Port Arthur

Many people in Australia can trace their family tree back to one of the convicts that was sent here in this colony's beginnings. The transportation sentence was often for something like stealing a loaf of bread in England or pickpocketing. Port Arthur, on the south tip of Tasmaina, was a centre for convicts who got into trouble while serving their 7 or 14 year sentence elsewhere in the colony. These were the bad boys of the system and were thus treated accordingly: sent to the coldest, most isolated spot in the colony for a few years of hard work, living in crowded conditions . Reasons to be sent to Port Arthur included anything from disobedience and talking back to your work gang superiors, trying to run away, or murder.



This is another one of those places that is all about the stories and the fascinating history. We began our exploration of Port Arthur with a card representing one convict, following his path through an exceptional exhibition. Then we joined up with a tour lead by superb story telling guides who told us about the horrors of the place or some of the enlightened changes--this is the first prison system in the British Empire that saw a need to seperate young boys from adult males. A teacher I work with has an ancestor who was sent to the boys' prison at about age 13 and, once freed, he settled in Australia and never reoffended.

At night, appropriately an exceptionally dark and rainy one, Damo dragged me along to the freaky ghost tour. Damo tried to tempt fate by casually strolling through the worst part of the prison grounds--the insane asylum and isolation cells, risking an encounter with one of the mad spirits they warned us about. Damn skeptical Damo.

Broken Hill

We completed a major road trip over the Easter weekend (about 2000 Kms round trip.) It's funny - when you're on vacation it seems like no distance is too far. At home, it's the opposite, any distance is too far.

Broken Hill is on the western edge of New South Wales and is actually closer to South Australia's capital of Adelaide. It's a city founded because of its enormous silver deposit. Since then they've developed a thriving artist community as well. We couldnt help but think Nat would love the place, except for the flies, and the heat, and the cold, and the barrenness. But other than that...ya.

Just outside of Broken Hill is Silverton whose population peaked in the ealry 1900's and then crashed. At its peak it had over 2000 homes. All that's left now are piles of bricks, a bar, and a few other buildings. The other buildings are, by and large, are local artist's galleries. In addtion to being a ghost town, Silverton is also where Mad Max II was filmed.

Can you tell which one's the REAL mad max??

relics of the convict past

One of the prettiest towns we stopped at in Tassie was Ross, where we stayed overtop a wood-fired stove bakery (yummy!) in a coaching inn dating from the early 1830s (convict build, of course). This same bakery is also the Anne of Green Gables destination in Australia for Japanese tourists because it is the setting for an anime film about Kiki, a cute little witch (Kiki's Delivery Service by Miyazaki).


The highlight of town is this interesting 1836 bridge, built by convicts after the first bridge collapsed. The main stonemason, Daniel Herbert, carved all the intricate arch stonework with Celtic imagery and stylized people he knew--the gov't officials he didn't like were depicted as grotesque monsters!

As this was the only major road between Hobart in the south and Launceston in the north, the bridge was needed urgently. However, it took much longer to build than it should have--material kept disappearing mysteriously, convicts got rich, the town houses aquired elaborate sandstone decorations and the government had to pour more money into this project. As a tourist, you can solve this mystery by buying a Skulduggery book and following the clues all around town--here I am sleuthing at the local hotel bar. We were disappointed it wasn't a murder mystery but it was still fun.


It seems almost everything old in Tasmania is convict built. This bridge was near the east coast on the way to Freycinet. I like all those spikey stones sticking up. No one really knows why they are there although they guess perhaps it has something to do with keeping the cattle on the bridge. Instead, I think it's all about upholding the convict image--a spikey bridge looks much more menacing.

Speedos...Time for Some Booze!

There's only one way to respond to Nicole's post with photos of men-folk sporting overly tight speedos. With booze...and lots of it! It's the only way to drown the images that have been forever etched into my brain. I mean it was bad enough being there, but having it reinforced with photographic evidence. Arg. It's enough to make a grown straight man cry.

So...ya, booze. Um...that's not booze, but it is the wonderful fruit (different from the 'fruits' in Nicole's post) called 'grape' that becomes the second best booze - wine. We hit Penola on January 20th. It's the gateway to the Cooawarra wine region renowned for its Cabernet Sauvignon and to a lesser extent its Shiraz. Since I had driven the whole way from Sydney down along the Great Ocean Road (over 3000 KM in total) Nicole had the pleasure of chauffering me around to all the cellar doors! We only hit about 8 or so but I was nicely buzzed by the end of it - and the price was right - FREE!

Now, that's better, clearly booze. This was taken after a wonderful dinner later that evening. We met Cathy & Mark at a pub who invited us over for Kangaroo steaks and wine. Never knowing when enough is enough as Wray and Marsh, and, well, just about anyone in the Calgary gang, can attest to, by the time this photo was taken we had made our way onto scotch. The walk home back to our cabin was quite enjoyable. Nico the babysitter looking after a completely innebriated & stumbling damo. Kangaroo steaks are yummy, I don't know why there was that big outcry when it was found that Aussie made pet food had kangaroo meat in it. Boohoo. There's over a hundred million of the things hopping all over the place. It's not like you're eating a panda or something.

And, to clearly wash the images of the previous post from everyone's mind, here's one for the boys.

Oh...hehe...let's try again here...someone not from the 1970's Russian womens' hockey team.

Ahhh...much better...someone that would make even the overly discerning Fearman proud! The horrors of the previous post are now clearly washed from memory and we can all sleep easy once again. Your welcome.

Eden Home of the Prettiest Cemetary

Welcome to Eden where the prime real estate is occupied by a cemetary!

Eden is a small fishing town on the south eastern tip of Australia midway between Sydney and Melbourne, it has yet to acquire the look and feel of a tourist town. It almost seems lost in time with open beaches unoccupied by houses, beautiful cliffs right in the town center with wooden walkways along their precipice. We stayed the night here on January 10th 2006 and still wonder why it was named 'Eden' - as beautiful as the town is that seems a bit of a stretch.

The main attraction is the cemetary itself . It's a lonely place that overlooks the ocean, its loneliness amplified by the overcast skies. Many of the graves bear only a bronze plaque 'unknown' the original inscriptions worn by the salt laden wind and time.

The other thing of note, besides the quaintness of the town, is the Killer Whale Museum. It was in Eden that a most unusual partnership developed between man and killer whale. Tom, the leader of a pack of killer whales, learned to herd larger blue, sperm, and beluga whales into the bay so that the fishermen could row out to sea and kill them. Tom would actually swim into the bay to signal the fishermen that they were about to lure a whale into the bay so that they could prepare their boats. Once the whale was slayed, the pack of killer whales would feast on the lips and tongue, then head back out to sea. This unusual partnership lasted for over a decade until Tom died. His skeleton is the focal point of the museum.