TasWeekend: All quiet on the western front
Cruising Macquarie Harbour on the Lady Jane Franklin II, you will find just as many Tasmanians as you will tourists.
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WE’RE gliding up the Gordon River into the Wilderness World Heritage Area when I learn that most of the upper deck passengers aboard the Lady Jane Franklin II are Tasmanian.
And more than half of them have done this Macquarie Harbour and river cruise before. They say they really enjoyed it last time in summer, but they are loving the West Coast’s big-ticket item in the cold.
It’s not just the moody mist and familiar chill they are embracing; this is when visitor numbers drop off sharply, just the way many Tasmanians like it.
My girls and I arrive in Strahan from Hobart about 3pm on the first Sunday afternoon of the July school holidays. All is quiet on the western front. Very quiet, both in the town itself and Strahan Village, the RACT-owned resort on the foreshore.
Hamer’s Hotel restaurant, though, is buzzing with resort guests at 6pm. It offers a mid-priced family menu. Our meals are nicely prepared — I choose duck breast with a rocket, pear and walnut salad, and the children have burgers and spaghetti.
Vast Macquarie Harbour, six times the size of Sydney Harbour, is revealed in silvery glory the next morning from our breakfast perch at View 42° Restaurant & Bar. Our waitress says we are lucky as it’s been too foggy to see out on recent mornings. Native trees and shrubs, dense, deep green and dripping, frame the view. The still water and cloudy sky are gorgeously gloomy, dreamlike.
By 10am we have blanketed our laps in tartan and are chugging out of Regatta Point Station on the West Coast Wilderness Railway that runs between here and Queenstown. Hugging the King River, we go deep into rainforest as we head upstream to Dubbil Barril, where the famous Abt-design trains, with their rack and pinion booster system, demonstrate their grunt ascending steep gradients on the 35km track, first built by the Mt Lyell Mining & Railway Company to haul copper to port in the late 1800s.
I am slightly disappointed our locomotive is powered by diesel, as the signature steam engine is being serviced in Queenstown. But history comes alive for me when I chat to driver James Smith — he tells me he is the third generation of his family to work on this railway, after his driver father and fettler grandfather.
We’re sitting in the mid-priced Heritage carriage, where staff are trialling a simple trolley lunch service (think fresh chicken and salad wraps, $7) along with the usual mobile bar and snacks.
After live commentary on the way out, the return trip is for reflection. We now have an inkling of the pioneering spirit and the desperate need for work that drove men out into this dank and inhospitable wilderness. I feel a bit melancholy gazing out at the wet forest and imagining the hardships of the mining years.
Perking up again after the four-hour ride, we discover covetable shacks at Lettes Bay built for Queenstown miners’ rest and recreation after the 1912 North Mt Lyell disaster, and spot the much-Instagrammed Captain’s Rest shack accommodation.
By mid-arvo, we’re pleased to get back to our Strahan Village suite for a warming spa bath before strolling along the foreshore to the Risby Cove Theatrette to watch a film of long-running pantomime The Ship That Never Was. The two-hander is usually performed live in Strahan, but not in the low season. It tells the story of perhaps the greatest escape story of Australia’s colonial history.
It’s an entree for our big expedition tomorrow with Gordon River Cruises, when we will visit Sarah Island, site of the notorious 1820s penal station from which a band of convicts escaped.
Our cruise begins with bubbles aboard the Lady Jane Franklin II at 8.30am. The catamaran, smaller than the company’s new Spirit of the Wild vessel, is super-comfortable.
By 10am we are heading upriver. It’s deeply atmospheric in light rain and feels profoundly remote, high-flanked by dense forest that reaches the shores of both banks. Among the passengers is an East Coast man who has worked on boats around Tasmania for decades but never made this pilgrimage. He is in awe.
We go ashore at Heritage Landing, 13km upriver, the farthest point commercial vessels are allowed. Our highlight along the looping boardwalk is seeing a fallen Huon pine believed to be 2300 years old, with 143 other species growing out of its remains.
Back in Macquarie Harbour, we are treated to an excellent chef-cooked buffet lunch before stepping ashore at Sarah Island. For me, the timing is perfect as I’ve just finished reading
Adam Courtenay’s new popular history on the great escape. Walking in the convicts’ footsteps is strange and vivid with excellent guide Ingrid from the Round Earth Theatre Company.
Berthing back in Strahan at 2.30pm, we take a 4WD spin with Anthony of Roam Wild. It’s a new on-demand service run by the Queenstown-based operator developed for cruise passengers with a few hours to spare after their maritime expedition.
A bull tide prevents us from taking his usual beach drive from Ocean Beach to Macquarie Heads in time to catch the sunset. Instead we go overland to the heads. The former miner reckons he is making up for lost time, having come out as “a big treehugger” five years ago.
If prompted, Anthony will tell you a wonderful story about his conversion. Like most things on the West Coast, it’s deep, meaningful and has plenty of history attached.
The author was hosted by RACT and WCWR
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