Now 66, Marmion is a master bushwalker, an avid yachtsman, and a highly-skilled and respected wilderness guide, as well as a volunteer on a range of nature conservation projects, including the orange-bellied parrot recovery team, raptor research, feral cat management, weed management and bird surveying.

The talented photographer has also published a book – his first solo publishing venture – with his visually-stunning hardcover, Hidden Worlds, showcasing his photography skills and his vast knowledge of toogelow/Port Davey and the rest of Tasmania’s South West.

Marmion, who lives in the Huon Valley, says his lifelong fascination with nature stems from his early years, when he was living in Bellerive and went on a camp with his local Scout group to South Cape Rivulet.

South Cape Rivulet can be accessed from Recherche Bay – at the end of the southernmost road in Tasmania – and Marmion recalls that the road to Recherche Bay in the late 1960s “was a rough drive indeed, requiring considerable patience and driving skills’’.

“There were frequent stops to push vehicles through bogs and to fill in potholes and broken culverts,’’ he says.

“Progress south was slow, but it was all fantastically exciting to a young suburban boy.’’

They eventually reached Cockle Creek and then headed west on foot along the muddy South Coast Track, making it to the far side of Blowhole Valley.

The next morning they reached the coast, with grand vistas to South Cape, South East Cape and Mewstone.

“The smell of the ocean was intoxicating, the waves were huge and the wind was strong enough to blow skinny boys off their feet,’’ Marmion says.

“The whole scene was incredibly wild. I loved it.’’

In those days, there was a sign nailed to a tree across the rivulet that stated ‘Port Davey 63 miles’ and Marmion says that sign became “firmly rooted in my memory” as it came to be “the catalyst for much planning to visit this fabled land”, a far-flung mysterious place behind kunanyi/Mt Wellington which he had grown up hearing stories about.

That evening during the Scout camp, two men emerged from the bush across the rivulet, wearing gumboots and combination overalls – the basic adventure attire of the era. They had walked from Scotts Peak, which they had left 10 days earlier, a feat that 13-year-old Marmion was captivated by.

“Their stories enthralled me, and around the campfire that evening, I was determined to spend my life exploring South West Tasmania.’’

It’s a pledge Marmion has never strayed from.

He forged a career as a public school teacher, and then as a principal – inspired by the “brilliant teachers” and positive experiences he had as a public school student. And he says the benefit of working in various regions of the state meant that he could use his weekends and holidays to explore the surrounding wild places, which he says always had him returning to work “energised, refreshed and so much more productive”.

“I was first appointed as principal when I was 27,’’ Marmion says.
“That was at a tiny little school at Hamilton which only had 24 children, I was the teacher for grades 3, 4, 5 and 6.’’

He worked as a teacher at various schools in the state’s North West and was vice principal at Hagley Farm Primary School, near Launceston. He also worked as a principal in the Huon Valley, at primary schools in Cygnet and Franklin, and spent the final 11 years of his career as principal at Lansdowne Crescent Primary School in West Hobart, before retiring in 2011.

Marmion has also managed to spend the past 30 years working as a tour guide in Tasmania’s South West, and currently leads small, low-impact tours with luxury expedition cruise business On Board (previously Tasmanian Boat Charters).

During this time he’s met many fascinating people and has shared countless stories about his experiences in a part of Tasmania so remote that only a very small percentage of the population will actually visit in their lifetime.

Many times it has been suggested that he put all those stories together in a book.

And finally, Marmion has, with Hidden Worlds released on November 1.

“I’ve always had this desire,’’ Marmion admits.

“Because I work down there as a guide and I’m telling stories all the time, people say to me, ‘you should write those stories down’. And that was one of the catalysts for writing the book.

“I started writing the book about seven years ago, and I’ve been working on it in earnest in the last two years. It’s had a long evolutionary genesis.’’

The book has not only allowed Marmion to share his stories and knowledge of the region, but also showcase some of the 44,000 photographs he has taken in South West Tasmania over the years.

“I’ve been going there (to the state’s South West) for 50 years, and some of the photos in the book are 50 years old,’’ Marmion explains.

“I’ve been carrying a camera with me wherever I’ve gone since I was 12. That was an encouragement from my parents … they bought me my first camera.’’

But Marmion didn’t just want his book to be a coffee-table book full of beautiful images – he wanted it to be a reference work as well.

Consisting of 35,000 words as well as a stunning array of more than 200 colour photographs, the book is broken up into four main sections – encounters with the landscape, encounters with the weather, encounters with the people who frequent the area, and encounters with the wildlife, including the orange-bellied parrot, a migratory bird which is teetering on the brink of extinction.

There’s also a historical timeline of the Port Davey area, detailed information about placenames, information about the vessels of Port Davey and a bibliography of books written about Tasmania’s world-heritage listed South West.

It takes about an hour to fly from Hobart to a gravel airstrip at Melaleuca, a tiny, remote settlement in Southwest National Park. A yacht might take a couple of days to get there from Hobart, while walkers need at least a week to get there.

As a boy, Marmion was particularly fascinated by tales of Deny King, a tin miner and naturalist who lived at Port Davey for many decades, whose hospitality and ability to thrive in a challenging environment made him a household name in Tasmania.

Marmion also recalls the time he met famed wilderness photographer Olegas Truchanas when he attended a slide show at a local church hall with his dad and sister.

“I was a working class boy in an pretty enlightened family,’’ Marmion says.

“We were just really encouraged, all my siblings, to get out and explore the world. I just had this natural curiosity about the world – what’s around the next corner and what’s over that hill, I just really wanted to know.

