On the Island
Now that the site is back up and running, and I’ve finally recovered (pretty much) from a fortnight-long case of the flu, I at last have a chance to post a project from weeks ago—although the photos go back much further. These are some galleries for Detail from my trips to Tasmania over the past decade, covering places other than the Tasman Peninsula. Most are from trips made with my parents during our visits to them, apart from one we made on our own.
In December 2009 we all headed up to Gunns Plains in Tasmania’s northwest, before making our way south to Cradle Mountain and down past the Great Lake in the midlands. It was hot summer weather, reaching 35 degrees at Bothwell, but okay for some relatively easy walks to Leven Canyon, Alum Cliffs Gorge, and Dove Lake at Cradle Mountain. For the past decade I’ve stared at a picture from this trip of Dove Lake’s pebbled lake-bed and peaty brown water as my desktop picture at work. I chose a slightly different one of the same lake-bed for this gallery.
In July 2015 we made a family trip up the east coast, staying at Louisville Point near Triabunna as a base for a day trip over to Maria Island, where we saw approximately nine different wombats. We finished with a visit to Spiky Beach, the Friendly Beaches and Bicheno, all familiar to me from childhood camping trips. Some of these locations feature in Tasmania ’82, and look remarkably unchanged today.
I took a fair few photos of my home city of Hobart on that July 2015 visit. We also made an overnight trip down to the Huon Valley, without my folks, so that I could show the kids where I grew up. We saw the Hartz Mountains National Park just as it snowed, and then the Tahune AirWalk, before driving back to Huonville, the most significant of my Old Haunts (as also featured in Tasmania ’82 and Home). A few photos of Hobart from 2017 and a couple reaching back to 2008 round out the gallery. Some panoramas of these locations, along with the east coast and northwest, can be found in Panoramas V.
On my quick solo visit to Mum and Dad last August, I went away with them for a few nights to Bruny Island, which I hadn’t seen for twenty years. Growing up in the Huon, Bruny was a regular destination for family weekends away, school camping trips, and camping trips with my mates. It’s still just as beautiful, and I hope hasn’t been too damaged by this summer’s bushfires. It’s also one of the best places to photograph the Tasmanian Native Hen, which doesn’t get half the attention it should from tourists. The only thing missing from this gallery are the tremendous sounds of the waves at Adventure Bay, and of the rocks being dragged across each other in the sea on the walk along to Grassy Point.
There were so many Bruny panoramas that I made them a separate gallery, Panoramas X.
Here’s one last photo which didn’t quite fit elsewhere, taken not far from Sorell in January 2008, same as the Tassie Devil signs above.
Now that I’ve finished making myself homesick, my next galleries will be from somewhere completely different.