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Published: August 9th 2009
I leave the mainland of Australia for the short 3 hour flight from Sydney to Tasmania's Capital City, Hobart. Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1803 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2008, the city had a greater area population of approximately 209,287. The city is the financial and administrative heart of Tasmania, and also serves as the home port for both Australian and French Antarctic operations.
The city is located in the state's south-east on the estuary of the Derwent River. The skyline is dominated by Mount Wellington at 1,271 metres high.
The first settlement began in 1803 as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the eastern shores of the Derwent River, amid British concerns over the presence of French explorers. In 1804 it was moved to a better location at the present site of Hobart at Sullivan's Cove. The city, initially known as Hobart Town or Hobarton, was named after Lord Hobart, the Colonial Secretary. The area's original inhabitants were members of the semi-nomadic Mouheneener tribe. A series of bloody encounters with the Europeans and the
effects of diseases brought by the settlers forced away the aboriginal population, which was rapidly replaced by free settlers and the convict population. Charles Darwin visited Hobart Town in February, 1836 as part of the Beagle expedition. He writes of Hobart and the Derwent estuary in his Voyage of the Beagle
The lower parts of the hills which skirt the bay are cleared; and the bright yellow fields of corn, and dark green ones of potatoes, appear very luxuriant. I was chiefly struck with the comparative fewness of the large houses, either built or building. Hobart Town, from the census of 1835, contained 13,826 inhabitants, and the whole of Tasmania 36,505. But since the Derwent River was one of Australia's finest deepwater ports and was the centre of the Southern Ocean whaling and the sealing trade, it rapidly grew into a major port, with allied industries such as shipbuilding. Hobart Town became a city on 21 August 1842, and was renamed Hobart in 1875.
After spending the past couple of months either staying on a farm, camping or living in a camper-van it was time for a few nights staying in a hotel and enjoying
so much needed rest and comfort before the last leg of my trip in Australia. So l booked myself into a Hotel a couple of blocks away from the office of the "Conservation Volunteers Australia" or "CVA" for short. My room was large, clean and even a separate living room and bedroom, with an amazing walk in shower. Which within minute of me arriving into the room was getting use. So once clean and feeling alive once again l took time to see Hobart at night.
Conservation Volunteers Australia a project worth doing Conservation Experience is an amazing way to enjoy the beautiful Australian environment while making a contribution to its practical conservation. Conservation Experience offers a fun and friendly opportunity to contribute in a practical way to the conservation of the unique Australian environment.
The types of projects you can assist include: tree planting, erosion and salinity control, seed collection, construction and maintenance of walking tracks, endangered flora and fauna surveys and monitoring, weed control, habitat restoration and heritage protection.
I arrived at the CVA Office and was greeted with a warm welcome and after the normal paperwork l was taken to the
CVA House that was to be home for the next 2 weeks. The Old Police Station House was on the outskirts of the City and with a great view looking at the Tasman Bridge and right next door to the Governors House, a beautiful large house with acres of fields.
A little history about the bridge that we saw every day from our kitchen window On Sunday January 5, 1975, at 9:27 p.m. Australian Eastern Summer Time, the Tasman Bridge was struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, bound for the Electrolytic Zinc Company with a cargo of 10,000 tons of zinc concentrate. It caused two pylons and three sections of concrete decking, totaling 127 meters (417 ft), to fall from the bridge and sink the ship. Seven of the ship's crewmen were killed, and five motorists died when four cars drove over the collapsed sections before the traffic was stopped.
The depth of the river at this point (35 metres (115 ft) is such that the wreck of Lake Illawarra lies on the bottom, with concrete slab on top of it, without presenting a navigation hazard to smaller vessels. The breakage of an
important arterial link isolated the residents in Hobart’s eastern suburbs - the relatively short drive across the Tasman Bridge to the city suddenly became a 50 kilometre journey via the estuary's next bridge at Bridgewater. The only other vehicular crossing within Hobart after the bridge collapsed was the Risdon Punt, a cable ferry which crossed the river from East Risdon and Risdon, some five kilometers upstream from the bridge. However, it was totally inadequate, carrying only eight cars on each crossing, and although ferries provided a service across the Derwent River, it was not until December 1975 that a single lane Bailey bridge was opened to traffic, thereby restoring some connectivity. Even nowadays the bridge is closed to traffic every-time a large vessel approaches the bridge.
