"Park Full!"

Strahan really is a pretty little town with some nice buildings, in particular the Post Office, built around 1900, and on the foreshore.

Mainly a tourist town, I would imagine it would be pretty deserted in the winter, when a south westerly wind would whip through here. But at the moment there is a lot going on to take advantage of the summer visitors, including seaplane and helicopter trips over the forests and hills nearby. 

We made our way north to “Cradle Country”, we were hoping to have a day at Cradle Mountain, one of the highest mountains in Tasmania at 1545 mtrs, however when we arrived there we found a sign which said “Park Full”! That was 10 o’clock in the morning and obviously tourists come here early.

So we had to satisfy ourselves with a photo from a distance, and made our way north to the coast, and a little town called Wynyard. The weather really has changed, the temperature was down to 18c, and during the night fell down to 10c. In addition there is a strong wind, so it feels a lot colder.

There are bush fires burning to the west of us, about 25kms away, which the strong wind is fanning and making difficult to control.

We booked into a lovely cottage in a village called Boat Harbour, which has neither a boat nor a harbour as far as we have seen, our cottage is one of a group that have roses round the door and lovely gardens about the site. But it was bl**** cold last night!

A trip along the coast was the order of today, and as we travelled we could see more bush fires in the hills to the south of the Bass highway. The wind dropped slightly during the night, and turned a little, however fires are still not under control. At one point there was alarm that the Bass highway could be cut, however the fire turned just in time.

A nice small town called Stanley sits on a headland which protrudes into the Bass Strait, overlooked by a circular hill called The Nut.  On a bluff also overlooking the town is Highfield, an old house originally built by the Van Dieman’s Land Company. They came to this area in 1824 to rear sheep for wool, but very soon found that the land was not suitable for that. However once the land had been cleared.

Built by convicts, Highfield enjoys an enviable view across Stanley and the bay it nestles on, and is an elegant example of colonial architecture of it’s time.

Returning along the Bass highway we found that the wind had once again turned to come from the south east, and strengthened to around 20 – 30 knots. The bushfires are still burning strongly, and we spotted a large helicopter dropping water on the worst flames. Smoke billowed across the road, and I understand fire crews of 15 engines are out fighting.

Most of Tasmania’s fire crews are volunteers, as the island is so rural, and at the moment they are working long hours to try to contain the 50 or so fires burning throughout the state.

We are in no danger here, as the country between us and the fire is open, mainly farmland. However we hope that they will be able to control it soon.