During the Christmas holidays I did a Tasmanian Photography Roadtrip: from Hobart to Wineglass Bay in Freycinet Peninsula, the fiery red lichen-covered granite boulders of Bicheno and the Bay of Fires to Cradle Mountain’s Dove Lake, Wombats and Wallabies and back to Hobart just in time to see the Aurora Australis Icebreaker ship before it left for Antarctica.

Hobart

Recommended activities include Salamanca Markets with the nearby Abel Tasman Memorial, Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Narryna Heritage Museum and walking around the top of Mount Wellington.

Freycinet Peninsula and South to Port Arthur

The Wineglass Bay scenic lookout walk in Freycinet National Park is very popular.

The lesser known Eaglehawk Neck area with Tessellated Pavement (especially worth seeing at Sunrise), Tasmans Arch and Devil’s Kitchen are well worth a look on the way to the historic Port Arthur area.

While there’s obviously been a lot of money spent on Port Arthur this has resulted in ticket prices being quite high in my opinion ($30/adult for the basic ticket). Don’t go there if you only have an hour to spare, it’s only worth it if you can spend several hours.

Bicheno, St Helens, Bay of Fires

The towns of Bicheno and St Helens are well worth stopping overnight during your drive up Tasmania’s East coast.

Especially worthwhile for their scenic views of fiery red lichen-covered granite boulders on the shore of white sands and pale blue waters are the Bicheno foreshore walk from South to North and the short drive from St Helens to the Bay of Fires.

Make sure you stop and turn off to have a look at the beaches along the Bay of Fires, drive all the way to the end of the road and then walk along the shoreline where I took some great photos of red rock and pale blue water, as well as multi-coloured jellyfish. There are plenty of places to camp along the Bay of Fires.

Driving East Coast to Launceston

Don’t rush on your way West from St Helens to Launceston. Stop for a snack at Pyengana Dairy Company’s Holy Cow Cafe and for a tour of Bridestowe Lavender Farm. Click the photos below to see more photos of each place.

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is now my favourite mountain national park in Australia because it’s the first time I got to see cute furry wombats in the wild and close up

I’ve lived in Australia for 20 years but have seen relatively little wildlife except in the remote outback. If you like wildlife or have kids who do it’s well worth visiting Cradle Mountain because of how ridiculously easy it is to see Wombats, Wallabies and Pademelons (like wallabies but smaller) while walking along the side of the road from the Information Centre to Dove Lake, especially in the hour or two before Dusk.

Aurora Australis Icebreaker

The Aurora Australis is an ice breaker which is part of the P&O shipping fleet, it gets used by the Australian Government for scientific exploration in the Southern Ocean and resupply missions to Antarctica. It was named after the southern hemisphere atmospheric phenomenon – Aurora Australis.

The Aurora Australis is docked in Hobart when it’s not on ocean going missions. Several days after I photographed it, the ship left for a scientific mission to Antarctic waters in order to examine the Mertz Glacier with my ABC News Journalist friend Karen Barlow on board. On her return ABC online created a special website Antarctic Summer to detail what happened during the voyage.

I was lucky enough to see several Tasmanian wombats (Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis) during a recent holiday to Cradle Mountain in Tasmania and this was the highlight of the trip because I love to see native wildlife living in their natural environment.

Prior to that the only Wombats I’d seen were at the zoo or roadkill in the Snowy Mountains

Wombats are Australia’s largest burrowing mammal and close relatives with the koala. With a short tail and legs, characteristic waddle and ‘cuddly’ appearance the wombat is one of the most endearing of Australia’s native animals.

Wombat Photo Gallery

Video – Wombat Grazing and Scratching Itself

The common wombat was once found throughout southeastern Australia but now, partly as a result of European settlement, is restricted further to the south. It occupies Tasmania, eastern New South Wales and eastern Victoria with scattered populations in southeastern South Australia and southwestern Victoria.

There are three subspecies of common wombat – Vombatus ursinus hirsutus which is found on the mainland, Vombatus ursinus tasmaniensis which is found in Tasmania and Vombatus ursinus ursinus which was once found throughout the Bass Strait islands but is now restricted to Flinders Island.
- Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service

Bleak Future Prospects for Wombats In The Wild?