Welcome to my new house mates After being shown around the house with a large living room with open fire, kitchen and bathroom etc. I was shown to a room of my own, which was great to have once again. The rest of the volunteers were away for the week and were due back that afternoon. So l took time to make myself at home with a much needed cup
of coffee and a couple of hours of crap TV.
By about 6pm the group arrived back at the house and it was time to meet everyone. Richard the Team Leader was first to introduce himself then l met Gemma, Ceara, Allison, Ed & Joel. The girls quickly got to work by preparing the first meal and an hour later we were all sitting down together and chatting away.
The weekend was free-time so l spent the time updating blogs, emails and pictures that l had taken whilst touring the mainland. It was nice for a long time to be able to just relax for a while and then l was ready for the new adventure to begin.
Monday morning arrived and at 8.30am Richard arrived to collect us for the journey for the new projects. Most of the next two weeks would be doing the same sort of things around the area of hobart and its small local towns around it.
So its off to work we go We spend most of our time visiting local Schools in the area and help with their Wildlife Programs, that involve the children helping grow
Allison & Me
OK the hat is a bit naff, but we had to wear one, Health & Safety you know!!!!trees, plants and even bring marsh land back to its original state that will in time bring back the wildlife that needs it. This is were our team comes involved. We arrive to help remove the Cumbungie or Bulrush that is over growing in this area. When we arrived a lot of the plant is tall with large pollen heads waiting to burst open and let millions of seedheads spread over the area. So we first remove the seedheads and dispose of them.
Once the heads have been removed we spent time either cutting down the reeds or in some of the wetter areas it was easy to even just pull the reeds straight out of the ground. Which was great fun some of the time, but not when your knee deep in the marsh water and end up on your area in it, after pulling the reed to hard and end up having to get help to stand up again, thanks Allison. even though we did spend a lot of the time laughing until l was up right once again. I was just glad that we were equipped with wellies and jackets, that did keep me dry and
warm, except for the feet as much of the freezing water managed to get in and with our break not far off l was able to dry off and cover my feet with bin bags before putting my socks and wellies back on.
During the two weeks me visited a couple of schools to do the same sort of work, one of the Schools was on the coast line and had great views across the bay. The school children even had the chance to help us remove these plants. On one of these day it did end up in a fight against the children (mainly the boys) were we used the bulrush as spears and spent about an hour throwing them at each other, as you can imagine this was loads of fun. On the way back to the house l noticed that l had lost my mobile phone. As it was late on the friday and now the weekend l thought that my phone was gone forever, and even if we did find it after the weekend the water and freezing cold would have damaged it anyway. Richard did call the school and no one had found the
phone since we had left.
So on Saturday came and l awoke thinking that l needed to replace it and well if l did find it, it would be broken anyway. So within an hour of being in town l had a new phone and headed back to the house to re-program the numbers etc.
We arrived back at the school on the monday afternoon and l headed back to the marsh area and within minute l had found my old mobile and as luck or back luck would have it, it worked and no sign of water or cold damage.
Freetime is fun time On either days that the weather was too wet or even too cold to go on projects Richard took us on drives to local places of interest. One of these places was Mount Wellington that is the focal point of hobart.
Mount Wellington Mount Wellington is a mountain on whose foothills is built much of the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is often referred to simply as 'the Mountain' by the residents of Hobart, and it rises to 1271m over the city.
It is
Opps l fell over
Thanks Allison for helping me back up, after you all laughing your heads off first
frequently snow covered, sometimes even in summer and the lower slopes are thickly forested, but criss-crossed by many walking tracks and a few fire trails. There is also a sealed but narrow road to the summit, about 22 km travel from the city. An enclosed lookout near the summit provides spectacular views of the city below and to the east, the Derwent estuary, and also glimpses of the World Heritage Area nearly 100 km to the west. From Hobart, the most distinctive feature of Mt. Wellington is the cliff of dolerite columns known as the Organ Pipes.
