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Bright-eyed and Bushie

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Friday 13 September 2024 – We had only about an hour’s drive to today’s destination, which allowed for a relaxed morning. We checked out of the delightful Peppers Seaport Hotel and headed (via Woollies to get more of Twining’s finest Earl Grey) towards Jetson Farm, which is in a place or area called Jetsonville. (Anyone remember the Jetsons, the American cartoon series from the early ’60s? It treated the future as reverentially as The Flintstones treated the past.)

The landscape we travelled through was unremarkable. We started out through the same farmland that surrounded Launceston and then skirted the Mount Arthur Forest Reserve, which meant that things got a bit more foresty,

although most of the time the foresty bits were behind cleared spaces beside the road.

The wattle/mimosa continued to be a joyful addition to the scenery.

We passed a viewpoint, or Lookout as they’re called here, the Sideling Lookout, which gave us a great look out over the neighbouring countryside.

We passed a couple of interesting sights en route: a fetching line of trees

planted thus for a reason we wot not of; and, on the outskirts of Scottsdale, this

“Iconic Eco Centre”, which was for sale and a purpose we wot not of. Scottsdale is the nearest town of any pith or moment to Jetsonville, and seems a nice enough place;

we merely hope that it features a petrol station so that we can refuel before we have to move on in a couple of days’ time. Scottsdale and Jetsonville are firmly in farming land (we were told, for example, that nearby Ringarooma is the richest dairy farmland in the whole of Australia)

and our accommodation for the night was a farmhouse, part of Jetson Farm, which is a working farm. We got there at about 11.30, perfect for our appointed midday meeting time with our guide. What with the friendly reception from hosts Madeline and Guy Jetson and the immediate arrival of said guide, I didn’t have a chance to take a photo of the place. You’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that.

Our guide’s real name name is Craig Williams, but he told us that everyone calls him Bushie.

This explained some of the mystery behind the item in our schedule which describes the next two days as “Bushie’s Quoll Patrol”, but didn’t actually vouchsafe any further intelligence about what this entailed. In the end, that’s just as well, as you’ll find out if you read on.

Bushie’s company is Pepper Bush Adventures, a small business he runs with his wife, Janine, and son Ben. Although his training was as a master butcher, Bushie’s background is steeped in the lore of the bushman. He’s been walking around and spending time in the bush since his childhood (which is how he got his nickname, he says), and doing these tours for about 25 years. He was thus able to display a very solid grasp of the local history, geography, geology, industry, economics and wildlife. His visual acuity was astonishing; as he was driving along he was casually able to identify small birds perched on distant poles, or, as in the photo above, platypuses in roadside ponds. Similar to our experiences in Costa Rica and Madagascar, where without a guide you’d not see 90% of the wildlife around you, Bushie’s ability to spot things was impressive. It was also a bit frustrating, as he pointed out things (such as that platypus) that had disappeared by the time we were in a position to see and, most importantly, photograph them. We did. though, get a chance to admire a couple of galahs before they, too, buggered off.

So the first three hours or so of our time with Bushie was spent being driven around with him telling us about the details of the surrounding landscape – types of forest, trees, berries, leaves, uses of same for cooking and medicine – and identifying wildlife as it disappeared into the middle distance. We did pass some great scenery, though.

The area has many British names, such as Dorset and Bridport, and mountains such as Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond. Unlike Scotland, in Tasmania, you can stand on top of Ben Lomond and see Ben Nevis. Well, except today, that is.

The upper reaches of Ben Lomond were in thick cloud and rain, so we turned back before reaching the top. However, I did get a view which gave me the clearest explanation I’ve yet had of glacial moraine

and we could glimpse, through the mist, cliffs of the dolerite rock that’s unique to Tasmania, Antarctica and South Africa.

