Tasmania, with tea and scones: the Australian island 'down under down under' is one of the world's best-kept vacation secrets

Insight on the News, April 24, 1995 by Peter Holden

The Australian island `down under down under' is one of the world's best-kept vacation secrets.

While Tasmania is well-known as the habitat of the famous cartoon devil, this hilly Australian island just south of Melbourne has much more to offer. Its west coast is lashed by westerlies from the Indian Ocean, making it one of the wettest places on Earth. Tasmania has hundreds of acres of rain forest that are virtually inaccessible. More than 20 percent of its land mass - the island is about as big as Scotland - is classified as wilderness heritage area.

The trek through the island's pastoral midlands to Cradle Mountain - Lake St. Clair National Park is a good introduction to the Tasmanian wilderness. Day walkers are asked to register in the daybook, for safety's sake. More ambitious hikers can cover the entire Overland Track, a five- to eight-day crossing.

Our family - myself, my wife, Mary, and our two children, Angela, 4, and Matthew, 2, strolled around the lake. A friendly coorawong - the raven's Australian cousin - joined us for lunch on the lake's pebble shoreline. That night, we stayed at Cradle Mountain Lodge, constructed from local planed timber, with a lounge offering deep leather chairs and a huge fireplace. Our cabin looked out on an alpine stream and eucalyptus trees. In the morning, young wallabies came out to forage, much to the glee of our children.

Tamania's roads may be smooth now, but at the turn of the century they were rutted and full of potholes. Back then, the most convenient transportation was on the water - southern Tasmania is a maze of peninsulas, bays and islands. One of the first locally built ferries still plies the Derwent River estuary in Hobart, the island's capital. The S.S. Cartela, built in 1912 to take passengers on pleasant excursions, hugs the coast before crossing the bay and heading homeward. And during the homeward run, the crew serves scones with clotted cream and jam, fresh-brewed coffee and tea.

Battery Point, named for the military fortifications erected to an "imminent" but never-realized Russian attack in the 19th century, is the original Hobart neighborhood for gentle folk - and now a tourist trove chock-full of antique stores and colonial-era architecture. Narrow roads and lanes wind past the stately houses of former ship captains, boatwrights and bankers, a small oasis of England transplanted to the antipodes.

If you wander its streets, you will come upon Salamanca Place. The open-air market is the place to be on a Saturday morning, for the entire population seems to be buying or selling, looking or being seen. Hundreds of vendors offer fresh farm produce, fish from Hobart's wharf, cafe latte, even fortune-telling. Back-to-the-earth types set up drumming circles, which only add to the free-for-all carnival atmosphere.

Tasmania also offers a glimpse into its gruesome past - Port Arthur, 60 miles southeast of Hobart, the site of one of England's notorious penal colonies. Between 1830 and 1877, an estimated 12,500 convicts passed through its prisons, toiled in its mines, and bore the torment of its silent-cell system before it was closed and forgotten. Extensive restoration under way since 1979 enables visitors today to experience the eerie life of 19th-century convicts, who were not allowed to talk and were forced to wear hoods and masks in public.

Those contemplating a trip to Tasmania or the Australian mainland should keep in mind that Americans need a valid passport and an entry visa. The exchange rate is currently about 70 U.S. cents to one Australian dollar. Summer temperatures range in the high 70s and 80s; winters are very mild.

Marsupial Mephistopheles

There is a lot to see in Tasmania besides the Tasmanian devil, but kids wouldn't be happy without a visit to Bonarong Park, about 20 miles north of Hobart, the state's capital.

The park allows kangaroos, wallabies and emus to range free. Visitors can feed the animals corn and pellets, and it's wonderful indeed to experience a full-grown kangaroo bounding over to feed from your hand.

The Tasmanian devils, however, are kept in high-walled enclosures. And for good reason: A devil can snap off a human finger in one bite, a fact demonstrated at feeding time, when the little beasts contentedly crunch and swallow their rabbit parts - bones and all.

A Tasmanian devil, about the size of a Scottish terrier, is black with white patches. It scavenges for carrion and, like all marsupials, carries its young in a pouch. It has small legs and a thick torso and enjoys howling and showing off its immense jaw and sharp teeth.

Like most of the animals at Bonarong, the devils were brought to the park injured and will stay to recuperate until being released to the wild.