Blog 14 Blog Hobart The Start of our OAT Pre-Tour

We met the first of our pre-tour group – Mike, Evelyn, and Diane from Phoenix, Arizona.  They arrived at the hotel about 2:30 from the US.  Amazingly Mike and Evelyn used to live in Gleneagle before moving to Phoenix.  Our first group meeting will be at 4:30 in the lobby which also happens to be the start of Happy Hour in the Hotel.  Our guide, Ben Walters, looks like he will be a great leader.  He is young, only 34 years old.  Although from Sydney, he has traveled a lot in Europe and the United States.  Unlike European travel guides who must have a college degree and certification, Australia does not require either.  Ben has been a tour guide for about 6 years (prior to that he worked in construction), but we are his 51^st tour group and he has worked for OAT for 2 years.  The other couple, Tom and Julie Furr, are from Brooklyn, NY.

We all met in the lobby, grabbed a Happy Hour drink and went into a conference room for a short meeting with our guide.  He went over our itinerary for this pre-trip and then we walked to our restaurant.  Our restaurant was the Prince of Wales Pub in the Battery Point section of the town and it was about a ½ mile walk.  We were able to order off the menu so Bill and I both ordered the crumbed (breaded) scallops.  They were fresh and very good.  After the dinner we caught a taxi back to the hotel.  We have a really good group on this pre-tour and I think we are going to enjoy their company.

On Tuesday we all gathered in the hotel restaurant for breakfast and then met at 7:45 for the start of our day.  We walked down to St. David’s Park where we met our local guide for our 1 ½ hour walking tour.  She told us about the early history of Hobart, from its start as a penal colony to its days as a whaling center to what it is today – the least populated Capital city in Australia but a burgeoning center for tourism.  She told us about the cemetery that used to be where St. David’s park used to be and some interesting facts about some of the former leaders and governors of Tasmania.  She particularly did not like Lord Arthur who was the governor of the penal colony of Port Arthur and had some interesting facts about Lady Jane, wife of the governor John Franklin.  Lady Jane apparently disliked alcohol and was a leader in its prohibition in the 1880's.  She also had so much money that she paid for the monument to her husband, that according to our guide his plague was full of misinformation.  Although his plaque claimed he found the Northwest Passage, he actually died while trying (unsuccessfully) to find it.  She also stole 4 pillars that were supposed to be used for the Treasury Building and used them in the construction of her Greek temple outside of town.  As an aside, our guide told us she had hemorrhoids and had surgery to remove them without anesthesia. 

Headstones from the old cemetery

Statue of Governor John Franklin

All Males Club

She also pointed out a house that was the Old Males Club (men only) where the Governor of Tasmania is considered the head of the Club.  The only problem – the current Governor of Tasmania is a woman.  Oops…

At the end of our walk in Salamanca Place, our guide pointed out two places of interest.  One was a wall of dolerite rocks which was once a quarry.  Dolerite rocks are only found in Australia, Tasmania, Chile, and New Zealand.  This fact tends to support the theory that these countries were once all connected as one large continent called Gondwana about 90 million years ago.  The second interesting fact was a stone with the inscription “Consulate of the United States.”  When whaling was at its height, there were a lot of American whalers in this area, and the US government set up a consulate in Hobart.  It was closed in 1906. 

Dolerite Quarry

Stone from US Consulate

Our trip leader met us down by the wharf area and we traveled by bus to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary where they take in injured or orphaned native wildlife.  If possible, they rehabilitate the animals to return them to the wild, but if that is not possible, they provide a forever home for them.  We saw wombats and then koalas.  Although not native to Tasmania, the older female koala was sent to the sanctuary from Kangaroo Island because there was an overpopulation of koalas.  They did not know that she was pregnant at the time, but she soon gave birth to a male koala.  They also had some older male koalas at the sanctuary that they thought were too old to reproduce, but, oops, they were mistaken.  Along came another female koala, and these three – the mother and her two offspring—are the only koalas now at the sanctuary.  Because koalas are territorial, these koalas cannot be set free.  They will remain at the sanctuary for life.  Although tourists are not normally allowed to hold the koalas, we were able to go into their pen and pet them.  They also have Tasmanian Devils.  They have a breeding program for them as they are nearing extinction in the wild due to a contagious facial tumor cancer.  Again these animals cannot be returned to the wild.  And they have a lot of kangaroos that they are rehabilitating that you can feed and pet.  It was a fascinating visit, complete with up close and personal encounters with the native animals, but also with the array of birds that frequent the park.  We saw sulfur-crested cockatoos, heard the kookaburras laugh (what an experience), and saw a beautiful Eastern Rosella, a parrot of multi-colors.

