Port Arthur

Our first full day in Tasmania, and we had entry to Port Arthur Historic Site booked. It’s a 90 minute drive south, almost to the very tip of the bottom of the island – in fact, as we discovered, the bottom of the island is a peninsula joined to the mainland by a causeway and bridge at Eaglehawk Neck. We got away early and made good time – better than Sattie’s original prediction – largely because it was a Sunday morning, I suspect.

We arrived in time to join the 11:00 harbour cruise, and boarded the boat. The pilot took us out to Point Puer, and gave us a running commentary on what we were seeing whilst also filling in the history of the place. Port Arthur was the original penal site in Tasmania established in 1830, and was used as a secondary prison site for convicts from Australia who had reoffended after transportation, either in prison or after release. The prisoners were obliged to work and many learned their trades there – woodworking and shipbuilding being the two main activities. The staff and military at the penal station lived a life of relative luxury, and as we walked around we visited some of the houses and quarters of the senior staff, as well as the buildings that once housed the convicts. The ships built there – mostly whalers and longships – were much in demand as they could be supplied almost at cost, undercutting the other boat builders of their time. It also contained some examples of Australian wildlife – notably herons, egrets, fairy wrens and green rosellas. After looking around the first part of the estate we went back to the café for lunch…but what they had to offer looked fairly unappetising, with a bland sandwich selection or meat pies. We decided to forgo lunch and instead, after a quick rest and a beverage, continued on through the grounds to complete all the major buildings, including the church, insane asylum and Separate Prison.

Artistic rendition of a boat

Flour mill, converted to convict cells

The guard tower. 

Study at the Commandant's house

Commandant's kitchen

Commandant's house

(what's left of) the church

Wildlife. I have no egrets

As we drove down we’d spotted a few things that looked interesting to stop off at on the drive back. The first of these was the Tasmanian Devil “Unzoo”, a wildlife park where animals and birds can roam free instead of being in cages. What a novel concept! We’d missed the beginning of the tour but soon caught up with the guide, at the point where she tried to entice a white-bellied sea eagle to join us by putting fish out on a perch. Unfortunately, the area is also frequented by herons and black-backed gulls, and they came in and swiped the lot before the eagle could show up.

We then backtracked to the kangaroo area, where they had native Tasmanian forester kangaroos – a subspecies of the grey kangaroo found on the mainland, but smaller. We also spotted what we think was a pademelon, a relative of the wallaby, but I don’t think my pictures came out. We were given some food to offer the roos and told that we’d have to approach and offer the food, they wouldn’t come and get it themselves. Lazy buggers! Even then, they seemed happier eating spilled food off the ground rather than that being proffered in the hand.

Tasmanian devils

Reluctant feeders

We then went to the farm area where a somewhat tame Tasmanian devil was hanging out, as it was his feeding time. Our guide talked about devils and their habits, including face tumour disease, a cancer that is unfortunately contagious, and as TDs bite each other about the face a lot, it has had serious implications for their survival. A new treatment has been developed, however, and is currently being trialled – off the back of the research done for the Covid-19 vaccine. The TDs at Unzoo and the rest of the Tasman peninsula are the only population that are uninfected, and the bridge that crosses to the peninsula at Eaglehawk Neck incorporates a grid, similar to a cattle grid, that the TDs won’t cross. There’s also a fence that extends out to sea, even though TDs don’t swim. So the population should remain safe whilst the rest of Tasmania finds ways to cure the disease.

Our next stop was bird feeding time – first, some honey water for the nectar-feeding birds: a yellow wattlebird was first to arrive, and hogged the feeder, chasing away smaller birds such as New Holland honeyeaters, which tried to get in on the action; much like tūī, korimako and hihi behaviour in New Zealand. Our guide then invited us to hold out some seeds for the green rosellas, which had already made their presence known, and they had no shame in hopping onto arms, feet, heads and hands to feed off the seeds. They’re clearly well-fed, as they have their favourite seeds and pick these out from the handful proffered and ignore the healthy seeds, moving on to the next source to cherry-pick the best.

Time was getting away from us. There wasn’t a café at Unzoo, and as we’d skipped lunch we picked up a couple of biscuits to stave off the pangs until dinnertime, then headed back up Arthur Highway to our next destination.

Another thing we’d spotted on our way down was a sign pointing to Blowhole, Tasman Arch and Devil’s Kitchen. We turned off the highway and drove to each of these locations. The Blowhole was a bit disappointing as it only really works in rough seas when the wind is in the right direction, neither of which applied today. We watched waves crashing against the cliffs at Fossil Bay, then went to Tasman Arch, which is splendid. We declined the walk to Devil’s Kitchen as it was 20 minutes walk each way, which would have delayed us too much getting home.

Sattie, who’d been very upset with us for deviating from her course, took us back to Hobart without incident, and we rested awhile before venturing out to dinner, this time at Suzie Luck’s, a Pan-Asian eatery offering all the usual suspects. We had kingfish sashimi, chicken and coriander dumplings, and pork pad thai, followed by coconut cream with forest fruit sorbet. Very nice it was too.

Today was action-packed. Tomorrow, we have it slightly easier, as our tour is only six minutes from the hotel. We’ll explore further at our leisure.