The low-lying areas and foothills of Mount Wellington were formed by slow geological upsurge when the whole Hobart area was a low-lying cold shallow seabed. The upper reaches of the mountain were formed more violently, as a Sill with a tabular mass of igneous rock that has been intruded laterally between layers of older rock pushing upwards by upsurges of molten rock as the Australian continental shelf tore away from Antarctica, and separated from Gondwana over 40 million years ago. It is often incorrectly considered to be a dormant volcano.
Mount Wellington was originally referred to as 'Unghbanyahletta' (or 'Ungyhaletta'), 'Poorawetter'
(or ‘Pooranetere’, also 'Pooranetteri'), or 'Kunanyi' to the indigenous people of Tasmania. The Palawa, the surviving descendants of the original indigenous Tasmanians, tend to prefer the latter name. The indigenous population are believed to have arrived in Tasmania approximately 30-40,000 years ago. Their beliefs and traditions, coupled with modern archaeological research, suggest that they may have occupied and utilised the mountain and its surrounding areas for much of the occupation of the island.
Table Mountain remained its common name until in 1832 it was decided to rename the mountain in honour of the Duke of Wellington who, with Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher finally defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in present-day Belgium on 18 June 1815.
Throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, the Mountain was a popular day-resort for residents of Hobart. To that end, many excursion huts were built over the lower slopes of the mountain. However, none of these early huts survive as they were all destroyed during the disastrous bushfires of 1967, though modern huts are open to the public at the Springs, the Pinnacle, the Chalet - a picnic spot about halfway between the Springs and the Pinnacle - and elsewhere.
Sadly, many of the more remote huts have suffered from vandalism, and some are in virtually derelict condition.
In February 1836, Charles Darwin, visited Hobart Town and climbed Mt. Wellington. In his book "The Voyage of the Beagle", Darwin described the mountain thus;
"... In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed a noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one which must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour of the night. The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is 3,100 feet (940 m) above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view; to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline: to the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with clearness before us. ..."
The Mountain has played host to some notorious characters over time, especially the bushranger 'Rocky' Whelan, who murdered several bushwalkers through the early 19th century. The cave where he lived is known appropriately as 'Rocky Whelan's Cave', and is an easy walk from the Springs.
The road to the summit was constructed in the early 1930s as a relief scheme for the unemployed, an idea initiated by Mr. A.G. Ogilvie, the Premier of Tasmania of the day. While the road is officially known as the Pinnacle Drive, it was, for some time, also widely known among residents of Hobart as 'Ogilvie's Scar' because at the time it was constructed 'the Mountain' was heavily logged and almost bare, and the road was an all-too-obvious scar across the already denuded mountain. Today the trees have grown again but the 'scar' most people see today is not actually the road but a line of large rocks with no trees 50-100 m above the road. The road itself was opened in August 1937, after nearly two years of work, by Governor Sir Ernest Clark.
Halfway up this road is
a picnic area called "The Springs", near the site of a chalet/health spa that was destroyed by bushfire in 1967.
The lookout building near the summit, with the main television and radio transmitter in the background.
The mountain significantly influences Hobart's weather, and intending visitors to the summit are advised to dress warmly against the often icy winds at the summit, which have been recorded at sustained speeds of over 157 km/h (97 mph), with rare gusts of up to 200km/h (160 mph). In winter the mountain is often snowcapped. It often snows in Winter though lighter snowfalls in Spring, Summer and Autumn are common. It is advised that all times of the year dress for icy conditions. A day on the summit can consist of clear sunny skies, then rain, then snow, then icy winds and then clear again.
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anonymous
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hi Geoff Hope you are well we are just the same Bonnie is working every day to get enough money to get though next year her last at uni kevin was 30 today grandchildren are growing fast you seem to have been gone forever but i love the pictures you post please keep enjoying yourself and sending your blogg more frequent as we miss seeing what you are up to love from sally and garry O yes Garrys got made redundant and now picking on dot com so we longer call it tesco we call it lingos as 3 of us work there now and with sarah at an express store we are taking over.