised - KNOWLEDGE - That's what the loves - needs - his unquenchable thirst for knowledge ! Well, it would be easy for me to tell him that Captain Cook wasn't a captain but a lieutenant and that the Dutch dicovered Australia 150 years earlier !! But the Dutch are always ahead of us - just look at their attitude towards Santa's little helpers.. anyway every school boy knows this. the KNOWLEDGE that I wish to pass on to my father is that when I'd just left school at 17, I thought my father knew nothing of the modern world and had all of his prorities wrong !! but when I turned 21 and sat down and had a chat with him Man to Man, I was surprised to see how much he had learnt in 4 years !! Take good care of each other and if you're ever near a phone, please call as I miss hearing your voices. XXXXXXX
3rd March 2007

thanks for the knowledge
nice to hear from you, ,dad thanks you for the knowledge. will ring soon love mum and dad

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