Aqueducts

Aqueducts

The aqueducts are a few minutes walk above Halls Saddle.

"A major problem confronting the designers of Hobart's original water supply around 1860 was how to get the water from the Mountain's southern slopes across Halls Saddle to the city outskirts. The solution was unusual in its extensive use of wooden and masonry troughing and associated sandstone features.

From dams across Fork Creek and Browns River, the water had to be conveyed across Longhill Creek, (now known as Dunns Creek) to the Saddle. A wooden bridge carrying troughs across the creek, built in 1862, was in serious disrepair by 1880 when a contract was let to stonemason Joseph Hawkes to build two sandstone bridges designed by the Director of Waterworks, C.W.S James. Sandstone for the bridges appears to have been quarried at Gentle Annie Falls and transported up the Pipeline Track. The work was completed by late 1881.

As the pipeline progressed, the working conditions in which it was excavated and constructed became colder and wetter with only several months of good weather in a year. Debates and delays in Council over construction and funding meant this good weather was lost for the contractors and workers. The Council took some time to agree on stone bridges as opposed to an iron siphon, and it later was in dispute with the contractor over claimed additional expenses.

Much of the masonry troughing on the track has now been concealed underfoot. The cast iron pipes on the aqueducts are a later addition."

From Hobart City Council sign. The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

Add to Cart More Info

South Arm, Arm End - 7th June 2008

South Arm, Arm End - 7th June 2008

Today was a choice between Hartz Mountains and South Arm. The forecast was a bit ordinary, although it improved during the week, but in the end the day dawned damp, cloudy and drizzly in Huonville. The Keoghs Pimple weather station reported 99% humidity (clag) and an apparent temperature of -1.2° C. The weather in Huonville didn't promise any rapid improvement, so South Arm self-selected early. Sorry Peter! The walk around the end of South Arm (Arm End) starts at the very end of the road. You drive through South Arm and on to Opossum Bay, and then a little further until you reach a turning circle/parking area at the end of the road. It's labelled Arm End, but has also been known as the Gellibrand State Reserve.

---

You either walk clockwise or anti-clockwise. The tracks are obvious inside the gate, so choose one and head off. The tracks are quite obvious to start with, but do disappear in places, or at least there are more than one choice. Basically you follow the coast all the way, and climb gradually up and down. There are tracks across the middle too, and if you wanted, the whole place is so open, you could just wander around wherever you liked. I recommend turning left, and heading for the obvious transmitter tower at White Rock Point. The tower here appears amongst other things to provide Taroona with some digital TV signals. The views from here of the cliffs south of Taroona are very good, as is the view of Mt Wellington usually (but not today!) The Shot Tower is very obvious. If you walk down beyond the radio mast, you can find some rocks just above sea level which are good to sit on. The views here are very good, and on a still day it is a very attractive place.

---

From here you can follow the coast eastwards, and then northwards to descend to the beach on Mary Ann Bay. Walk along this beach, and then ascend through the trees at the far end. You could probably clamber around the rocks below the low cliffs, but there is easy walking at the higher level. Then keep walking north, and descend again to the beach with the ornate sculpted-sandstone headland.

---

The Gellibrand Vault is just south of this headland. You may notice it as you walk along the top, but if not, then walk a short way back along the beach and keep an eye out up the slopes. It is a little beset with landsliding dirt, and probably someone should look after it. Here lie several ancestors of the Gellibrand family, who donated this land to public ownership.

---

The main inscription reads "In Respectful Memory of William Gellibrand Esquire J.P. the original grantee of South Arm. (and father of the first Attorney General of this Colony)...who died at Hobart Town 27th September 1840. Aged 75 Years. ...n illness of acute pain and suffering which he bore with Christian ...sion and resignation. His mortal remains lie in this vault beneath ...nder his own direction and superintendence. He was courteous and affable in his disposition, benevolent and generous in his character and of uncompromising integrity of purpose." His son, Joseph Tice Gellibrand, was the first Attorney-General of Tasmania.

---

Beyond here, it's a short climb and then a flat walk to the end of South Arm, where there is a view to the north of Droughty Point, and a fairly clear view up the Derwent to the Tasman Bridge, Mt Direction and even Selfs Point. From here there's a clear track back to the carpark around the eastern side of the Arm End. It's worth going down to the beach south of The Spit, which is very obvious as you head south. The easiest way is to keep walking until adjacent to the south end of the beach which runs south of The Spit, and follow the 4WD Track down the south side of the obvious fenceline. The track continues obviously back to the carpark past Shelly Beach. The shells on the Spit beach seem in many places to be "cobbled". That is they've been arrangec by the waves to stand on end in their thoudands (or maybe in their tens of thousands).