“I first bushwalked into Port Davey when I was about 16 or 17, and I first sailed around there when I was about 18.

After years of hearing stories about Deny King, Marmion finally came face-to-face with him during a visit to the region, and was invited to King’s home for a cup of tea. They crossed paths many more times after that, and Marmion says conversations with King were highlights of the 1970s and 80s.

Hidden Worlds also tells stories of Marmion’s interactions with other legends of the area including cray fisherman Herbie Hall, as well as accomplished seaman Clyde Clayton who lived at Port Davey with his wife Win (Deny King’s sister) for nearly three decades.

“Port Davey, like all frontier environments, attracts an interesting band of people who are often not satisfied to live out their lives in the safety of close proximity to services,’’ Marmion says.

“Since the Second World War only a handful of people have made the lonely harbour a permanent home, but there is a large community of Port Davey enthusiasts who regularly visit to get their fix of the place.’’

The book features a foreword by artist and writer Janet Fenton, who is also the daughter of Deny King.

Marmion says it’s hard to pinpoint his favourite story in the book – or from his 50 years of visiting the South West – but he says he always loves telling stories about the wild weather of the region, which gets lashed by the Roaring Forties winds.

“I’m mad about the weather, so I like some of the stories of us dealing with the often-trying weather conditions down there,’’ he says. “It’s a place where nature calls the shots.

“I’m also a naturalist so I enjoy any great encounters with wildlife that I’m lucky enough to have – I always love interactions with dolphins. I like humour too, so I tried to make the book not just a deadly serious look at the wild south west. In guiding, as well as keeping people safe, our responsibility is to be entertaining. And we often spend a lot of time down there just laughing, and telling yarns.’’

Marmion has had chapters published in scientific journals and his photos have appeared in lots of magazine, books and websites. He also once wrote a history of Franklin school with a friend who was also a member of staff. But Hidden Worlds is his first solo publication.

“It was just so easy to write actually, because I’ve been telling stories for so long, it just sort of flowed, I didn’t have any problem with writer’s block,’’ Marmion reveals.

“The challenging part was overcoming my self doubt, but I’ve got a very good wife, she kept cajoling me, and never allowed me to wallow in it.’’

He has printed 1060 copies through Forty South Publishing and says receiving his first copy of the book was “a big thrill” as it was exactly what he’d hoped for.

It is aimed primarily at a Tasmanian audience but the book has already sold to customers in Denmark and England, as well as various parts of mainland Australia.

On the day we chatted, Marmion had been to get a haircut. He didn’t plan on selling copies of his book, but by the time he left the salon he’d sold three copies – people everywhere are enthralled by his stories.

But he says he’s just as enthralled by the stories of the people he meets, and feels fortunate to be able to offer them an insight into such a special part of the world.

“One of the biggest thrills for me as a guide is when I guide fellow Tasmanians,’’ says Marmion, who ran weekend getaways to the South West through Adult Education in the 90s, and also works as a guide for Par Avion in addition to his work for On Board, on luxury expedition cruiser Odalisque III.

“So many Tasmanians have heard about the place all their lives, and we can provide a means for being able to show it to them. I recently took a 92-year-old man down there, it was his first trip, and it was one of the highlights of his life. For me, it’s such a thrill to give someone an experience of that quality.

“I just get as big a thrill if I’m going there tomorrow as I did the first time I went there. Because there’s always new experiences and new people. I sort of view it through other people’s eyes, I get a real buzz out of their excitement about it.’’

Marmion has three children – two daughters who are teachers and a son who is a search and rescue paramedic – and the book is dedicated to Marmion’s seven grandchildren.

“It’s part of this underlying theme of protecting the place,’’ Marmion says.

“I want them to be able to explore and experience this pristine place in a way I’ve been able to enjoy it and so many other people have been able to enjoy it, I don’t want that experience compromised.

“I’m a confirmed conservationist and a theme of the book, too, is how it looks wild and bold and impregnable but it’s actually an incredibly fragile environment and it is home to plants and animals that are endangered. I want to get the message across that we should never take these places for granted, we need to nurture them and protect them.

“It’s important people know about the place, they need to know how precious it is and how important it is. I have a bit of religious zeal in sharing my love and knowledge and passion for the place.”

His wife Robyn and their children travelled to Port Davey with him regularly when the kids were young, and he remembers one particular weekend – when they flew down on a Friday night and then flew out again on Monday morning – as it was far from a typical start to the school week.

“I remember the kids were in school uniform, and it was really wild conditions, we had to fly really low – it seemed like wave-top level – and we got out and the kids went to school and started school at the normal time – they left for school from Melaleuca instead of from home,’’ Marmion says.

He has taken his entire extended family, including his grandchildren who range in age from five to 16, to stay at Melaleuca a couple of times and they loved it.

One of the younger children now asks “when are we going to go back to the most beautiful place in the world again?” which brings Marmion great joy.

“I spend a lot of time with my grandchildren, I like to share my knowledge and skills in the wilds with them,’’ he says.

He still can’t believe he’s lucky enough to spend so much time in such a magical part of Tasmania.

“I love every part of Tasmania, not just the South West, but I could never have foreseen that it was going to become my workplace,’’ Marmion says.

“It must be a call back from our nomad days, it’s just the thrill of setting out on a journey, it never lessens for me, I think ‘here we go again – whoopee’.

“I feel very privileged to be able to work in such a beautiful remote place and to meet so many different people.’’ •

Hidden Worlds: A journey into toogelow/Port Davey, South West Tasmania, by Peter Marmion,

is available now in hard cover, from bookshops and online, RRP $75. shop.fortysouth.com.au