According to the Wombat Protection Society of Australia:

Human impact on the wombat population is now at a critical level. Wombats suffer from a disease called mange that was introduced to Australia and to wombats by human activity. Mites that cause mange lead to deep skin fissures that become flyblown and septic. This leads to a long, slow and painful death for wombats. In addition they are also being affected by a fungal lung disease for which there is currently no cure.

Diseases and viruses brought in by farming activity now affect wombats. Incidents of coccidia, clostridium perfringens and tetanus amongst others are evident in wombats. Some people believe that the distribution of mange is so widespread that only isolated populations and those tended in sanctuaries will, in the long term survive.

It is only recently that Veterinarians have begun to receive training in dealing with native animal health. Behavioural studies on wombats are few and limited in their scope. As a result wombats are misunderstood and those attempting to rear and rehabilitate injured and orphaned wombats have difficulty getting them appropriate medical attention and in helping others understand the best ways of living with wombats.

Habitat destruction is having a major impact on wombat numbers as well. Water sources and grazing areas being fenced into farms and out of public lands limits the suitable range for wombats to a small strip of land. Although Australia is a big country there are few areas where wombats can live undisturbed. They are restricted to a small section of the east coast of Australia.

Unless they are fully protected their limited distribution will reduce further. This is already evident in the northern Hairy Nose Wombat whose numbers are so low that the species is severely threatened and without human intervention will become extinct.

GUEST ARTICLE: We knew there was lots to see and do with just 5 nights during our self-drive tour of Tasmania so we decided to choose 4 highlights : Port Arthur, Hobart, Wine Glass Bay and Launceston

We arrived in Hobart, Tasmania (otherwise known as Van Diemen’s Land) and were greeted with a beautiful crisp clear February day. Since Tasmania is well known for its unruly weather, ruling more on the rainy side, we decided to make the most of it.

After picking up our rental car we decided to head to Port Arthur, one of Australia’s well known historic tourist destinations.

In the early 1800s it had started out as an industrial site, its main product being timber. Because of an ever growing convict population in 1848 they built a prison and a prison hospital. Not too long after they added on a penitentiary and later an asylum. After housing around 70,000 prisoners its last prisoner was shipped out in 1887 and the site was later renamed Carnarvon and became a tourist and settlement site.

The narrow road to Port Arthur wound through farmers fields, vineyards and the ever-present gnarly Australian Gum Trees. Beautiful creeks frequented the fields and signs of crossing Tasmanian Devils were spotted along the way.

About an hour and a half later we arrived at our destination at the Port Arthur Historic Site. After paying our entry fee of $28 which included a short Harbor cruise, we began our journey. The Port Arthur grounds are pretty impressive, beautiful skeletons of numerous sandstone buildings (due to two tragic fires) splayed out on an immense green field situated between an impressive garden and the deep azure waters of the Tasman Sea.

The Harbor cruise was a nice touch to the tour. We got to see a small island situated not too far out called the Isle of the Dead where about 1000 people were buried, the majority being convicts and ex convicts.

The views of Port Arthur and its rugged coastline were breathtaking. Later as we walked the grounds we were both intrigued and horrified at what once was. Remnants of the prison cells remain and show what a horrific existence it must have been for the occupants. Measuring only 2.2 meters by 1.3 meters they were among the smallest in Australia.

There are many tales of both brutal physical and mental torture. One cell we went into was called ‘The Punishment Cell’ it was terrifying, it was very small and completely devoid of any light. Some of the prisoners were even children, the youngest being 9 and their offence…stealing toys?!

There is another tragic site at Port Arthur – the site of The Port Arthur Massacre.

On April 28, 1996 a young man from Hobart (Martin Bryant) entered the grounds armed with a rifle. After eating at the Broad Arrow Café he opened fire at random and worked his way throughout the grounds. It was a horrific event that ended the next morning with 35 dead and 21 injured, he is currently serving 35 consecutive life sentences in Hobart’s Risdon Prison.

Now days the café is abandoned having been burned down by Bryant in an attempt to flee. Left in its place is the sandstone structure and some beautiful memorial plaques.