Rainbow on Mt. Wellington

Wombat

Tasmanian Devil

Petting the Koala

Eastern Rosella

Feeding the Kangaroos

Feeding the Kangaroos

Richmond Bridge

From the wildlife sanctuary we drove to Richmond, an old 1800’s town that was built by convicts.  We saw the Richmond Bridge, built by the convicts and the oldest bridge in the country (1823), and had lunch at a bakery that had wonderful meat pies.  Bill and I had the steak and mushroom pie that was very good.  We then walked about the town and sampled their homemade ice cream.  I finally got to try the lavender flavor that was very good, while Bill had the chocolate.

From Richmond, our bus let us off at the Hobart Wharf area where we took a one hour harbor cruise.  The weather was perfect and we saw Mt. Wellington looming over the city, the Tasman bridge, the scene of a collision of a large boat with the bridge that caused the top section of the bridge to collapse onto the ship resulting in 12 deaths from the crew and cars on the bridge, and the Hobart suburbs that are located around the Hobart harbor.  It was a beautiful ending to a great day.

Mt. Wellington overlooking Hobart

Tasman Bridge

For dinner, five of us walked to the Shamrock Pub, 2 blocks from the hotel, for dinner.  Bill was hungry for a hamburger and I settled for a BLT.  Then it was back to the hotel for an early night as tomorrow will be another full day.

Our last day in Hobart was a trip to Port Arthur.  Port Arthur, on the Tasman Peninsula, is an incredibly picturesque yet haunting place.  Set on one of Australia's prettiest harbors, it shelters the remains of Tasmania's largest penal colony.  It's the state's number-one tourist destination. 

From 1830 to 1877, Port Arthur was one of the harshest institutions of its type anywhere in the world.  It was built to house the most notorious prisoners, many of whom had escaped from lesser institutions.  Nearly 13,000 convicts found their way here and nearly 2,000 died while incarcerated.  A strip of land called Eaglehawk Neck connects Port Arthur to the rest of Tasmania.  Guards and dogs kept watch over this narrow path, while the authorities circulated rumors that the waters around the peninsula were shark-infested.  Only a few convicts ever managed to escape, and most of them either perished in the bush or were tracked down and hanged.  

Port Arthur's tragic history did not finish at the end of the convict era.  I n 1996, the Port Arthur Historic Site became the scene of one of Australia's worst mass murders when a lone gunman killed 35 people and injured dozens more tourists and staff.  The devastating events of that day led to new gun control laws for Australia that are among the strictest in the world.  And since that day there have been no more mass shootings (defined as 4 or more shot and killed) in Australia.  While guns are still allowed, they are strictly controlled.  You must have a legitimate reason for the gun, no automatic or semi-automatic guns allowed, and guns and ammunition must be stored separately.  The gunman was sentenced to life imprisonment with no eligibility for parole.  Visitors are requested not to question their guide about these events, but instead to read the plaque at the Memorial Garden.

Port Arthur is a 1½ hour drive from Hobart.  On the drive to Port Arthur we made two brief photo stops.  The first was to a point overlooking the picturesque Pirates Cove.  What a beautiful and serene looking place.  A short distance from there was the Devil’s Kitchen and Tasman’s Arch.  Our bus let us out at Devil’s Kitchen, which is a small gorge cut into the sandstone cliffs.  What a view!!  From there we walked about 650 ft to Tasman’s Arch.  Years of pounding surf created the arch that allowed water into the gorge.  It was a spectacular setting.  This stop itself was worth the trip!

