A Tassie Story - Fortescue Bay Tasmania

View from Palmers Lookout
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We’d been heading south via the Midlands for around 3 hours and reached the outskirts of Hobart. Tasmania along with many other parts of Australia have been badly affected by drought. The midlands are not in good shape, not quite bare but dry with little feed for obviously hungry stock.

Our destination was the Tasman Peninsular so we left the Midlands Highway and took the winding narrow country road east from Brighton via Richmond.

It was a further 12km down a rough dirt road through thick forest into the Tasman National Park

Australias oldest bridge
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Richmond was a real surprise. A beautiful streetscape with historic buildings, lovely parks and Australia’s oldest bridge. We must have spent over an hour walking up and down the short main street fossicking through the shops. The bridge is a major attraction and we walked over and under it inspecting the finer detail, marvelling at the workmanship and ability of men in 1823 to construct a bridge, which still carries traffic today. The church in the background green lawns and healthy trees made a picture, many photographers moved from one place to another capturing the scene. To top it off a wedding was in progress, the bride’s gown in sharp contrast to the lawn.

Dusk over Fortescue Bay
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In the town common stands a small brick and timber shingled building housing a Teddy Bear shop, they had closed for the day, which was probably a good thing because we needed to get a move on.

Entering the Tasman Peninsular is via the Eaglehawk Neck isthmus, a narrow piece of land joining 2 peninsulas, the authorities in the 1800’s used this isthmus to prevent convicts escaping Port Arthur, a chain of large dogs crossed from one shore to the other, the space between each dog was small and being mistreated and hungry they would not have been fond of anyone sneaking past.

Tall regrowth forest
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Several camping areas marked on maps no longer existed in the area so the search continued. It was now getting late and finding a campsite may be impossible if we didn’t find one soon.

The road to Fortescue Bay had a sign pointing to a camping area. It was a further 12km down a rough dirt road through thick forest into the Tasman National Park. We expected to find a deserted camp area but to our surprise it was packed. School holidays meant heaps of people and even more kids. We checked in at the ranger’s office to find they were almost booked out, Oh no. We sweet-talked the ranger who gave us a site in a quieter part of the park, one of the last apparently.

Rugged Coastline
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The site had a campfire right in the middle of the largest flat area which meant we couldn’t put the camper there, so positioning the camper was tricky; the other flat ground was set higher on the site. Some manoeuvring and several goes found us level and well positioned. The camper was left hitched to the car for a quick set up sufficient for the night.

We had been so busy getting our bed ready we hadn’t even noticed the stunning surroundings. Close to the shore looking over the bay, the water was tinged green and so clear you could easily see the bottom. Fishermen came in from a day out in the bay, bring their boats ashore and cleaning the catch. Impatient seagulls waited on the rocks for the scraps and fought over the morsels as they were thrown aside.

Lovely Beaches
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The sun sets late in Tassie during summer, by 8pm the sky was beginning to darken and it was time for some dinner.

Two Grey Nomads, retired British tourists, who camped next to us in a motor home, dropped in for a chat. They were on their way to view the penguins, a reasonable walk around the bay. The ranger had provided them with red cellophane to cover the torchlight. This allows you to see the penguins without the light hurting their eyes.

The nomads told us it had been raining heavily most of the day and had only been clear since we arrived. It would be a perfect night for spotting penguins.

Relaxing in our camp chairs we enjoyed a glass or two of Muscat listening to the Kookaburra’s and watching over the bay as the day came to an end.

A fine morning greeted us; the plan was to tour south taking in some of the local scenic attractions in a loop around the peninsular. Just past the “Port Arthur Penal Settlement” (a historic site with a dark past, today it is a top tourist attraction) entrance a sign directed us to Palmers Lookout. On private land the generous owners have provided a small shelter and a fantastic view over the Port Arthur bay.

Open fields, forest and tranquil waters featured, the Isle of the Dead sat alone in the bay, keeping the souls of 1769 deceased convicts and others safe in several burial grounds since 1830.

There is much more to this story, drop me a line if you'd like to see more

in2tassie@bigpond.com

Our next adventure is to the Wild West Coast - Sandy Cape where we had a Tassie Devil visit our camp