We really enjoyed our tour but we would highly recommend you give it a full day to take in all of the sights and history. And if you’re really keen you can go on one of their spooky ghost tours…

Hobart is a photographer’s dream; it’s a picturesque city teaming with 18th century architecture and heaps of charming little boutiques and cafe’s.

Fortunately we arrived in time take in the outdoor Salamanca Market that runs every Saturday in Salamanca Place. There were hundreds of friendly locals selling an array of fine Tasmanian arts, crafts and locally grown fruits and vegetables. Their delicious juicy raspberries are excellent and their cheeses – yum!

Afterwards we headed up to their famous Mount Nelson Lookout. The drive up the mountain was really scenic and the panoramic view from the top was absolutely breathtaking, another must do for sure!

The next day we headed up the coast to Bicheno. Along the way we stopped at Freycinet National Park and decided to go on a little hike to one of their tourist attractions – Wine Glass Bay.

Initially we had only intended on going to the lookout point but somehow we missed the sign, an hour or so later we found ourselves sitting among little Joeys on the beach at Wine Glass Bay. You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day, the beautiful white sand beach and deep blue bay was incredible and having little Joeys hopping about made it just that much more special.

The hike wasn’t too difficult coming ‘down,’ but going up was a different story! It can get pretty steep in some places and was definitely a challenge on the ol’ knees! Although all in all, well worth it!

Our last Tassie destination was the lovely little city of Launceston. While we were there we went on a ride on the world’s longest single span chair lift across the Cataract Gorge and First Basin.

The views from the chair lift were fantastic with excellent walking trails on either side and at the end a big beautiful garden lush with green foliage, florals and meandering brilliant blue peacocks.

There are so many more wonderful sights to see in Tasmania, we really enjoyed our visit and we were extremely lucky with the weather. We hope to go back for another visit one of these days for another exploration!

This travel diary has been written by Rob Gower, a traveler who works part-time for a bus hire company and enjoys traveling along roads less traveled!

If you’ve travelled somewhere off the beaten track, can write well and have good quality photos I encourage you to contact me and I’ll consider publishing your travel diary here including generous attribution and links back to your website as thanks for your contribution

GUEST ARTICLE:On our annual ’sister’ weekend away, Jo and I had four days in Tasmania, driving from Hobart, along the East Coast route to Freycinet National Park to do some kayaking and bushwalking.

I walked onto the tarmac from my Jetstar flight to Hobart and thought ‘It’s not that cold!’ Within minutes that thought turned to ‘I might put on my polar fleece and wind resistant jacket!’

We rented a car, and a light bulb moment the night before the flight meant that I could plug my portable Navman GPS into the hire car and be directed by the clever Navman control tower in the sky to our destinations in Tasmania.

After checking into our hotel, the first activity on our list was a visit to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens established in 1818, making it the second oldest botanic garden in Australia.

These are beautiful gardens: a greenhouse filled with lovely flowering plants, a Japanese garden, an Australian native section and of course, Pete’s Patch. My sister didn’t realise that the real reason for the visit was to go to the infamous Pete’s Patch, renowned in green thumb circles, as the organic vegetable patch developed by Peter Cundall, ex-presenter of ABC TV’s Gardening Australia.

Our next stop was Mt Wellington. Typing ‘Mt Wellington’ into Navman got us moving in the right direction. In my mind it was a hill behind Hobart. In fact, it was a half hour uphill drive, 1270 metres above sea level, to reach The Pinnacle.

The winding road was a little hair-raising and halfway up we saw a group of cyclists coming down. We commented on how amazing it was they made it up – how did they do it? Then we saw the support vehicle and realised they were driven up and were just riding down! They were on the Mt Wellington Descent tour.

Nearing the summit we yelled, ‘Is that snow?’ Being a beach babe, I haven’t seen snow for a decade, so we had to get out and make a few snowballs and chuck them at each other!

View from Mount Wellington, Tasmania credit: Thribble

The Mt Wellington viewing platform is a great vantage point for panoramic views of Hobart, the Derwent River and Storm Bay, and the southern section of the vast World Heritage Tasmanian Wilderness areas. A well placed boardwalk takes you to other vantage points, but the 8°C chill drove us back to the car and made us think about Devonshire Tea.