Add to Cart More Info

Mt Wellington - 6 April 2008

Mt Wellington - 6 April 2008

Having acquired a replacement vehicle while the 'Cruiser awaits its colonoscopy and possibly a diagnosis of "rebuild or die", I was able to sneak off for a walk this afternoon. The tiny blue car has a 3-cylinder motor, and cheese-cutter tyres, so I didn't think taking it up the Hartz Road would be a comfortable experience. Settled for a trip to Mt Wellington on nice bitumen roads.

---

Quite cool today, although the sun did actually struggle out of the cloud cover for a few moments at one point. Had a nice walk, first on the Pipeline Track and then up to the Chalet and return. A little way below Ferntree on the Pipeline Track are the aqueducts. These were built in 1880-81, to replace a previous wooden bridge which was in serious disrepair.

---

Found the Mountain Currant (Coprosma nitida) displaying its bright red fruits, making quite a contrast with the Pink Mountain Berry. In checking my identification, I note that the Pink Mountain Berry may have changed classification from Cyathodes parvifolia to Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. parvifolia. I will have to follow it up. So far, my internet investigation reveals it is complex.

---

The track near the chalet was also enlivened by the Banksia (Banksia marginata) which is flowering quite profusely. I note this plant is variously called Banksia, Silver Banksia and Honeysuckle. Only one other species of banksia, B. serrata is found on mainland Tasmania. Anyway, just before you reach the Chalet, the track passes through a 'tunnel' where the banksias meet overhead.

---

Encountered some mountain bikers on the Pinnacle Track, where they are not supposed to be. I'm all for drivers looking out for riders on the roads, but I do think their continual bleating about driver attitude would be appropriately accompanied by some self-moderation of their colleagues who have no regard for the law. In addition, it would be sensible if these clowns worked out how to travel at a safe speed even on tracks where they're allowed. I am awaiting advice from the Wellington Park Management Trust about how they actually manage inappropriate use of tracks by mountain bikers. If it's anything like their efforts on managing trail bikes on the back of the range, then I don't expect a very encouraging answer. I have to admit a certain feeling of schadenfreude when one of them fell off after he had passed me. How terrible of me. His crash was, fortunately, seemingly trivial.

Add to Cart More Info

Free lecture

Free lecture

James Boyce, author of Van Diemens Land, is giving a lecture at the University on Tuesday night.

---

18 March History and Classics Free Public Lecture

Celebrating New Tasmanian History Writing - Lecture Series
1. Dr James Boyce, Van Diemen's Land: How the Tasmanian Environment Shaped Convict Culture, Tuesday March 18.
......
All lectures start 6pm, Centenary Lecture Theatre, Sandy Bay Campus.
Further Information: Lyn Richards, 03 6226 2298

Add to Cart More Info

Book Review: Van Diemen’s Land by James Boyce

Book Review: Van Diemen’s Land by James Boyce

As someone who enjoys the Tasmanian bush, particularly its accessibility, cleanness, and wildness, the concept of Tasmania as being different and comparatively special is important. On most measures I just think the rest of Australia can’t compare, but the things which make our state special are sometimes not obvious, even to those who live here, and they are so easy to destroy or degrade. Here we have a history book which actually makes some interesting observations about how we might relate to our situation today.

This is a very interesting book, in which James Boyce throws new light on the early white settlement of Tasmania. He makes the distinction between “Van Diemen’s Land” and “Tasmania” very clearly. He says in the introduction that his hypothesis is “the character of the island which became the enforced home of over 72,000 sentenced criminals (42 percent of the convicts transported to Australia) does matter. The fact that protein-rich shellfish were there for the taking , that wallaby and kangaroo could be killed with nothing more than a hunting dog, and that abundant fresh water and a mild climate made travel by foot relatively easy, does change the story. The convict’s hell was, thank God, a human creation alone. This book is about the tension produced by siting the principal gaol of the empire in what proved to be a remarkably benevolent land. It sees this paradox to be at the heart of early Tasmanian history, and to have important implications for the nation as a whole.”

