February 2024 - Lagoon of Islands

Tasmania's Lagoon of Islands is not widely known. It is a little known hydro reserve in the Steppes, a wind swept and lonely area up on the edge of the Tasmanian highlands.

Here are some interesting snippets about how the Lagoon was first destroyed, and then rehabilitated, by Hydro Tasmania.

YouTube story of the restoration

ABC News story 22 April 2023 – restoration successful Tasmania's Lagoon of Islands is back to a healthy state after decades of poor water quality

Most of us hadn't been to the lagoon before, so it was with some anticipation that we (Wayne, Gerwyn, Di, Bob, Kat and Philip) met at the remote car parking area. Note: Apart from a little red plastic stick, the turnoff is not signed on Interlaken Road (another place many of us had not visited before), so navigating to the GPS coordinates is advised: -42.114668, 146.933985.
We found a boom gate across the boundary of the reserve, and that parking here suits SUVs and high wheelbase vehicles.
We headed off on a perfect cool summer day (after a heatwave the day before), glad that the fires to the west of us seemed to be under control and that their smoke was not reaching the lagoon. We were well prepared with sturdy shoes, gaiters and walking poles, wary of snakes. The water levels were lower than when Kat and Philip had visited previously (in June), and we were able to skirt the lagoon more closely, making a slightly shorter walk - 12km today.
It was fascinating to see how this previously dammed lagoon is slowly rehabilitating itself into a natural marshy wetland and wildlife reserve.
I think it's fair to say we enjoyed the first half of the walk more than the second half. On the eastern side we could see a good supply of waterbirds at home.
There was a large beach!
And a sandy bank behind which we could see the green grass and a tidemark showing where a smaller lagoon had been until recently.
The dune features some beautiful gums.
Back at the lagoon we saw several wombat homes.
After a short stop around the halfway mark for lunch, we continued around the shoreline, where Kat almost stepped on a snake! Apart from that, the main wildlife of interest on the western shore were sheep grazing (a large flock) and wild deer (a few) scurrying away into the hills.
The last section took us through some dry bushland.
And it was good to reach our vehicles and have another snack.

Three headed back home, while three of us continued the adventure by heading further along Interlaken Road (more gravel and really this felt quite remote, almost lawless) to the historic country town of Oatlands for a mini getaway. We had a delectable afternoon tea at Heritage on High Street, then some entertaining drinks and dinner at The Imbibers. Di was comfortable at the Kentish Hotel while Gerwyn and Wayne enjoyed their motorhome at the lakeside campground. On the (very) quiet Saturday morning, Di enjoyed the self-guided heritage walk along the High Street, admiring the well restored Georgian buildings.

January 2024 - Randalls Bay

A new start in 2024 – our name and walking day. Friday 26 January pioneered the re-brand with two short walks at Randalls Bay, followed by an overnight camp at Garden Island Creek. The six walkers/campers were Angie, Di, Gerwyn, Wayne and co-organisers Fin and Summa. The meeting time was 10am at the Randalls Bay picnic shelter.

From here we headed along Randalls Beach to start Walk 1 - Sugarloaf Hill circuit walk. This well-formed track is the work of the Friends of Randalls Bay volunteer group.

It is a loop with lovely views over Randalls Bay from the trig point at the top. It is best done in a clockwise direction and the uphill part is a gentle grade. Along the route there is interpretation signage, and a feature dam where we heard croaking frogs.

There was fruitcake, the buskwalker's friend.
The downhill section is steeper and features many zig zags through the dry schlerophyll forest, habitat of the endangered Swift Parrot and Masked Owl. At a leisurely pace it took close to 2.5 hours to finish the walk, including retracing our steps along the beach to the picnic shelter. There we welcomed Kat, and over lunch she shared her hair-raising tree pruning tale. Although she suffered a bad fall and needed an ambulance (and fire brigade!) to be rescued, it could have been much worse. She reported no broken bones or damaged organs which was a great outcome from the accident.

Wishing Kat a speedy recovery we left the picnic shelter and walked in the opposite direction to start Walk 2 - Mickey’s Beach. This is an out and back, flat walk (after an initial set of steps up to the ridgeline) and follows the coast.
This is a shorter walk and is signed as 1 hour return. It is well signed in both directions.