Typing ‘teahouse’ into the trusty Navman led us to Battery Point, Salamanca which has lots of great wine bars, pubs and restaurants. Sadly, no Devonshire Tea. I had to settle for chocolate cheesecake and tea., Shame really!

Nourished and refreshed, we looked through the many galleries and craft shops in this historic area which caters for tourists as well as locals. There’s a great fresh food market, the famous Salamanca Markets open on Saturdays, which we checked out. We managed to lose five hours wandering around. I ate a scrumptious organic lentil pie and we stocked up on organic vegies, cheese and bread for our time at Coles Bay at Freycinet. We had been warned there are very few food choices at Coles Bay.

I typed in ‘Coles Bay’ in Navman and we were on our way. Surprisingly it is quite ugly countryside following the east coast route. The land either side of the road looks depleted, perhaps overgrazed, filled with sad looking sheep and cleared of trees.

We stopped at Kate’s Berry Farm near Swansea and had a much awaited Devonshire Tea while looking over the azure ocean. This is a must if you are in the area, with unbelievably yummy scones, jam and berry ice cream.

Further up the coast around Cranbrook we stopped at a few wineries. Freycinet Wines wouldn’t let me taste the sparkling wine so I didn’t buy it. Isn’t that why it’s called a cellar door – to sample the wine before deciding to buy it?

At Craig Knowles Vineyard we drove behind what looked like a convict built homestead and read the sign – ‘honk the horn for service’. After honking, the winemaker wandered down with Buttons, his dog, and Jo bought a few wines while I played ball with Buttons. This was a very relaxed feel compared to the upmarket vineyards of wine regions such as the Hunter.

We reached Coles Bay and Beachcomber, the house we rented, faces Great Oyster Bay and is surrounded by bush. It is a lovely house, but the nasty notes everywhere almost make you feel like the owner doesn’t actually want people to stay in the place. There are notes about not being allowed to use the spa, closing windows if you are smoking outside, not leaving food on the benches, not moving any furniture – the list goes on.

After a long day of driving (and eating) we sat on the couch, opened the champagne from Milton Vineyard, ate cheese from Bruny Island Cheese Company and watched the light fade over the ocean.

Sadly we awoke to cloudy skies on our kayaking day. Luckily, the gale force winds from the previous night had dropped to a pleasant warm breeze.

We had chosen the half day paddle with Freycinet Adventures, and we met at Muir Beach in Coles Bay at 8:30 am and arrived to find our sea kayaks ready to go.

After a safety lesson, we headed off for a 2 hour paddle. The water was calm which made for easy paddling around Coles Bay in the Freycinet National Park.

The view over the water leads you to pink granite mountains and beaches ringed with rocks covered in orange lichen. The water is so clear you can see the sandy bottom and serenity is the word that floated through my mind.

After an hour of paddling we stopped for morning tea. We paddled past the famous Freycinet Lodge and across Richard’s Beach.

Deb mentioned the group from yesterday who saw a pod of dolphins so close they could have touched them. No dolphins so far for us, so I tried to speak ‘dolphin’ and asked them to come and say hi to some city folk. However Jo reckoned my ‘dolphin speak’ sounded like a ‘goldfish speak’. I guess they didn’t hear me! No dolphins, but we did see a shag on a rock!

This was a lovely paddle. However, at $90 each, I don’t think it was value for money. It was very over-priced.

Jo and I swapped paddles for backpacks, changed to sneakers and headed into the Freycinet National Park for a walk to Wineglass Bay.

The Freycinet Peninsula is rugged and beautiful with spectacular panoramas, abundant wildlife and a wealth of outdoor activities. The pink granite is amazing and The Hazards forms a magnificent backdrop to the pristine stretch of Wineglass Bay.

The day fee is $22, which you need to pay on the way into the park. We had packed a delicious sandwich and a few litres of water as we planned to have lunch on Wineglass Beach.

Most people just walk up to Wineglass Lookout but if you continue on the track down to the bay, the white sandy beach is beautiful.

Sitting on the beach I felt eyes on me. I turned around to see a wallaby with a joey watching me from a few metres away. She hopped forward, and settled about a metre away.