The glacial moraine bit is important. The above pictures are extreme examples of moraine, but the whole area is littered with such rock, merely much less densely packed. A rock-strewn landscape is not suitable for farming, but it is perfectly good for growing trees. So forestry is an important industry in this area of Tasmania. Bushie pointed out the very clear distinctions between native forest and plantations, and described the importance of sustainable logging, where a few selected mature trees are extracted from a plantation, leaving others to grow and the ecosystem largely undisturbed, as opposed to clearance logging, which results in destruction of a forest.

Eventually, in latish afternoon, we headed off towards our supper destination, which was, frankly, in the middle of nowhere. As we approached the track that led to it, though, we began to get a clue as to what awaited us.

A mother and 13-month old baby wombat casually pottered out of the undergrowth and across the bridge in front of us. And as we started down the track, it was clear that we had a reception committee awaiting us.

In the acres surrounding Bushie’s rustic cabin

some 60-odd eastern grey kangaroos have made their home. They weren’t always there; when a local wildlife centre had too many kangaroos to look after, they asked Bushie if he could accommodate some. He agreed to take them, and the mob has grown to its current size. They are free to come and go as they please, but they are completely habituated to humans, as Bushie regularly hosts small groups at this cabin as part of his tours and occasionally escapes there himself. When he is there he feeds the ‘roos

which is another reason his place is so popular with the local wildlife. Kangaroos are not the only animals there; there are wallabies and pademelons, too,

which makes Bushie’s cabin just about the only place you’ll see all three of these macropods together in the same place. There are also quolls (which, sadly, we didn’t get to see, as they are nursing young at the moment) and

possums. I also managed to catch a glimpse of flame robins, female and male.

It was getting quite cold at this point, so Bushie built up a nice fire for us

and prepared a delicious meal, which we ate, surrounded by these kangaroos, which wandered about and even came up to demand attention. Bushie showed us where the kangaroos like to be scratched – chest, not head – and their closeness enabled us to see how unwise it could be to tangle with them.

Two kangaroo front feet and one rear foot, with its dagger claw

However, they were all friendly. Bushie knows them by name, and it was interesting to watch their interactions. There were two large males: Yoda, the alpha male

and Rip, who was alpha until Yoda deposed him. Unusually, Rip was not then excommunicated from the group, but is tolerated. Here they both are, having a meal together

You can tell how Rip got his name by looking closely at his left ear.

It was a remarkable occasion, completely unexpected, and one which would have had less impact had we known about it.

Also remarkable was the conversation we had with Bushie on the drive back to Jetson Farm after the meal. It concerned the Thylacine, the Tasmanian Tiger. This animal has widely been thought of as being extinct ever since the last known specimen died in a zoo in 1936. This is increasingly looking unlikely. Bushie told us of one that was shot in 1946, proving that they weren’t extinct in 1936, and also mentioned that some people, notably the late Col Bailey, were firm believers in the continued existence of the Thylacine. Some people have claimed to have seen them within recent times, and there are several others, such as Murray McAllister, who are actively interested in searching for extant animals. Both Jane and I knew the Thylacine extinction story and had found it very sad, and we hope that after all there are some of these creatures still living in some far corner of a Tasmanian Forest.

We meet Bushie again tomorrow, and who knows what the day will bring? Not us, that’s for sure.

Launceston. Not the one in Cornwall.

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Thursday 12 September 2024 – Long post alert! Time to get a drink and settle down, I think.

Our task yesterday was quite simple – get ourselves from our Peppers hotel in Cradle Mountain to one in Launceston, some 150km away. With no excursions booked at the far end, we had the rare luxury of a relaxed schedule; Jane had found a couple of Things To Look At en route, one of which closed at 3pm, but we had plenty of time. Strolling over to breakfast took us past yet another pademelon

(which you can see was soaking wet from the ceaseless rain) but otherwise the morning was unremarkable.

