Melbourne Saturday

Tapas and wedding photos among street art.

Last day on King Island

Off to the south west of the island today to the site of an 1845 shipwreck and a calcified forest. Grassy landscapes, windswept trees and an echidna siting were added bonuses.

 

Thursday on King Island

A mixed bag of the many photographs taken today as we travelled around the north and northwest of King Island.

 

 

 

 

King Island’s Currie Lighthouse

A little monochrome treatment for Currie lighthouse which operated from 1880 to 1989. The other building, now the King Island Museum, was the lighthousekeeper’s residence. Shipwrecks were common back in the day. The 40 degree latitude runs across King Island. It’s not hard to see why the Roaring Forties were named.

Tasmania – King Island

A bus and a plane brought us to King Island yesterday. Here are some of the coastal features and fauna around Sea Elephant  Bay, Grassy Bay and Currie on the west coast of the island.

Tasmania – Hartz Mountains National Park

The ancient glacial landscape was showing off this morning. A stunning walk.

 

As far south as you can go by road

Into the Huon Valley and its orchards of cherries, apples and apricots, through forests and to the edge of the Southwest National Park.

West to east

Friday was back to Hobart via an old open cut mine near Queenstown, man-made lakes and natural grasslands and some national park action including a walk to Nelson Falls and a glimpse of Lake St Clair and Cradle Mountain.

Queenstown to Strahan

A peek inside the 1930s Paragon Theatre in Queenstown before heading to sand dunes, Ocean Beach and Strahan.

 

To Queenstown

Westwards to Queenstown today across the road that splits Lake St Clair and the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Parks.

Queenstown sits in the shadow of mountains denuded by its mining history.

No longer a mining town, its economy largely survives on visitors to the National Parks and historical railway trips.

Ruins of a convict coal mine settlement

This afternoon we wandered around the old living quarters of convicts who mined coal along the shore of Norfolk Bay.

Then on to Eaglehawk Neck to view the coastline from a higher vantage point.



Tasman Island by boat

Today’s views from a boat included dark-faced cormorants, Australasian gannets, Australian fur seals and an abseiler, not to mention high cliffs and blowholes, caves and waves.