Tasmanian Tales has now been released as a movie on YouTube and as a book through Blurb.
Tasmania. Australia’s island state. It’s the little bit off of the south-eastern coast that most people forget about. So what’s it all about then? Join me as I travel the island and make written and photographic observations as I do so.
More Tales from Tasmania
Salamanca Place – this row of old colonial warehouses are the remnant of Hobart’s whaling history and were built in the 1830’s. The area was originally called the Cottage Green, but after the Duke of Wellington defeated 40,000 French men in forty minutes at the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 it was renamed in a fit of patriotic pride. Wellington was very popular in Hobart, he also gave his name to the mountain. As usual with anything historic or cultural in Australia the area fell into disuse and ruin and things stayed that way until the 1970’s when the penny dropped and someone realized that if the place was regenerated it might bring in some money. By the 1990’s the old quarry site behind the warehouse was also developed into a sheltered public square with shops and cafe and now the whole area is really the cultural and social area for tourists and locals alike.
In 1972 the town council thought that a Saturday market in Salamanca place would be just great. So the first market opened with just 12 stalls. Today there are some 300 stalls and it is reckoned that the market attracts 25,000-40,000 visitors every Saturday. The first stalls were granted on a temporary first come first served basis but now the permanent stallholders can pay up to $100,000 AUD for their occupancy rights.
The stalls now sell hippyware, tourist tack, fruit and veg, craft ware, art, secondhand clothes and all manner of other stuff most of which is exorbitantly priced, but with leases going for so much they’ve got to make a living somehow. To add to all this there is whole host of enthusiastic and energetic buskers who make up for a lack of talent with volume of sound. If all this sounds as if I’m down on the place, I’m actually not because what all this means is that the market is a Mecca for people watchers. Never mind the weather, its on every Saturday. As the saying goes “Be there or be square.”.
Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, sits at the feet of Mount Wellington. At 1270m, or 4166 feet it certainly has a presence. When the frequent rain or storm clouds gathering round its summit it has a brooding almost menacing presence, yet when the sun’s setting rays are reflected off the face then it appears gold, magnificent and verging on benevolent. It is quite something to behold.
During our recent visit to Tassie we spent a while in Hobart and our digs gave us magnificent views of the mountain. It was what we woke up to in the morning, and what we went to bed with at night. I never tired of the infinite variations on the view as the clouds and the sun interplayed with the surface. Tasmania also has a lot of deciduous trees and so we were also treated to a golden autumnal display. It was a challenge to try to capture the majesty of the mountain, the glorious colours, and the ever-changing cloudscape, especially with limited equipment, I had no tripod nor neutral density graduated filters, and the m4/3 Olympus Pen EP-2 has a limited dynamic range. So it was a case of bracketing exposures and shooting like crazy. It also meant that I had no real feed back on how my images were on the rear LCD screen as they weren’t representative of the final image.
The mountain is criss crossed with walking tracks, but we took the easy option and drove to the summit, or the Pinnacle as it is officially known. There is a viewing deck that gives magnificent panoramic views out over the city and further, but, and there is always a but, the weather has to be good for this with no cloud cover. We were lucky and were rewarded with stunning vistas. Be warned it is also a lot colder on top of the mountain than in the city, according to the weather bureau 8℃ cooler, so on a winter’s day like we had it can be bitterly cold. The white patches in the shot below is ice and it was around midday.
Also near where we were staying was the Cascade Brewery, a magnificent piece of Tasmania Gothic architecture, and it seemed perfectly placed – a majestic building under a majestic mountain.
I’ve now finished all the photo processing so blog posts won’t be so few and far between now. Having said that I haven’t even looked at the video footage yet.
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