Blogs from White Beach, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

After our very busy day at Port Arthur yesterday, we had a quiet Sunday morning before going to find out what is remarkable about Remarkable Cave. A name like that entices the imagination to create images of stalactites, glow worms and a zillion other things. There are two things remarkable about this cave. Firstly, we were able to navigate there without Tommy's help. Now that came about because he did not know where Remarkable Cave is. So we had to rely on good old fashioned map and signpost navigation. The drive to Remarkable Cave takes you through a couple of sheltered bays that make up the small community of Carnarvon. When Port Arthur was closed (1877) and the Queen ordered that the site be wiped off the map, in typical Aussie fashion the township was renamed ... read more

We awoke to a beautiful sunny day and decided to have breakfast on White Beach. Lovely! When we left, we noticed that an extraordinary amount of houses and land were for sale in the town of White Beach. The image of lazing on a balcony overlooking the beautiful bay was very tempting, but I doubt it would be much fun in winter! We then drove to Port Arthur, where convicts who had committed further crimes in the colony were imprisoned. 12,500 convicts did brutal prison time here between the years of 1830 and 1877. Port Arthur is also the site of 1996 massacre, where Martin Bryant murdered 35 people (and injured 37 people). He is in prison, having received 35 life sentences. Shocking and very sad. On the way back, we popped in to the Tasmanian ... read more