Since kangaroos, wallaroos, wallabies, pademelons and quokkas are so similar in overall appearance, Jane did a bit of research to try to understand how to tell them apart. It turns out that the only obvious criterion is size. There is a bewildering variety of subspecies of each animal, but the only way to tell many of them apart is by examining their DNA, which is complex. So: size, it is, then. Consider the whole macropod phenomenon to be several varieties of quopadewallaroo.

As we set out, we passed through a landscape that could have come from the blasted heaths which make up the army-controlled areas near Aldershot.

Otherwise the landscape continued to be wet and marshy, and occasionally mountainous

as it had for what seemed like several days now. We stopped to admire the scenery caused by the Cethana hydro electric works

and also to look at a couple of murals plastered on the outside of a hydro-electric facility.

I’d have got better photos, but the layby was being actively used by some very large lorries which were attaching and/or detaching huge bits of plant machinery on trailers, so our freedom of movement was not what it might have been. But the point of the murals is important; they are part of an expanding project started in the nearest town, Sheffield.

During the 1980s, Sheffield was going through hard times. At a public meeting in 1985, the idea of painting murals around the town was proposed, with the hope of emulating a similar program’s success in the Canadian town of Chemainus. From this idea, a mural by John Lendis was commissioned, becoming the first of now several dozen murals in the town. There is even an annual Mural Fest, with a mural painting competition that gives nine new installations an airing.

Street art such as this is catnip to us on our travels, so we stopped there and went for a walk. Obviously. The town is a pleasant enough place anyway,

but it’s unique because everywhere you look, there are murals, and it makes for a splendid sight.

By the visitor centre is an area – Mural Park – with lots and lots all set up together.

I don’t want to bore you with all of the photos I took, but you’re welcome to overdose on them in my Flickr album if you’d like. But one of those in the Visitor Centre area display is worth pulling out.

It’s a picture of Greg Duncan in front of a section of The Wall, the astonishing installation he has created that I wrote about a couple of days ago. If you didn’t read about it then, shame on you – go and take a look. NOW!

By the time we’d reached Sheffield, the countryside had changed; we were driving through farmland. It hadn’t quite stopped raining, but the landscape was more open and bucolic and a lot less wild.

We had planned to stop at a steam engine museum in Westbury, but we had spent so much time in Sheffield that it had closed by the time we got there. However, seeing Sheffield was a delight and I’m glad we did spend time there.

Our destination, Launceston, was not much further on. We arrived at the Peppers Seaport Hotel in mid-afternoon and were awarded a splendid apartment, with kettle, mugs, Earl Grey, milk in the fridge and – praise be! – laundry facilities! “These things are important, you know”*.

The Seaport in the hotel’s name is a nicely gentrified area

which features many eateries, among them the rather oddly-named but very decent Rupert & Hound, where we availed ourselves of such local produce as Gummy Shark, which goes nicely as part of a fish’n’chip meal, and then retired for the night.

That was yesterday, Wednesday 11th. Today, we had a full day in Launceston with no activities or excursions formally booked. So when we woke up to find that

the sun was shining brightly, we sprang out of bed with a song on our collective lips and went for a walk. Obviously. In fact, we went for two walks, because Launceston (pronounced “lawn cess ton”, by the way, not like what they do in Cornwall) has a variety of attractive things for walkers to walk around.

To start with, we headed for Cataract Gorge, through which the River Esk flows. There are very well-organised and clearly marked trails along each side of the river, and we headed for the one that started on the far side of the Esk, the Cataract Gorge trail. To get there, we crossed King’s Bridge,

passing a sort of adventure centre with accommodation, created and run by Penny Royal.

There’s a water mill there

and various other entertainments

including a cliff walk which requires you to get a safety harness so you can navigate the cliff face. We didn’t do this. We just went for a walk beside the river,

which one can now do free of charge, but for which there used to be a toll, payable at the toll house.

It’s not called Cascade Gorge for nothing,

but the cascades are not the only attraction along the walk. The views are quite nice, as one might expect,

and after a kilometre or so, one reaches a suspension bridge which allows one to cross to the other side.