Looking out over Wineglass Bay I said a silent pray to the whales. Our kayak instructor, Deb, had informed us that the bay wasn’t called Wineglass Bay because it looks like a wine glass. It was named as a result of a whaling station located there in the 1800’s when so many whales were killed that the water was stained red.

It was the colour of red wine for only 20 years. The mothers and babies came into the bay for a rest, and were killed. There weren’t enough whales left after 20 years.

We decided to continue walking and took the Hazard Beach track. This circuit walk is a 5 hr/11 km circuit and the track hugs the coast back to the car park. On Hazards Beach you can see large shell middens which are relics of its occupation by Aborigines long before white people set foot there.

Note – Tasmania Parks & Wildlife Service states that this is a difficult walk with a rigorous uphill climb to reach Wineglass Bay Lookout. They recommended you return to the car park by retracing your steps via Wineglass Bay and not take the coastal track. The alternative coastal track, which we took, has some rough rocky sections and can be slippery when wet. We found it only moderate, but you must judge your own fitness level. You absolutely need to take water and food if you plan on doing it.

The walk only took us 4 hours as we hurried the last hour to make it to Freycinet Marine Farm so Jo could buy fresh oysters before it closed at 5 pm.

After a day of exercise we sat on the deck overlooking the bay and sipped the local Milton Pinot Gris, snacked on tasty cheeses and Jo enjoyed her fresh oysters. It was a well deserved glass of wine!

On our last day in Freycinet we treated ourselves to a Freycinet Sea Cruise – a 4 hour cruise on Coles Bay, anchoring at Wineglass Beach for champagne, cheese and oysters.

It is a beautiful way to see the coastline, bays and beaches and it takes about an hour to get around the Freycinet Peninsula to the open Tasman Sea.

It suddenly became much colder and the captain of this small boat – around 20 people are on board – warned us that we may get sprayed from the waves. Jo and I were standing on the front, Titanic style, taking in the amazing rock formations that drop straight to the sea.

The boat started to hit barrel waves that were getting higher and deeper. We moved to the rhythm of the boat, and started really hitting the bottom of the waves with a thud. Jo started talking about heading towards a small beach if we fell overboard– pointing to a tiny beach that looked to be kilometres away. Yeah right!

I started to wonder how long I could hold on and then with a massive thud on the bottom of a 2 metre wave, we were totally drenched. Time to go in and sit down – and look for life jackets!

Freycinet Peninsula, Tasmania credit: Shantavira

The captain decided that it is too rough to continue so we turned around and headed back to calmer waters – thankfully. I’m not sure how much more I could have taken before I needed some Bach Rescue Remedy.

We ended up anchored on Crockets Beach on Schouten Island which is rarely visited. Oysters, cheese and champagne were served. The water was azure and so inviting. So much so, a crazy European stripped down to boxers and dived in. Within a second he was out – the water looked gorgeous but was freezing!

We headed back to Coles Bay going close to the beaches and cliffs. This was well worth the $120 each, and I would highly recommend it.

Dealing with sea legs, Jo and I headed up to Cape Tourville Lookout in the park and ate our sandwiches taking in the amazing view of the ocean and coastline. There is a lovely 20 minute walk around the lighthouse.

We headed back down to Hobart for our 7.25 pm flight, wishing we could stop at Kate’s Berry Farm for another Devonshire Tea. Unfortunately there was no time.

Little did we know Jetstar had moved our flight to 8.25 pm without telling us. We were three hours early for our flight! While filling in time at the Airport it was the first time in four days I wished I had my laptop.

We returned to Sydney knowing we had breathed in pristine air, felt sun on our faces and re-bonded.

This travel diary has been written by my friend Catriona Pollard who likes to go on holidays away from email, computers and out of range of mobile phones so she can truly relax.

Catriona is the owner of CP Communications a Marketing & Public Relations Agency based in Sydney. She also blogs about marketing and public relations ideas and stories at the Public Relations Sydney blog

If you’ve travelled somewhere off the beaten track, can write well and have good quality photos I encourage you to contact me and I’ll consider publishing your travel diary here including generous attribution and links back to your website as thanks for your contribution