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Published: August 6th 2007
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Little Devil
A Tasmanian Devil in a wildlife sanctuary near Mount Field National Park. A little further along the Lyell Highway we come to Lake St Clair National Park, which lies immediately south of Cradle Mountain and is where the Overland Track ends (or begins, depending on which way you walk it). It's pretty late in the day by the time we arrive, so we opt for a short walk along the shore of Lake St Clair. Compared to that of its twin park around Cradle Mountain, the scenery here is less striking, but this walk is going to give us our best opportunity yet to see the animal at the top of Alex's Most Wanted list - Ornithorhynchus anatinus, a.k.a. the duck-billed platypus. The gently sloping sandy lake shore, which gives way to woodland as you walk away from the water, are - according to the park guide - prime real estate for platypuses (don't get me started about platypi). Seeing the elusive platypus - an animal the term "elusive" was practically coined for - in the wild would be a great treat.
The track follows a low knoll that runs along the shore a few dozen metres from the water, and a fence will small holes shielding the track makes a long
Tickles...
Feeding the wallabies at the wildlife sanctuary. platypus-watching hide. Signs posted on the fence describe what to look for, but are at pains to emphasise how infrequent sightings are. However, after ten minutes of waiting, breath held, eyes scanning the water ahead of us, the unmistakeable shape of a platypus paddling out from the shore ! It's little more than a small brown log with a wake, it stays at the surface for barely 30 seconds before diving for its dinner, but it's a platypus. Definitely a platypus. Perhaps the next couple of days will give us a chance to see one a little closer up ?
We wait a bit longer just in case, but the platypus doesn't reappear and it's getting dark, se we make a beeline for Tarraleah, a rather nondescript place an hour or so's drive away. Accommodation around here is sparse to say the least, but we'd managed to book somewhere earlier in the day from Queenstown. Tarraleah has two "drawcards" (a word I'm always somewhat suspicious of). Firstly, it is the fly-fishing capital of Tasmania. Hmmm...a drawcard ? Will the second attraction prove more exciting ? In a word, no. Tarraleah's other big tourist, ahem, magnet, are the colossal pipes
...and a sleepy Devil
Tragically, the Tasmanian Devil's survival in the wild is threatened. that run straight through the town as part of the local hydroelectric power generating system. Fittingly perhaps, our accommodation in the bright lights of Tarraleah is a rather louche caravan with - even for a caravan - a particularly offensive décor. Still, beggars can't be choosers, can they ? Making dinner that night is ever so slightly complicated by the fact that we've picked the only campground in Tasmania without a single pot or pan in the kitchen. We're not in the best of moods by the end of the evening...
We make an early escape from Tarraleah and continue our progress back towards Hobart. First stop for the day is a small wildlife sanctuary where injured and orphaned local wildlife is cared for and given a retirement home. Cute animals anyone ? For us the highlight of this small locally run place is that most Tasmanian of creatures, the Tasmanian Devil. As their scientific name - Sarcophilus harrisii or "Harris's meat-lover" - suggests, devils are small, stocky carnivores unique to the island. The Loony Tunes Taz depiction is reasonably accurate: Tasmanian Devils look oddly misshapen and gallop about clumsily - no whirlwinds, sadly - and they are notoriously
Mount Field National Park
These rivers supply much of Hobart's drinking water. squabblesome. In fact the only time you are likely to see some in the wild is at night, arguing by the side of the road over some piece of roadkill. Or, more often, as the roadkill itself. Devils have made the headlines recently, although not for a happy reason: the species' survival is currently being threatened by a nasty disease, DFTD. Devil Facial Tumour Disease is caused by a virus and transmitted through bites, causing large tumours to grow the affected Devil's face until it can no longer feed. Unfortunately, biting each other on the face is something Tasmanian Devils seem to be rather fond of. With no immediately obvious solution to the problem, there is little to be done other than study the disease and its progression, and hope. The sanctuary is also home to various wallabies, a nippy wombat and some other lesser-known but adorable marsupials such as quolls and golden brushtail possums.