Careful examination of the photo above will reveal that there appears to be someone suspended in the middle of the bridge. This is an illusion caused by the presence of the slowest chairlift in the world, in which one can ride in a very leisurely fashion, from one bank to the other. To get to the lift station on our bank (in pleasant gardens, with a bandstand and a cafe, albeit not open today as this side of the river was suffering a power outage!), we passed a peacock and several wallabies

and gravely allowed the attendant to explain how to get on the lift for the ride without mentioning the several hundred chair lifts I have ridden during my skiing years. The chair may be slow, but it does have the distinction of having, at 308 metres, the largest single span of any chairlift in the world. The ride down gives a nice view of the suspension bridge and the park on the other bank.

The park features a café, which we stopped at for a coffee, before exploring the suspension bridge further,

Looks just like Bristol, don’t you think?

and then heading back towards Launceston along the Zig Zag Trail, which is clearly signposted as being “steep – hikers only”. And with good cause, too;

the trail climbs a good 80m before descending 100m to King’s Bridge. En route, we got a good look at a Tasmanian Nativehen (called a “turbochook” by the locals, apparently)

and a curious crystal formation on the rockface.

This is zeolite, a hydrated alumino-silicate mineral, rarely seen in such an accessible site, probably derived from molten magma associated with the cooling rock.

We also got a nice view over Launceston,

at around the same place as we passed a group of climbers who were, erm, climbing the rock.

As we headed back to the hotel, we noticed that the mural virus had spread to Launceston; the wall surrounding the King’s Park beside the hotel was decorated

on both sides,

although the picture above does seem to be of more informal decorative work.

By this stage we’d covered about five miles, but we still hadn’t explored the city of Launceston itself. So we went for another walk. Obviously.

Heading into the city, we passed the Custom House

and could see a huge brewery.

This is James Boag, which produces beer that’s very popular in Tasmania, although it’s not a major player in the overall Australian beer market. As we passed it, a chap sat on a bench recommended a visit, which seemed a good idea. But first we thought we’d explore the Tramway Museum (Launceston had a tram system between 1911 and 1952, apparently). We headed off to where Google told us it was and pretty much failed to find it. We eventually realised that we’d actually walked past it at about 3pm

but it was closed, despite a notice telling us it was open until 4pm. We did find an old tram station, though – Inveresk Launceston.

By this stage, the brewery seemed an attractive idea, so we walked past the vast array of buildings that it is comprised of and went into

The Brewery, where we were able to sample various of Boag’s beers,

and visit the Brewery Museum. This had pretty much normal brewery museum-type stuff

with a couple of exceptions. One was a photo of the vermin elimination machine

which was always called Oscar, whichever gender it happened to be, and whose vets bills were passed off in the books as repair costs for the machine. The other was a mystery object.

It’s called a Meteorphonium. It’s a musical instrument. No, really. Please spend a minute watching a very charming video about it. (Sorry, for technical reasons, I can’t embed it here. Grrrr.)

After this refreshing interlude, we walked around Launceston in order to take a look at the old buildings for which is well-known. We started by going past the Albert Hall

towards the City Park

(note how the brewery dominates the skyline). The park gave us an opportunity to get a closer look at Masked Lapwings

which have really spooky faces

but very cute chicks.

Then we walked along Cameron Street, where most of these old – and very attractive – buildings are.

The Post Office stands out particularly

and one can go in; but although they’ve kept a lot of the fabric of the original building, they’ve filled it with a modern post office in a box, which I think rather ruins its interior charm.

Of course, not all the buildings are old or attractive,

but we enjoyed looking around the parts of the city that we saw. And the beer was quite good, too.

We ended our walk with a meal back at Rupert & Hound, a choice of staggering unoriginality but one which gave some confidence of a decent meal.

