Here's a piece I wrote some time ago . . .
Tasmania, that not-so-small island off the south eastern corner of Australia, is often the butt of jokes by “mainlanders” who quip about its rural atmosphere and laidback social attitude. Those qualities make it the perfect destination for those of us seeking peace and quiet whilst being surrounded by scenic beauty. As a South African having to deal with the weak Rand it also helps that the Aussie $ is half the strength of the Euro and Pound!
Our equipment included a DSLR, 17-35mm wide angle lens, and 70-200mm lens, all packed into a Lowepro Mini Trekker AW together with a small video camera and a small P&S digicam. For storage we used CF memory cards, ten of them in all, as this helped reduce the number of batteries, cables, etc.
Over a third of Tasmania is a World Heritage Site, peppered with forest trails, rivers and mountain lakes. It provides an excellent “balance” between easily accessable scenic beauty for non-hikers, the elderly, the unfit, or the serious mountain trail hiker. The climate is cool to cold, and wet, pretty similar to the south island of New Zealand. The forests are dense and dark making for some challenging photo exposures.
We used Hobart, the capitol, situated down on the south eastern portions of the island as a base for day trips to :
• the broader Tasman Peninsula with its network of islands, bays and little fishing harbours. It included the strange Tessolated Pavement geological feature, essentially a perfectly symmetrical area of paving going into the sea, created entirely by nature.
• the historic town of Richmond with its extensive network of stone houses, bridges and gaols. Jails feature a lot in Tasmania, probably because it was an infamous penal colony. On the Tasman Peninsula convicts were one an island, off an island (Tasmania), off another island (Australia), in the middle of two oceans. Escaping didn’t hold too many prospects!
• the Port Arthur penal colony set on a large tract of land allowing one to ramble about all day long in search of good angles and light. For those interested in old buildings dripping with history it is a photographic paradise. Add in rambling gardens and a harbour and one is like a kid in a sandbox.
• the fruit growing Huon Valley with its "honesty boxes" on the roadside, where local farmers display their fruit and veggies for sale. There is no-one in sight, and all one does is take a bag of apples, and place the money in a tin. Try doing that in SA. The Huon also boasts of an AirWalk, an elevated set of walkways perched up in the treetops providing a rather unique view of the forest and river below.
We timed our stay in Hobart to include the wonderful Saturday Salamanca Street Market with some 1.5km of food and craft stalls. The town also offers a large botanical garden and dramatic views from the top of Mt.Wellington (shown on the previous page). Being a fascinating old harbour, Hobart has more fish shops than you can waggle a “slap chip” at, so seafood was the order of every day!
Travelling west along the Lyall Highway through the World Heritage region we encountered numerous of their "Great Short Walks" which are signposted, and fully described in a free brochure from the Tasmanian Tourism website. Mt.Fields National Park, Russell Falls, and Lake St.Clair all offered boardwalks, or hardened trails, to some beautiful scenic spots and waterfalls. At Derwent Bridge we were amazed and enthralled by the clearest night skies we have ever seen!
On the Tassie west coast, in the pocket-sized town of Strahan, we booked a Heritage Rail trip on a restored, cog driven, forestry steam train, last used over a century ago for logging and now fully restored. The famous day long Gordon River Cruise is also located here. In stark contrast is the old copper mining town of Queenstown where un-managed use of acid during the mining process a century ago has left the area devoid of any growth. The rivers do not have a single living thing in them, and are not expected to for another hundred years. It stands as a reminder to all who pass through the town how easily such a pristine area can be destroyed, and permanently so!
Perhaps the only other negative of Tassie is that at dusk, and later, the natural wildlife comes out of the bush onto the warm roads. Every evening we would have to slow down to 40km/h as paddimelons, echidnas, wombats, Tasmanian devils, and possoms loitered around "their" roads! It made for some very “alert” driving! It was not uncommon to return to our bungalow in the evening and find a wombat or possom mooching about in the dark.
Our next scenic stop-over in Tassie came in the centre of the island, at the Cradle Mountain National Park, a harsh, but incredibly scenic environment where it can snow on any day of the year. Once again, it was liberally sprinkled with accessable boardwalks and trails which we tackled with gusto! On the loop back to Hobart we passed through Launceston and its vineyards located along the Tamar River (the title banner photo).
Tasmania is a landscape photographers destination, but there is a healthy dose of old and character filled architecture to be had. Wide-angle lenses would tend to rule although a medium zoom comes in handy. There were times we would have liked a 10-12mm wide angle lens (our widest was 17mm), but we never needed anything longer than 200mm. Fast lenses help with the darker forest scenes, and ND filters would allow for some interesting waterfall shots. Tripods are useful, but surprisingly we could have got a lot better use from a clamp mount (to use on railings, hand rails, tree stumps, etc) which would have been less bulky and more practical. The weather has to be taken into consideration. Whilst a rain proof camera is the ultimate solution one can get by perfectly OK with a pro-sumer DSLR, provided you have an all weather bag.
Tasmania is a fascinating and varied photographic destination, and a comfortable and easy place to spend time in natural environments.