We descended to the quiet little beach and spent some time exploring, which included fossicking amongst the rocks and admiring the views.

We were amazed by the iron inclusions in the sandstone and the heavy weathering of the sandstone cliffs.

If you don’t want to walk there is also road access to Mickey’s Beach. Wayne and Summa investigated the carpark for camping potential before we all turned around and strolled back to the picnic shelter. On the way back we also strolled to the end of the headland to look out over the lower Huon River.
There was some very healthy looking giant kelp waving in the surges and Angie found a midden at last.

Having finished our walking, the fun continued as we convoyed our way along toward Garden Island Creek. Fin’s relatives had kindly offered the use of their shack and paddock for our overnight camp. We made use of the shed’s large verandah to enjoy each other’s company over a well catered BBQ dinner. Gerwyn showed her talents as practised cook around an open fire - marshmallows anyone?

The evening's commentary was lively as we enjoyed each other’s company. Topics included Wordle, the wording of the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and the Australian Open (yes, Djokovic did get knocked out). Even some spirited singing of old almost-forgotten pop songs! All in all, a splendid start to 2024!

December 2023 - Chauncy Vale

Our November walk got bumped because of nasty weather. Lyn organised this visit to historic Chauncy Vale, just off the highway at Bagdad. Most of us have driven past the signs pointing to Chauncy Vale for years and many have wondered what this reserve and the walks here were like. We'd heard of "They Found a Cave" (children's book and movie) and that Nan Chauncy was quite a significant figure in both children's literature and conservation activism. But we'd not actually been here before. Our group today was Lyn, Prem, Di, Angie, Fin, Caroline, Bob and Wayne. Angie and Di had done some homework by reading Nan Chauncy's biography, and can recommend it as a nice easy read:
We gathered at the information shelter and read some of the well-presented displays. Lyn had phoned ahead and arranged for us to get access to Day Dawn, the actual cottage where Nan Chauncy raised her family and wrote her books, which is now a museum. The young couple who have the live-in caretaker role in the reserve came to collect us and guide us to the house.
Dominating the front of the quaint country cottage is a 105 year old pine tree - planted in 1918 to celebrate the Armistice. It is very healthy looking! The garden around the cottage is mowed by wallabies and a few early plants struggle on. The cottage was built in slipform concrete, one of the earliest examples in Australia, by Nan's engineer brother. It is because it is so solid that the cottage is basically intact, even though over a hundred years old. The livingroom was also the workroom:
and still contains her actual typewriter and book collection.
We were old enough to recognise from our childhoods quite a few objects in the house that our guides had no idea about.
The master bedroom:
and the kids slept on the verandah:
We finally managed to tear ourselves away, and headed back to the information displays.
We hopped back in our cars and drove a little way along the road to the Meeting Room, where there is a barbecue and outdoor eating facilites, also a clean and tidy lounge/meeting room that can be booked for events. We were at the "You Are Here" point in this map:
We set off to the right along the Caves Loop Track (the green track on the above map). This pretty path rises up to cut across the front of some amazing cliffs, studded with caves.
Some of us were more adventurous than others!
Angie was sent in to examine some attractive handprints, and pronounced them to be fairly young.
We returned to the main trail, the Rivulet Track (red track on the map) and turned right towards Guyvy's Lagoon (the orange track). The trail was well maintained, easy walking, and passed through some nice dry schlerophyll bush.
There were plenty of birds around, also wallabies, frogs in the ponds and some evidence of wombats. Guyvy's Lagoon was totally dry, but the lookout seat at the top of the hill was very pleasant.
Heading back we passed Eve's Bath, where Nan's grand daughter Eve liked to swim, and it does look like it would be a nice spot for a swim when there is more water about.
After that we came upon a recent installation - the Wombat Woodland Walk.
Some excellent new bridges have been built over the creek, and lots of cute carvings and wombat sculptures are dotted around the area. This would be a great place to bring kids to enjoy the bush and to learn something about the animals and plants here.
Back at the Meeting Room Bob fired up the barbie and soon the table was overflowing with food, salads and wines to share, and our end of year lunch was underway.
Wayne amazed us with a Christmas pudding cooked on the spot in his motorhome, served with custard! What a warm and heartening way to finish our walking and talking year, sharing stories and personal histories with good friends. We headed home full of good cheer.