And that has been it for our time in Launceston. It has been a delight to walk around in sunshine, after what seems like an age of cold and wet weather. The forecast for tomorrow seems to return to some degree of moistness, but we move on towards the north-east corner of the island, near a town called Scottsdale. Some wildlife adventures are promised there, as well as some impressive-sounding landscapes, but, to be frank, we’re not quite sure how things have been organised for us. So, please join us over the coming days as we find out.
* © Chris Walker

Landscapes, Wildlife and a Feeding Frenzy at Cradle Mountain

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Tuesday 10 September 2024 – When we looked out of the window this morning, it had clearly rained hard during the night, but it was difficult to tell if it was drizzling right now or whether the weather was just that air-borne moisture you get when you’re in a cloud. Anyway, it wasn’t bucketing down as we walked round the lodge’s lake to breakfast, and there was possibly even the hint of a lift in the weather.

On the basis of various weather forecasts, we decided that rather than wrap ourselves up in something warm and stay indoors, we should go for a walk. Not obviously, by any means, though.  Just down the road from our hotel is the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre,

where we went to get our Parks Pass and also a ticket for the shuttle bus which would take us to one of the well-known walks in the area, a circuit round Dove Lake. The total cost was not small, but, as with the Russell Falls park, it was clear as we walked around that there was a lot of work involved in maintaining paths and other facilities, so it was money well spent.

The terrain we could see from the bus

underlined how wet the place was. Basically, we have been wet and cold since we left Hobart, and we asked the hotel receptionist if this was normal. She said, emphatically, that it was not; in the 12 seasons she’d worked in Cradle Mountain, this was the first time they’d had such consistent rain for such a long time – every day for two weeks.

The shuttle bus has a few stops en route to Dove Lake, the first of which was at the Ranger Station;

they were clearly expecting me and wanted to make sure that I stayed safe.

At Dove Lake, the prospects for spectacular scenery were a little less than uplifting

but since we’d made the effort (and paid the bus fare!) to get there and it was only drizzling, we grimly struck out on the 6km Dove Lake circuit. This is largely a well-maintained path

with steps to help with ascents and descents

and boardwalk to get you across the tricky bits. Every so often, the drizzle would stop for a few minutes, and one could begin to make out the reason that the area is called Cradle Mountain,

and the general scenery, whilst being exceedingly moist, was not unattractive.

As we worked our way along the path, the weather lifted a little more, the cradle became clearer to see,

and we could see that there was snow on the upper slopes of the mountains on the other side of the lake.

Every so often there was something to remark on, whether it be multiple Pandanus trees

or some extra highlights among the greens of the trees.

We reached the far end of the lake

and continued on the path, through an area called the “Ballroom Forest”.

It’s clearly a forest, and probably rainforest at that, but we couldn’t fathom the reason for its other name.

We noticed at this point that the top of the cradle was beginning to clear, and one could actually make out snow on the slopes.

The unrelenting treeness of the view gave way to rock at one point

though in the event it meant that one had to duck as one went past – there was a distinct lack of headroom.

We carried on, along paths that were easy to follow but more difficult to walk on – there were more uneven surfaces, and the unremitting rain of the previous days meant that there was, more often than not, a river running along the middle of the path, requiring fancy footwork for those, like me, who were not wearing boots and didn’t want wet feet.

The return half features quite a steep climb

at the top of which a pied currawong came to ask us why we were breathing so hard.

At about this time, the weather really did lift and we could see the cradle quite clearly as we looked back,

but the lump we’d just climbed over was getting in the way, and we wondered if we’d miss out on a clear view of the mountains before we finished the walk.  The clouds did swirl back in as we passed a boathouse

but eventually, our luck was in as we reached the point on the circuit where the Iconic Cradle Mountain Shot could be captured.

There are even instructions on a noticeboard as to how to post your attempt at the shot on social media. That’s how iconic the location is.

