Queenstown

More miners than Queens here, let me tell you!

After a faster than expected packup in Somerset on Boxing Day (after 6 days there we had strewn stuff everywhere!), we hit the road heading southwest for our West Coast Wilderness adventures.

Lachie couldn't resist wetting his line
in the Murchison Dam

We drove through some very rugged country and turned off to visit the Murchison Dam just outside Tullah, where Lachie couldn't resist the fishing lure while we had morning tea. He didn't catch anything but nor did he fall over the edge of the dam so it wasn't a completely disastrous expedition.

We drove through lots more gorges and wild forests - Tasmania does wilderness very well! - before the bare, rocky hills around Queenstown came into view. We were worried about getting a site for a couple of nights, but the park was absolutely empty and we managed to set up before a late lunch in the rain.

It was very cold so we occupied ourselves inside for a while. Pap drove the Prado over to the TV room where he and Dave watched the cricket and Lachie followed them when he caught a whiff of a pool table. The others were still absorbed in the Christmas Lego.

Ella, Lachie, Gran and I went for a walk in the evening when the rain had cleared. The late afternoon sun on the surrounding hills was lovely and we paused to take some photos. Some bloke took exception to us stopping outside his castle (read tiny fettler's cottage surrounded by rubbish and dead car bodies) and gave us some very graphic suggestions on how to fill our time in Queenstown. We declined his kind offers and hurried back to camp, suddenly realising that it was a dodgy looking area and no-one else seemed to be around.

The hills around Queenstown, laid bare by 100 years of copper mining

Taking on 1500 litres of water at Lynchford ready for the
climb up the rack and pinion section of the track

We were booked on the West Coast Wilderness Railway the next morning, an amazing steam and diesel locomotive rack and pinion journey through the steepest and wildest country to have track laid in Australia. At one stage in the journey the gradient is 1:14, which is the steepest in the Southern Hemisphere. The Church Engineering Department were in heaven at the first station where the engineer explained the workings of every lever and gauge to them. The excellent tour guide gave us non-stop commentary about the railway and the area, which was really interesting. Some of the passengers tried gold panning at Lynchford, but even the thought of a gold nugget could not induce us to put our hands into the water. It was utterly freezing! We could not imagine how the navvies lived long enough to build a railway in this wilderness.

Tree Ferns at Rinadeena Saddle

The train made another stop at Rinadeena Saddle Station where we admired the King Billy Pine trees and tasted Leatherwood honey. The Leatherwood trees were in bloom and easily recognisable in the gorges. The railway line followed the King River Gorge from this point and we had fabulous views of the gorge and the river.  At Dubbil Barril Station we changed trains and the kids were fascinated watching the engines turned by manpower on the turntable. After lunch, the Diesel locomotive took us through the rest of the gorge, across quarter-mile bridge and down towards MacQuarie Harbour.

King Billy Pine and Leatherwood
honey

At the end of the line we arrived at Strahan (pronounced Strawn, we discovered!) and had an hour and a half sightseeing in the lovely village.

Strahan scenery

We took a tour of the Murchison's Huon Pine sawmill, being run by the fourth generation. A reclaimed huon pine log was being sawn on 100 year old equipment which was rather interesting. The boys found that they had to have a piece of huon pine and spent ages choosing an offcut from the $1 box. Marcus thinks he will make a boat with his, although we think it will make a far better chock for the caravan! The timber workshop next door was full of timber carvings, furniture and artefacts and did not have a $1 box! The bus arrived at 4 p.m. and we took an hour to drive the 35 kms through the tight curves to Queenstown.

It cooled down again quickly in the valley and we were all pretty pleased to be zipped up in warm sleeping bags. Pap thought it was so cold that he expected to find a glacier creeping down the hills but we were a couple of million years too late for that experience!

Stay tuned ...