Day 107 - Hobart to Strahan, Tasmania, Australia

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Wednesday 4th March 2014. Hobart to Strahan, Tasmania, Australia.

We checked out of the hotel and made some enquiries as to whether we could have a different room when we returned on Friday. The guy on reception found us an en-suite in the middle of the building at the back which will hopefully be much quieter. There is no way we could sleep in that same room again.

We set off in search of the place where we had breakfast in 2008. It is called the MacQuarrie Street Foodstore and we found it fairly easily. D had a stack of pancakes and a coffee while M settled for a bacon and egg roll and a cuppa.

Replete, we set off on our drive to the wild west of Tasmania. First we headed towards Ellendale. On the way we drove through beautiful rural and agricultural areas where one of the main crops was hops. We stopped at a viewpoint just outside of Ellendale where we took some photos. We continued on and had to cross a river using a bridge. The sign for this bridge had been doctored and D couldn't resist taking a snap (see photo).

We continued on to the Tarraleah Lookout which has great views of an enormous Hydro Electric Power installation. The view looked over the east west divide. We were venturing deeper into the wet, wild west-coast wilderness which receives an astonishing 2.5-3 metres of rainfall a year. Its foundations are billion year old quartzite rock, formed in primeval seas. It is a land of ancient rainforests, swift dark rivers and rugged mountains. We were looking down to the Rivers Derwent and Nive.

From its source in Lake St Clair, the Derwent flows into Lake King William, where its waters are retained behind the Clark Dam. Through a series of flumes, siphons, canals and pipelines, water from the River Derwent is diverted 16 kilometers across land before arriving where we were standing above the Tarraleah Power Station before dropping steeply down into the valley of the Nive River.

On the other side of the gorge, water from as far away as Lake Echo and Little Pine Lagoon on the eastern side of the Central Highlands comes together for its brief downhill journey to the turbines of Tungatinah Power Station. We could clearly see the pipes on the other side of the valley. After generating electricity here, the gathered waters flow through a tunnel to the Liapootah PowerStation before rejoining the Derwent in the Wayatinah Lagoon. Further downstream,the river flows on through a cascade of five more power stations, still doing its useful and important work, until it reaches Meadowbank, just 44 metres above sea level and 80 kilometers away from the Derwent's estuary at Hobart. In all, this water has been used to generate power eight times, and is used one more time after that - as a source of drinking water for the residents of Hobart and the surrounding areas. How green and environmentally responsible is that?!!

We continued along the Lylle Highway and drove past Lake Binney. We stopped at the King William Saddle Lookout which is a few kilometres short of the town of Derwent Bridge. We stopped to take some snaps across to the NP and D disturbed n a Copperhead snake which slithered off rather rapidly! We continued along the highway passing the remains of burnt out forests from the recent wildfires. Nothing much has grown back yet. Luckily these fires were in remote wilderness and posed no threat to persons or property.

Once at Derwent Bridge we turned off a track to visit the "Wall in the Wilderness". The blurb described this as a spectacular "work in progress" series of carved panels. We were going to go in but when we realised that photography wasn't allowed we decided to give it a miss.

We continued on, through Gormaston and across Lake Burbury, to Queenstown where we parked (and had a row with a coach driver who said we were in a designated coach space) to go and investigate the possibility of going on the West Coast Wilderness Railway. Turns out that this was a non-starter as it doesn't go all the way to Strahan anymore (flooded out and still being repaired) and it only goes at 9.00 am in the morning.

We jumped back in the car and carried on to Nelson Falls. We arrived at the visitor centre only to be told that we needed a NP Pass. This would last 24 hours. It was already 4 pm so we decided it was a waste of money and that we would do it on the way back when we could purchase the park pass at a more sensible time. We continued on to Strahn where we found the YH fairly easily. The YH doubled up as a holiday park, called the Discovery Holiday Park,and we had been assigned a cabin. We asked the warden about places to eat and things to do. She recommended that we went into town and go to see the play "The Ship that Never Was" and that we ate at Molly's cafe around the corner which is open until 8.30 pm (that's late by Tassie standards).