In the end, it was an enjoyable walk, as it ended with the sun almost shining, and there being no rain, so we were glad we had made the effort to get out. As we drove back to the hotel and I concentrated on avoiding the craters in the road, Jane suddenly yelled “wombat!”. At first, I thought this was a critique of my driving, but actually it was because there was, indeed, a wombat beside the road, so we screeched to a halt so we could take a closer look. This was my first-ever wombat,

much more interesting than the wallaby which was quietly lying a little further away wondering what all the fuss was about.

Not only did I see my first wombat in this area, but also my first-ever pademelon!

so we were very happy as we got back to the hotel.  We had a short rest before we had to go out again, on the day’s booked excursion to a place even closer than the Visitor Centre. As we drove there, we passed a couple of cars off to the side of the road, a sure sign that there was Something To See.  In this case, there were a couple more wombats, just grazing away beside the road. I got some video of one of them,

and we carried on to our activity, which was at a place called Devils@Cradle. I guess its name gives away what we’d find there:

Tasmanian Devils, an endangered species of marsupial found only on this island. We had booked to see them being fed, which happens late in the day, as they are basically crepuscular creatures, but we turned up early so that we could take a look around and see what other creatures were being looked after there.  These included Quolls, of two different sorts: Eastern Quoll

(also seen here in a dark morph)

and Spotted Tail Quoll.

These, like the Devils are (a) marsupials, (b) endangered and (c) nowhere near as cute as they look. All three creatures are ravenous meat eaters and not to be treated lightly; as far as they’re concerned, humans are just meat, and so trying to pet them is likely to end in tears, as in fingers being torn off hands. Each animal has hugely strong jaws – ounce for ounce stronger even than hyenas – and their jaws can gape extraordinarily wide, which helps them as they tear and rend. This one, though, was just yawning.

The Devils@Cradle centre, whilst undeniably a tourist attraction, is actually a serious scientific endeavour as part of conservation efforts concerning these creatures.  The Tasmanian Devils, particularly, are at risk, mainly because of human activity, killing them often out of fear (they can make a blood-curdling screeching sound if they’re in disagreement among themselves) or because they can be a threat to domestic animals. A result of this depleted population is a lack of genetic diversity, and a rather unpleasant – transmissible – cancer has struck a large majority of the Devil population. Devils@Cradle has a small but significantly cancer-free population of Tasmanian Devils to help preserve the species. Its decline is very unfortunate, because Devils have an important role to play in the environment; like hyenas, they can hunt but also clear up remnants of carcases left by other predators. Sadly, if these carcases are roadkill, the Devils themselves are threatened by traffic; in their eagerness to consume the carcase, they just pile in and will still be on the road as the next vehicle comes along…

The Quolls too are under threat from urban development and, particularly, from the feral cat population, so the establishment is also involved in maintaining a breeding population and managing reintroductions.

Devils@Cradle, though, has no government funding, so depends on visitors for its money. One of the attractions they offer is a chance to see the animals being fed. It’s a very well-organised and information-rich activity. In our case, our guide was Sarah,

seen here displaying the wallaby legs that she would be using to feed the Devils. She was very knowledgeable, engaging and informative about the creatures, the need for conservation and the work that the centre is doing.

If you are of a sensitive nature, I suggest you skip the rest of this post, as it features images of bits of animals being torn to shreds.

Still here?  OK, here are some still images of Devils being fed

(note the currawong, which is hanging around in case something is left over) and the quolls ditto.

Note that Sarah doesn’t just throw them the meat, because then they would just grab it and run for cover; to ensure they stay out for the punters, she attaches it to a hook so that the spectacle can be watched.

They may look cute, but, like the Bugblatter Beast of Traal, they’re very ravenous.

Here’s some video which might really put you off your dinner. You Have Been Warned.

It was a very interesting evening – informative and educational, albeit cold and wet as it rained towards the end of it, not that the animals cared.

So ended our day at Cradle Mountain. Tomorrow we head back east, for some R&R at Launceston in north central Tasmania. We have no formal activities booked but you can bet your sweet bippies that if it ain’t raining we’ll go for a walk. Obviously.