Boyce shows how early Tasmania was quite unlike early New South Wales. He points out that the Van Diemen's Land settlers were probably the healthiest people in the British Empire, and this arose from the nature of the land they had settled. Life in early Van Diemen's Land was, while not always idyllic, quite unlike the way we imagine it from our understanding of later history – for example, under Governor Arthur, or as portrayed by Marcus Clarke in For The Term Of His Natural Life. Eventually the authorities realised that the life of the convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land appeared to be better than that which they left behind. It didn’t seem to be a punishment at all.

The view of Tasmania as cold, wet, poor, backward and unimportant continues today. When you read Saul Eslake’s assessment (Talk transcript here) of Tasmania from the point of view of his economic and social data, it can seem a little bleak, although much improved from the deep dark days of the Gray administration. I sat in a room where Saul’s view was presented to a senior manager from Canberra. She took it all in, understanding the implications of some of the negatives for particular segments of the population, but at the end waved her hand out the window at the tremendous view of blue sky and fluffy white clouds behind a sunlit Mount Wellington, speechlessly implying “well yes, some of those things aren’t great, but look where you live!!”

Our value as a state, a people, as communities, is not measured by our wealth, our sophistication, our adoption of new technology and the ways of the “mainland”. Tasmania really is a little different, and Boyce suggests some of the ways this difference developed and perhaps remains.

It just isn’t quite the way it’s seen. We have our problems, but we also have the compensations that come from living in one of the most beautiful places on earth. The original Eden was brought undone, often in evil, corrupt and incompetent ways. How true that is of today.

The violence towards the aboriginals, and the poor whites, is all in this book. Boyce makes the interesting suggestion that one of our major environmental problems was caused by our racism. He offers the opinion that the reason the trees no longer grow properly in much of the southern midlands is the possum population, a population that was kept in check by the aboriginals. Once they were gone, our trees had no hope.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s easy to read, interesting and challenges us to see Tasmania in a different light.

Here's a link to an extract.

Here's Richard Flanagan's review of the book in the SMH.

Henry Reynolds' review is here.

Published by Black Inc. Books (www.blackincbooks.com) Melbourne 2008

Add to Cart More Info

Haughton Forrest and Mt Wellington

Haughton Forrest and Mt Wellington

This beautiful view of Mt Wellington behind Hobart, painted by Haughton Forrest in 1886, hangs in the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. I especially like his rendering of the snow in the gullies above where the Zigzag Track now runs. It's worth a visit to see for yourself. The original is 86.7 x 183 cm and is very impressive.

Add to Cart More Info

McDermott's Farm - Pipeline Track

McDermott's Farm - Pipeline Track

From the sign at the site of McDermott's Farm on the Pipeline Track.

For all its continuing natural appeal, Mount Wellington has many reminders of the impact of settlement. Around this point is much evidence of such impacts, including land clearing, building construction, the effects of fire and the channelling of water for human need. Studies point to significant use of the Mountain foothills by Palawa, Mouheneenner and other peoples of pre-European times. The Palawas helped to create the open grasslands of the Chimney-Pot Hill area through regular burning of forests to assist them in hunting game. There is evidence of seasonal occupation: rock shelters in sandstone outcrops and pieces of flaked stone on the banks of Sandy Bay Rivulet north of here.

This open area, occupied by the McDermott family from the late 1880s, was one of many private holdings in the Mount Wellington foothills at that time. Behind you on the opposite hillside is Turnip Fields, a subdivision of another of the early private mountain landholdings. Under the track about 50 metres below here you can see a stone culvert made in the early 1860s for the original water supply line. There are several more of these between here and Halls Saddle.

Bill McDermott ran a farm on this property for many decades. A unmarried recluse, his only companion a dog called Brandy Shamrock McShane. Bill left his property once a week to buy groceries in town. Bill allowed his cattle to graze on the adjacent Ridgeway Reserve, leading to a long-running dispute with the Hobart City Council. On 7th February 1967 the Black Tuesday bushfires destroyed most of the farm, but 80-year-old Bill managed to save his home and his six cattle. He planned to rebuild, but only 10 days after the fire he was gored to death by one of his fire-traumatised bulls. The location of his homw, demolished by the Council, is marked each spring by blooming daffodils.

From Hobart City Council sign: The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

Add to Cart More Info

Halls Saddle - Pipeline Track

Halls Saddle - Pipeline Track

From the sign at Halls Saddle on the Pipeline Track.