Pirates Bay

Devil's Kitchen

Tasmanian Coastline

Enjoying view of Tasmanian Coastline

Tasman's Arch

Driving to the area of Tasman’s Arch we went through the small town of Doo Town.  This place is unique in that every home has a name on a plaque that incorporates the word “Doo” in it.  Examples were, Doo Town, Just Doo It, She’ll Doo, Rum Doo, and Doo Nix.

Once we reach Port Arthur, our guide gave us our entrance tickets and a random card from the deck of cards.  Each card had its own drawer in the museum, which, when opened, revealed what convict you were and what crime you had committed.  I had the 8 of clubs and my name was Patrick Murphy from Liverpool, England and I was 18 years old.  I was sentenced to 7 years for stealing a picture.  I was sent to Port Arthur after I escaped from a chain gang in Hobart.  Bill was the 5 of Hearts.  His name was Joseph Johnson, aged 21, from Portsmouth, England.  He was sentenced to life for an unknown crime and was sent to Port Arthur when the jail at Macquarie Harbor closed.

My 8 of Clubs card

Bill's 6 of Hearts

Once at Port Arthur, we had a guide who told us more about the history of the place and some of the interesting stories that do not seem to make the history books.  First off, the entire site was built by the convicts.  They also built the bridges around the area and many of the boats that were used in that time.  One funny story was of the Elk that found itself at Port Arthur.  It seems the governor had seen this animal and thought it would make a good addition to the wildlife in Tasmania.  He had three transported to Tasmania—two males and one female.  One male and the female ended up on a farm near Hobart and one male was taken to Port Arthur.  He seemed to have adapted well at first and was given his own pasture.  However he broke out and went over to the vegetable field where he proceeded to eat most of the plants, destroy much of the farmer’s equipment, and head butted the wheelbarrow into the creek.  The elk was never seen again.  There were also some pretty gruesome stories, especially as related to the “Separate Prison.”  If inmates did not follow the rules of the penal colony or tried to escape, they could be sentenced to the Separate Prison.  There they were stripped of all identity.  They were kept in separate cells, whenever they went out of their cells they were hooded so no one could see them, and they could not talk at all.  They were allowed one solitary hour a day in the exercise yard.  Even when they went to church, they were hooded, and placed in separate boxes inside the church with no chance to see anyone else.  They were allowed to sing the songs in church – they only time they could talk during their sentence, which could last up to 12 months.  However, much as the POWs in Vietnam, the prisoners used the songs to communicate, singing one or two words of the song loudly then whispering comments to each other quietly.

The Church

Separate Prison

Rules of the Separate Prison

Prisoner boxes in the Separate Prison Chapel

Exercise yard in Separate Prison

Hospital

Guard House

Penitentiary

Our last stop at Port Arthur was a harbor cruise that took us past the area where there was a prison for young boys – aged 13-15 but the youngest was 7.  Here, although they were separated from the adult criminals, they were treated the same way.  We also cruised past a small island where the colony’s bishop selected as the graveyard for the criminals and soldiers who died while at Port Arthur.

Remains of Boys Prison

Isle of the Dead

With the establishment of the penal colony at Port Arthur, the city of Hobart was also founded and became the second oldest capital city in Australia.  Sydney, founded about 6 years earlier, is the oldest.  This trip helped us to see how the penal colonies really shaped Australia’s founding and history.

Back at the hotel, it was time for a quick Happy Hour drink and dinner before returning to our room to pack and get ready for our trip to Cradle Mountain tomorrow.  After looking at the hotel’s dinner menu with its assortment of pizzas, I decided I just had to try the fish and chip pizzas.  It was nearly as good as the roast beef pizza we had had several nights ago.  It was a thin crust, pieces of cooked (not deep-fried) white fish, and very thin slivers of fried potatoes (they looked more like julienne onions) covered with a white cheese and what appeared to be sour cream.  I ate it but I would never order it again!