Today was a very cold, rainy day in Tassie for most of the day. This morning our tour group set sail on World Heritage Cruises for a six-hour tour of the areas around Macquarie Harbour. Macquarie Harbour is the second largest harbour in Australia (about twice the size of Sydney Harbour), but it has the smallest entrance of all major harbours. Ships enter through a 75 meter (246 feet) entrance called “Hells Gates”.

Sarah Island

Our first stop on the cruise was Sarah Island, a convict settlement between 1822 and 1833 with a population of about 1,200 men and women sentenced there. It was a hard labor prison and the first “banishment island” for re-offenders, and is alternately described as a place of “living hell” or of “a very comfortable dormitory”, depending upon which accounts you read. Our tour cruised us over to the island where we took an hour guided walking tour hearing stories of it’s traditional custodians and later convict peoples. They milled timber (Huon pine) on the island and the convicts began building ships here as part of their labor requirements.

Heritage Landing

After lunch onboard, our second stop was Heritage Landing. This area of Tasmania is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it is only the second location in the world to receive 7 of 10 qualification factors (a designated area only needs to meet one factor).

The cruise left Macquarie Harbour and traveled 7 km up the Gordon River to the furthest point allowed for commercial boats. At this location, they’ve built a boardwalk through the river-flat rainforest where we took a short 20 minute walk through the dense forest.

Huon Pine Sawmill

Our cruise ended at the Huon Pine Sawmill, which is still working in Strahan. They had a working saw demonstration and some beautiful wood products for sale.

Ocean Beach

When our cruise ended, we were picked up by our guide in the van who (despite the rainy, crappy day) stuck to the original schedule and took us to Ocean Beach. (Aside: Aussies love very literal naming of things, we have found).

Ocean Beach is 40 km of sandy beach facing the Great Southern Ocean. There is no land mass between this point in Australia and Argentina in South America, a distance of 8,000 km. It is claimed that this point has the freshest and cleanest air in world. It is beautiful, and I’m sure a very relaxing location when it is not 40 degrees, raining, and completely overcast.

The Ship That Never Was

Our last activity of the day was watching a play in the amphitheater here in Strahan. The Ship That Never Was is the longest-running play in Australia, and is performed by local community actors here. The play tells the true story (that we heard about on Sarah Island today) of the final prisoners left on the island. In the 1800s, they (along with the shipbuilder Jonathan Hoy) were charged with making one final ship for the governor before the prison closed, and were told to sail it to Hobart. Long story short: they ended up in Chile where they were eventually captured, and they told everyone they had received some of the supplies but never built a ship. They had just taken the supplies and escaped to Chile (a felony that required prison time), versus the charge that they built and stole a ship (a hanging offense). There was no paperwork trail, so no one could prove otherwise. The play was funny, interesting, and had full audience participation, including several of our tour mates being called up to do things on stage. 😂

After the play we had dinner in town and walked back to our hotel, wiped out from the long day and early start. Another early start tomorrow, so we will close for now. Thanks for adventuring with us! Hope everyone back in the States had a wonderful Thanksgiving.