Welcome to the Halls Saddle entrance to the Pipeline Track, an easy walking trail that follows the historic Pipeline to its source at the North-West Bay River.
Before the Europeans came to Tasmania in 1803-04, these mountain foothills were visited by Palawa people. They came here hunting game, but never travelled far from natural water sources. These two factors – food and water – determined the seasonal travel patterns of the Palawa.

Settlers were more demanding. As soon as they landed on western Derwent shores they had to think about a water supply for a growing community. An early supply from Hobart Rivulet was limited by the size of the rivulet and by property owners exercising prior rights. In 1860 the Hobart Town Corporation decided to tap the water from Mt Wellington’s southeastern slopes. This saddle joining the lower slopes of Mt Wellington and Chimney Pot Hill, to the east, is named after John Hall, an original landowner in the Fern Tree area who built the first Fern Tree Inn in 1861.

Halls Saddle was a key point in Hobart’s Mountain supply system. Water from streams flowing southeast had to be diverted across this saddle to reach the Sandy Bay Rivulat reservoirs at Waterworks Reserve, from which the city could obtain its water. From about 1940, virtually all water from mountain streams above the Pipeline Track was diverted near this point to the higher-level Ridgeway reservoir. Drinking water collected from Mount Wellington is still fed to the community through pipes that are directly under the walking track ahead.

The original road between Hobart and the Huon Valley wound up the Sandy Bay Rivulet to the north of here and across this sadlle. It is the route most likely used by Charles Darwin in his ascent of the mountain when he visited Hobart Town in 1836. He later complained that his guide had led him up the wetter, more difficult southern side of the mountain.

“Timber built, bark roof, stone chimney, two storeys with upper and lower verandahs likened to Hobart’s old double-decker trams.” Situated north from here on the Sandy Bay Rivulat, Fern Grove Hut was the only privately-built two-story timber hut near the Pipeline Track. Many huts were privately built on the mountain during the 1800s, but only one has survived; Lone Cabin near the Lenah Valley Track.

From Hobart City Council sign: The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

Add to Cart More Info

Gentle Annie Falls - Pipeline Track

Gentle Annie Falls - Pipeline Track

From the sign below Gentle Annie Falls at the Waterworks Reserve.

Before the Europeans came to Tasmania in 1803-04, these mountain foothills were visited by Palawa people. They came here hunting game, but never travelled far from natural water sources. These two factors – food and water – determined the seasonal travel patterns of the Palawa.

Settlers were more demanding. As soon as they landed on western Derwent shores they had to think about a water supply for a growing community. An early supply from Hobart Rivulet was limited by the size of the rivulet and by property owners exercising prior rights. In 1860 the Hobart Town Corporation decided to tap the water from Mt Wellington’s southeastern slopes. As you walk the Pipeline Track you can see evidence of changing construction techniques along the Pipeline Track with improving water management technologies. The first stages of construction (1861) used wooden and masonry troughing. Extensions and redevelopment use earthenware pipes (1873), cast iron pipes (1901) and steel and concrete pipes (from 1917).

If you look up at the stone outcrop you can see a channel cut into the natural sandstone, where water from the mountain cascaded down to the Upper Reservoir at Waterworks Reserve. The cascade soon became known as Gentle Annie Falls (possibly after “Gentle Annie” in the Irish folk song), a name which it has kept even [though] it has been dry since about 1940 when its water was re-directed to the higher-level Ridgeway Reservoir.

The local sandstone was also used for other pipeline works, including the stone aqueducts built at Fern Tree in 1881.To the right of the channel you can see a quarry from where building stone was cut.

From Hobart City Council sign: The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

Add to Cart More Info

Pipeline Track - 30 January 2008 - Ferntree Bower

Pipeline Track - 30 January 2008 - Ferntree Bower

Another quick walk after work tonight to forget about salary budgets. Walked along the Pipeline Track again for a way. Apparently the Ferntree Bower used to be a great beauty spot where people "promenaded". It's a little more modest these days. The nearby sign tells the story:

"When this part of Browns River became known as the Bower (later Fern Tree Bower) in the 1860s, the scene was very different from what it is today. A dam built across the river in 1862 made a pond, around which grew overhanging tree ferns. It bacame the Mountain's most famous beauty spot. people walked (or promenaded) along the track following the water line from the saddle at Fern Tree Inn to the Bower, where they could enjoy a leisurely picnic or a walk upstream to Silver Falls before heading home. Over time, rustic benches, tables and shelters were installed. In 1880 the Bower was the subject of controversy when the Hobart City Council removed trees to allow work to be done on new masonry troughing. The Council pointed out that the Bower was first and foremost a water collection point, but did take steps to lessen the visual impact of the tree removal.

