Report 22

Tasmania

Arrived in Hobart, at the south of Tasmania, "the home of Cadburys" The weather fine but gets cool in the evening, none of the humidity that we experienced earlier in our travels so it is quite pleasant. Even had to put on an undervest some evenings, the first since time Italy and have graduated from my Tevas to the Bass weejuns [knew I brought them for some reason] But still managing on 2 underpants, 2 shorts and 3 shirts. My sink washing skills have improved considerably.

Well Hobart is very much its own place. A wonderful little port with extensive stone four or five storey warehouses originally built to house stuff that was imported into the island when it was a convict centre...Port Arthur, for second offenders and others.The warehouses are now of course being gussied up as galleries, coffee shops and restaurants. It is very pleasant and on Saturdays the area is used as a market area, the usual stuff but also some very good farmers veggie stalls, though I did see a lot of asian faces amongst the sellers which probably means they were retailing out of the wholesaler. Anyway it is quite delightful.

Hobart is reminiscent of the south of England and even St Peter Port if you squint your eyes enough. It is the harbour area but more particularly the red brick, bay window, single storey bungalows, but of course the corrugated iron roof give them away. There is however an area of whalers cottages above the harbour that are very distinctive, small with hipped roofs. Managed to take some photographs.

We are still using the YHA as accomodation, meeting lots of folks from around the world of all ages but many Japanese and Germans with the occasional Brit who has "made a pile in IT" and as they say "buggered off to get out of it" Leave you to guess what "it" is. Still cooking steak, lamb and salads with a bottle of Tassie wine for dinner which is a bit problematic with others in the kitchen who are either philosophically anti meat or dine on vegimite sandwiches. Feel sure you can imagine the scene as the cork gets popped and we sip away.

Visitted Port Arthur, an interesting place, the gaol is not an extensive area but the support buildings cover a huge area, churches, housing for the surgeon, commandant and so on and so on. The setting is magnificent on a sweeping hillside down to the sea. There were no walls of course since if anyone did escape they inevitably died in the bush.

Rented a car with the intension of driving around the Island. Had about five days to do it in. But realised that the place is much larger than we thought and the roads very small or winding. So we resolved to explore the bit up the east coast to Launceston through hop, cropping as they say and wineries with lots of wooded area. The road kill is quite extensive, kangaroo, wallaby, possum, Tasmanian Devil, a type of hedgehog and more. As well as of course raptors that feed on the carcass. Suggested to Mary that they would make a good evening meal.

Visitted Launceston, a now disused port but the town has all of the legacy of a port which has been quite nicely renovated. We did not stay long and spent our time on the Tamar river cruise which was a five hour trip . Had lunch on the boat, Tasmanian smoke salmon, local wine and cheeses as well as learning a bit about the area. It was very attractive and is another one of those places we would be happy to live in, sweeping gardens down to the waters edge across the estaury.

On our trip back to Hobart stayed adjacent to Freycinet Park which is a peninsular and island now a national park. Spent about five hours walking to what ia known as one of the best ten beaches in the world and the only one in Australia which gets the other states a little annoyed. Even had a swim.

Our trip to Sydney took us through Melbourne. We were picked up at the airport by two friends, more folk that we met on the Rahjastan trip. They took us to their home which is about two and a half hours south of Syney in a very beautiful rural area called Cambewarra West.We had a great two days relaxing, visitted more national parks, met some of their friends and picked up a few more Australianisms like chook, wag, footie, doonah, boomer, beano, reserve, crook, uni, spit the dummy and so on. Had a great old time.

We stayed in the Sydney YHA in an area called the Glebe an interesting cosmopolitan area, in change somewhat but close to downtown. Got used to getting to know the centre of Sydney, a little more difficult because it is a big city about four million I guess. The friends we stayed with gave us a lot of clues which helped. We also like this place as well as the others in Australia [how boring] But the Sydney Opera House and its setting is pretty spectacular. There is a lot of waterfront redevelopment which is good fun for the odd drink when the legs get a bit wobbly, although we found the harbour ferries a good substitute.

The other thing that was great fun was that we met the Penneys from Guernsey who are on a trip to Australia and Sydney was the only time our paths crossed. Caught up on the news and their views of Australia, had a meal and some more of that Hunter Valley stuff.

As we left Australia our minds revisitted our thoughts on the place. While we were there we often listened to the radio in the car, Australian BC and usually bought a paper for the easy crossword and found that the place seemed consumed by sports and politics. On days when there was a one day test match ABC followed the entire match and now that it is election season politicians and gurus seem to be interviewed continuously.

I did not realise that they have such a different system here. Everyone is required to vote or be fined. In the voting booth they are asked to vote for the parties in order of their prority, a preferential system as they call it. When the votes are first tallied the candidates with the least votes is eliminated and the folks second preference for that candidate are reallocated. This continues until a candidate has 50% of the vote.

Apparently some folks like this system and others not. What it can mean is that the candidate who in the first round finishes first may not be elected after the preferences have been allocated however the system has the effect of ensuring that all of the rightwing parties get eventually allocated to a rightwing candidate thus ensuring that a left wing candidate cannot win if the rights have more votes allocated amongst a range of right wing candidates. And the same goes for the reverse scenario. As you can imagine there are a range of parties, much like what is happening in Canada and the States. Interesting I thought.

The other stuff the media is carrying these days is the issue of bastardization. The entire defence organization was stood down for two hours while the Chief of Staff read the riot act about appropriate behaviour after some guys in the airborne regiment were up to their tricks. At the same time a case was before the courts about two boys from the most prestigous school in the country who had fashioned dildos in the workshop class and then used them on the junor scholarship boys at night in the dorm. Interesting to see the headmaster explain to the media that this was an isolated case when parents were writing to the papers of incidents their children had experienced over the years, had reported it but nothing was done.

The other thing that fascinated me was the focus on migration since every city we visitted had sections of its museums dedicated to the subject. I guess the subject is deep in the psyche. Like Canada they are forming their identity it would appear.

The place is physically dominated by the eucalyptus tree which grows every where, from coast to coast and another tree of Monty Python fame the acacia known locally as the wattle.Not a profound observation but I do not think that I have ever visitted a place of this scale that has so little variety in plant life, the more exotic stuff having perhaps been imported.

But perhaps Bill Bryson summed it up well when he said that Australia is really a cross between the United States and Britain, "it has a casualness and vivacity, a lack of reserve, acomfortableness with strangers that felt distinctly American but hung on a British framework. In their optimism and their informality Australians could pass at a glance for Americans but they drove on the left, drank tea, played cricket, adorned public places with Queen Victoria, dressed their childrenin the sort of school uniforms that only a Britannic people could wear without conspicuous regret. I felt extremely comfortable with this" And so I think, did we.

Or our views could have been shaped by a note that Gus Heidemann sent us earlier in the week " put on the galoshes, put on the.....Mark can you add in the piece that mary sent you today.