Vino Con Vino: Wild Western Tasmania

After exploring all those waterfalls, we spent one night near the center of Tasmania at Ratho Farm (Bothwell), which is home to Australia’s oldest golf course. The farm has an interesting history, which we learned about during dinner from the host who has family connections going back generations. The land was settled by Scottish immigrants with the help of free convict labor. The family’s extensive records have been studied to produce a thorough chronicle of how difficult life was in colonial Tasmania in the mid 1800’s. It sounded fascinating and awful all at once. Even more curious was our dinner companion, Daniel, who was Swiss and has not only traveled all over the world but has also visited all 50 US states!

The next day, we headed west to ring in 2024 in Queenstown, an old mining town with a tragic accident in its history. To this day, you can't drink the water in this area due to the extensive pollution caused by years of mining activity.

On our way we made many stops. The most unique was at “The Wall,” an art exhibition literally in the middle of nowhere. It was a worthy pause to see one man’s passion project that includes 100 carved wood panels that tell the region’s history. No photos permitted inside though.

We stopped at the Lake St. Clair National Park to hike the Larmairremener Tabelti trail, which had markers describing the Aboriginal people who lived in the area, the Watersmeet walk through the confluence of the Cuvier and Hugel rivers, and another loop to Platypus Bay, where we learned more about platypus but still did not see one (they are elusive creatures). We did see an echidna – the platypus’s closest relative – on the trail though.

Two more stops included Frenchman’s Cap Suspended Bridge and Nelsons Falls. The number of waterfalls to see in Tasmania is amazing.

It was a really busy day!

Using Queenstown as a base, we visited Strahan (pronounced Strawn), where we enjoyed a performance of “The Ship That Never Was,” the longest running play in Australia. It is a quirky performance by amateurs about the last ship built on Sarah Island – likely the worst convict settlement as it was filled with those that were convicted of additional crimes while already being convicts.

The next day we had an amazing cruise excursion out to Sarah Island and down the Gordon River, where we also explored the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, a Wilderness World Heritage area. The guides did a terrific job describing the harsh life on Sarah island and explaining the unique flora that the Aboriginal people relied on to live in the wilderness.