…the sluice house and dam, along with picnic facilities and most of the natural fernery, disappeared in a devastating flash flood in 1960.

From Hobart City Council sign. The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

---

Plaque at

"FERN TREE BOWER
These inscribed stones were salvaged from the original water tower erected in 1861 and destroyed by the Great Flood of 23rd April 1960. This tablet is erected by the Hobart City Council to commemorate its rehabilitation in 1961."

---

This is a better picture of the "Wishing Well" a little further along the Pipeline Track.

Add to Cart More Info

Pipeline Track - 29 January 2008 - The Sluice House

Pipeline Track - 29 January 2008 - The Sluice House

Good short walk this evening along the Pipeline Track on the way home from work. The Sluice House stands just below the intersection of the Pipeline Track with Chimney Pot Hill Rd. This text appears on the nearby sign to explain it.

"This little building, known also as the "Valve House", was built in 1862 by mason John Gillon, who also built the receiving house and valve tower at the lower reservoir and dams at Browns River and Fork Creek. The cost of the whole construction was £63/7/- ($126.70 in modern currency). The hammer-dressed sandstone probably came from the outcrops at Gentle Annie Falls. The building contained a sluice gate made by the City Corporation, located directly above the original pipeline. The sluice could be raised or lowered to control flow through the pipe, allowing water to be diverted down the hillside to Sandy Bay Rivulet when work was required on the water line below this level. The diversion caused soil erosion because of the lack of a lined channel for the diverted water, though there is little sign of this now. At one point C.W. Hall, the owner of land below the sluice house, applied for compensation for soil loss, but failed on the basis that his steep, rocky land was unsuitable for cultivation.

From Hobart City Council sign. The Pipeline Interpretation Project. An initiative of the Fern Tree Community Association, supported by the Hobart City Council. Original research by Lindy Scripps.

---

The dressed stone which originally covered and housed the pipeline is visible in many places along the track.

---

Gentle Annie Falls drops away steeply down the hill to the Waterworks. It's a long time since water actually flowed down here.

Add to Cart More Info

Pipeline Track - 8 Jan 2008 - Christmas Bushes and a Wishing Well

Pipeline Track - 8 Jan 2008 - Christmas Bushes and a Wishing Well

Had a very pleasant, short, easy, after-work walk along the Pipeline Track on the way home. Nice and cool under the trees. The Wishing Well, a little way along the track, was built in the 1880s, and is still part of the water system for Ferntree and Kingborough. I quote from the sign nearby:

"The original Mountain water supply scheme ended here at Fork Creek. In 1862 John Gillon (who also built sluice houses at Browns River and Halls Saddle), supervised construction of a stone dam across Fork Creek, from which water was carried by wooden troughing to another dam at Browns River (the Bower). The troughing was replaced by pipes in 1868, when the water supply scheme was extended to Long Creek, a few kilometres to the south.

In 1881 there was a major addition to the Hobart water supply with the construction of a line from St Crispins Well to the south, and this called for construction of the "Wishing Well", in which water from Fork Creek joined the bigger flow from Plains Rivulet. The 1868 pipes to the Bower were then replaced by a 16 inch (40 cm) main. The well was fitted with a "bell-mouthed pipe, wire gauze screen, shut-off sluice and scour", according to a newspaper report of the works.

The original well had no safety precautions, although no human casualties are recorded. Before intake screens were installed, platypus, which occur in Mt Wellington streams, were known to drown in the well. The eminently practical reasons for building this structure did not stop people from ascribing to it the power to make wishes come true. For this to happen, according to local folklore, you must walk around the well three times after making your wish.

Look after our water! Throughout the history of the Pipeline Track, successive authorities have been concerned to protect catchments to ensure sustainability of the public drinking water source. Water from this pipeline is the only source of supply for Fern Tree and is a significant source for the Kingborough community. Your cooperation and care in helping to protect this supply are appreciated."

The sign credits Lindy Scripps with the research, and was erected by the Hobart City Council at the initiative of the Fren Tree Community Association. There are quite a number of similar signs along these tracks which give a good overview of the history of the Pipeline Track, its structures and the history of Hobart's water supply.