Barely a kilometre away is yet another of Tasmania's National Parks, Mount Field. Particularly popular owing to its proximity to Hobart, this park is famous for its numerous stunning waterfalls (can't water just stand still in Tasmania ?) and abundant plant life. We decide
Not another waterfall !
One of the many stunning falls in Mount Field National Park. to explore a circuit that takes us past three stunning falls - the Russell Falls, Horseshoe Falls and Lady Barron Falls. The various streams and rivers that run through the park supply some 20% of Hobart's drinking water. One special section of the track passes through a quite extraordinary forest, home to hundreds of towering swamp gums Eucalyptus regnans, a type of eucalypt which is the world's tallest flowering plant. Some specimens in Mount Field National Park are well over a hundred metres tall.
Despite a couple more platypus-spotting opportunities, we don't strike it lucky again. That evening sees us reach Hobart - we've come full circle. We spend the night in a campground near Claremont, one of Hobart's satellite towns, and home to an Australian institution: the Cadbury's Chocolate Factory. Modelled on the "original" factory in Bournville, the chocolate factory here produces most of Australia's chocolate - it's the largest chocolate factory in the Southern Hemisphere. And they do tours.
Our last morning in Tasmania is spent on a tour of the factory - a very popular thing to do with tours on the hour every day. It's quite serious stuff, with everyone donning white coats and
Tipping over the edge
The very edge of one of Mount Field's waterfalls. silly hats before being allowed in. Until a few years ago, visitors to the factory could, apparently, pick and eat anything they fancied off the production lines. Sadly, the health and safety brigade (no doubt the orders came straight from Bournville) put a stop to all that and it is with infinite regret that we follow the tour with our hands firmly in our pockets. The inside of the factory is straight out of Roald Dahl, minus the oompa-loompas. Massive pipes (sadly not transparent) carry molten chocolate (really) around the factory from the great conching machines where the chocolate ingredients are mixed to the production lines, where the umpteen varieties of Cadbury's chocolate are made. Any visitor to Australia from the UK will quickly notice that Australian shops sell a huge number of chocolate flavours that aren't made in the UK - Rocky Road, Black Forest, Banoffee Pie...it's enough to make you want to leave home to come and live here. We asked our tour guide, a rather laconic figure with a dry sense of humour - she used to love chocolate but gave up when she began working for Cadbury's...- why this was. According to her, the range of
Swamp gums
Towering eucalypts in Mount Field National Park. flavours in any given country simply reflect demand...Which made no sense at all: surely we British piggies would love some new flavours. Our theory is that Cadbury already makes so much money on its present lines, and the market is so saturated, that producing any new flavours wouldn't be profitable. Why waste money building a new production line for a new variety when your market is already having a whale of a time pigging into record quantities of the existing ones ? We also got to have a look at high-tech multi-million dollar German-built machines which automatically pack boxes of Milk Tray and the like, recognising each type of chocolate automatically, picking it up and placing it in the right hole in the box. With mechanical arms whizzing around like mad, these things can pack dozens and dozens of boxes a minute. At the end of the tour (surprise, surprise) a small outlet sells all the factory seconds at bargain prices. On second thoughts, they probably make wonky bars especially...
A little heavier, we spend our last afternoon in Tasmania in the picturesque village of Richmond, a place of quaint antique shops and beautiful sandstone buildings. Richmond is only
Up in the clouds...
Nearly ! A colossal Eucalyptus regnans in the National Park. a few miles away from Hobart Airport and makes a wonderful place to savour this island's glorious, laid-back, slow-living atmosphere as long as we possibly can. We have only been in Tasmania for 12 days, but it has been more than enough for us to grow genuinely attached to it - to its people, its food, its landscape and its quirky animals. We've no choice but to come back.
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