We went into town and found the amphitheatre where the play would be performed. It is put on every evening at 5.30 pm. It was quite full when we got there, we paid our $15 and $20 entrance (D got pensioner price) and made our way to the back row. We knew there was quite a lot of audience participation involved in this show and wanted to avoid being selected. They had also run out of blankets so we had to freeze. The play is about the last escape from the convict colony on Sarah Island on-board the 'Frederick' (the ship that never was). The actors belongto the Round Earth Company.

Sarah Island became a productive shipyard (using convict labour). Craftsmen and artists worked there; William Buelow Gould produced his remarkable collection 'The Marine Life of Macquarie Harbour'; the Master Shipwright David Hoy created the largest ship and boat building yard in the colony; the convict workers schemed and bargained for improved conditions and conspired to have difficult officials dismissed. They also escaped - desperate like Alexander Pearce and his 'cannibal' companions; later clever and well-planned (and unacknowledged) successes and of course the last escape on the 'Frederick' the ship that never was.

The Round Earth Theatre Company was founded by Richard Davey who, sadly, passed away last year. The company continues to perform the 'Ship that Never Was' every evening and it is now officially Australia's longest running play. During the day the actors work as tour guides on Sarah Island explaining the history and unique story of this Tasmanian penal settlement. Originally written and produced at the Peacock Theatre in Hobart in 1982 for Breadline Theatre Company, it is the story of the last great escape, of the 'Frederick' from Sarah Island, the dreaded penal Settlement celebrated in Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life. It first performed in Strahan in 1993 for eight weeks, in a wood chop arena.

During the play a mock ship is built on the stage with the actors utilising audience members, including children, for additional characters in the play. The story tells of the ten shipwrights who stole the Frederick and sailed to Chile. We watched as the story unfolded and various members of the audience, adults and children alike become temporary actors (and sailors) of "The Ship That Never Was" as The Frederick is reconstructed on stage. Only two actors were from the Round Earth Company - the rest of the characters were from the audience. One of the young kids (who had to play an old man) will go far - he was amazing. A guy from a few rows in front of us was recruited. He had had a few few too many and went on stage with his "tinny" (despite attempts by the performers to get him to leave it behind). The whole thing was absolutely brilliant.

The 'Frederick' escape attempt occurred after the official closure of the penal settlement. In summary the story goes like this: Twelve convicts, under the supervision of several soldiers and Master Shipwright David Hoy, remained behind to complete the fitting out of the brig, Frederick. Despite the fact that specific orders concerning the completion of vessels in the yards had mysteriously been mislaid, the men dutifully carried out their tasks with 'great propriety, executing Mr Hoy's orders with promptitude and alacrity'.

After the launch of the Frederick in January 1834, ten of the convicts seized the ship. They landed their overseers on the beach, leaving with them half of their supplies. The convicts then sailed the Frederick south of New Zealand and on to the distant coast of South America. Six weeks later they abandoned the Frederick off the coast of Chile and rowed the ship's whaleboat the remaining 80 km to shore. Passing themselves off as wrecked sailors, the men were welcomed into the community and several soon assumed positions as shipwrights and respected members of the community. Several married local women, while six of the men made a further escape to America and Jamaica. All of this was portrayed in the play.

Ultimately, the long arm of British law caught up with the four remaining men, bringing them back to face the Hobart gallows in 1837. At their trial, two of the escapees, William Shires and James Porter argued that they were guilty only of stealing a 'floating bundle of wood and other materials'. As the Frederick had never been registered or had a naming ceremony, there was some doubt in the Chief Justice's mind as to what legally constituted a ship. Further, the ship had been seized in enclosed waters and not on the high sea - a requisite for charges of Piracy. It was these legal technicalities which saved the men from the gallows. Nonetheless, the men were transported to Norfolk Island for life. After the scenes re-enacting the trial the audience we invited to vote thumbs up for not guilty of piracy and stealing a ship or thumbs down for guilty. Our audience went for "not guilty".

After the play we went to Molly's for dinner. It was a BYO so we took some wine. D had a seafood thing and M went for a steak. It was excellent. We have booked a boat trip for tomorrow.

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