---

The Christmas Bushes, Prostanthera lasianthos, are quite appropriately in flower. The leaves have serrated edges and a minty scent when you crush them. The flowers are quite distinctive, being an attractive white and purple.

Add to Cart More Info

My girl's a corker!

My girl's a corker!

This old song was read to me years ago by Jim Wilson. Some readers may have met the short and bushy Jim when, between public service careers he drove the bushwalkers transport bus to places like Cockle Creek, Scotts Peak and other points west.

---

My girl's a corker, she's a bushwalker,
I buys her everything to keep her in style.
She's worth her weight in gold, my coal black baby,
Say boys, that's where my money goes.

When we go walkin' she does the talkin',
And when my arm's around her, how dem miles fly.
She does the cookin', I do the lookin',
Say boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of eyes just like two custard pies,
And when she looks at me I sure get a thrill
She's got a pair of lips just like potato chips,
Say boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a pair of legs, just like two whiskey kegs,
And when they knock together, oh what a sound!
She's got a pair of hips just like two battleships,
Say boys, that's where my money goes.

She's got a bulbous nose, just like a big red rose,
And when we camp at night, it really does shine,
She wears silk underwear, I wear my latest pair,
Say boys, that's where my money goes.

---

I acquired the words from the Walkers Song Book, compiled by The Kameruka Bushwalking Club and The Hobnails Bushwalking Club, published in Sydney in 1962.

Add to Cart More Info

Some history

Some history

Food List
Ten to eleven days - for a fairly strenuous trip.

---

	lb.	ozs.		lb.	ozs.
Tea		4	Sugar	2	0
Salt		2	Boiled Bacon	2	8
Dried Vegetables	2	0	Biscuits (Vita Wheat)	3	0
Cheese	1	0	Rolled Oats	1	4
Macaroni	1	0	Barley Sugar		8
Raisins and Sultanas	1	0	Dates	1	0
Dried Fruit	1	0	Egg Powder	1	0
Sunshine Milk		12	Butter	1	8
Oxo Cubes		4	Chocolate		8
Peanut Butter		8
			Total	21	2

Drawn from the Tasmanian Tramp, No 7. December 1946, the magazine of the Hobart Walking Club.

They were pretty hardy souls in those days!

Add to Cart More Info

Wildsports adverts

Wildsports adverts

These ads appeared in Outdoor magazines in the late 1980s, and were quite memorable. I reproduce them here for a bit of fun. Not sure who the artist(s) was(were) but much enjoyment was had trying to read these ads. I think these smallish jpegs are readable.

I found this link for Wildsports, but there's little information there. They do appear to be still trading however.

---

Summer Fun - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Apr/May 1987

---

Gear you can rely on - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Apr/May/Jun 1987

---

Wildsports Winter Ad - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Jun/Jul 1987

---

The Compleat Bushwalker - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1987. This is the ad with the Swiss Army Knife that has a "thing for putting things into horses hooves".

---

The Compleat Tourers - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Oct/Nov/Dec 1987

---

The Compleat Traveller - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jan/Feb/Mar 1988

---

The Very Cross Country Skier - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1988

Add to Cart More Info

Now is the winter of our discount tent

Now is the winter of our discount tent

This is from an old edition of Wild, page 27 of Issue 25, Winter 1987. The cartoon is apparently by Ian Gunn (Biography here), and has always amused me. I'm not sure of the origin of the word play, maybe Ian Gunn thought it up. It is said that it was first seen in an outdoor shop during a sale. It was used in "The Red Green Show" too, but maybe they saw it in an outdoor shop, as this cartoon predates the show. Ian Gunn's interpretation of it into pictures is priceless.

Add to Cart More Info

Mt Wellington - 30th June 2007

Mt Wellington - 30th June 2007

Changeable weather on Mt Wellington yesterday. I had a walk on the lower slopes, first up to the Springs and then back down to the Waterworks from Ferntree. Very cold wind blowing and a bit drizzly at times higher up. The sun was lovely later on, but the view from the Pipeline Track was of the mountain wreathed in misty rain. The BoM website shows the actual temperature never above freezing. The apparent summit temperature at 2:30pm was -12.8 degrees.

---

I noted that the pushbike riders continue to hurtle down shared tracks. This is despite the numerous signs reminding them to slow down (to walking pace) when they pass walkers. There are a lot of children and older people who would be very badly injured if one of these idiots connected with them. One passed me in the air a few months ago. I may have used the vernacular to remonstrate with him.

---

The aqueducts along the Pipeline Track are interesting. I noticed earlier that the shop had a map/brochure about the water supply infrastructure, and I must grab one sometime. The book I have, "The Early Water Supply Of Hobart" (Crawford and Ryan) says these aqueducts were completed in the 1880s, the larger one in 1881, to supply the newly built Upper Reservoir.

---

From a fungi point of view, the most interesting ones were these puffballs, a little way up the Fern Glade Track. I found the same ones quite high on the Mountain River Track in May. I haven't been able to identify them - unless they are a later form of Lycoperdon pyriforme which I found, clearly indentifiable, on the South Cape Bay Track. There are similarities, but neither these ones nor the ones on the Mountain River Track appeared to have the pimples lower down. I may have to return to get better photos.

Add to Cart More Info

Icehouses in the "Tasmanian Tramp"

Icehouses in the "Tasmanian Tramp"

The Tasmanian Tramp is the Hobart Walking Club's biennial bushwalking journal. Issue 21 from January 1974 contained an article by Jack Thwaites about the Icehouses. The following interesting points are made in the article.

• The original driver for the building of the icehouses was a desire for ice-cream.
• The first icehouse, the one highest up, shown in the photo in the photo, was built in the 1850s by convict probationers. It took a few months, and they also made the bridle path.
• The roof was made of turf and brushwood, to provide the necessary insulation.
• The upper icehouse has an outside measurement of 9.1m x 5.5m. It was 3.5m deep, 2.5m being below the surface. The walls are 1.2m thick. The volume of ice stored should thus have been approximately 68 cubic metres. I suppose this was about 60 tonnes of ice, if it was properly compacted, and this was just one of the icehouses.
• In 1974, it was possible to see the paving stones on the bridle track, near the lower icehouses, around the area where the track first levels out.
• The bushfires in 1967 revealed the lower icehouses, which had been hidden and long forgotten. In 1974, they were already being covered again.
• The upper icehouse is clear and easy located. The lower icehouses are more difficult to find. The lowest icehouse is right beside the new track, but it is easy to walk past it. See the map. It is 45m short of where the previous version of the Icehouse Track joins the current track, just after it starts to level out above the Springs. There is a gap in the brush beside the track, and you can step down into the bottom of the icehouse. The wall facing Hobart has collapsed a lot, but the others are partially intact. It might be worth clearing the scrub away from it.
• I haven't found the other 2 yet. The icehouses are shown on the Mt Wellington walk maps, so it may be possible to find them using these maps. I have a diagram from The Tasmanian Tramp, and this should be useful.

Previous posts on icehouses here and here.

---

Interestingly, the Walking Club have a list of harder daywalks. I'll have to see which ones I've done!

Add to Cart More Info

Icehouses

Icehouses

According to David Leaman's book, Walk Into History In Southern Tasmania, the icehouses were built between the 1850s and 1890s. The Governor, Sir William Denison had the idea. The icehouses are set into the ground, with thick drystone dolerite walls. There are several along the Icehouse Track, but the easiest to view is the uppermost one.

The icehouses had brushwood roofs, and in winter were packed tight with snow. Then in summer, blocks of ice were cut out and transported to Hobart by packhorse. The Icehouse Track still follows the bridle trail in places - apparently where it is least steep. Given the effort that must have gone into this whole enterprise, ice must have been in quite high demand, and I assume it commanded a pretty high price in 19th century Hobart.

---

Here's a link to an 1873 photograph taken from near the upper icehouse. I've got a photo of the left-hand rock formation, and I'll be checking out how much it has changed in the 130 years since then.

Add to Cart More Info

Gentle Annie Falls - 5 Feb 2007

Gentle Annie Falls - 5 Feb 2007

Not a very adventurous walk, but good for some exercise on the way home from work. Gentle Annie Falls run steeply downhill from the Pipeline Track to the Upper Reservoir at Waterworks Reserve. Basically here there is a channel cut into the sandstone, down which the water used to flow off Mt Wellington. Here you can see the huge amount of work that went into the construction of Hobart's water supply. There are steps cut much of the way up the side of the "Falls". The water hasn't flowed down here since 1940 apparently, so the "Falls" are now dry. Here's a picture of water flowing down the falls from about 1915.

Add to Cart More Info