Heading North West

  Deloraine, Tasmania, Australia
Friday, April 17, 2009

The country town of Deloraine was our next base for a few days and what a gem it turned out to be. It is Tasmania's largest inland town and has many faithfully restored Georgian & Victorian buildings.

Deloraine riverside caravan park

The caravan park is spread out along the grassy banks of the Mersey River which runs right through the centre of the town. We had a spot in the shade of a walnut tree; unfortunately they were not quite ready to pick and eat although the ducks kept trying, unsuccessfully, to eat the windfalls.

Under the walnut tree

This park is operated by Apex and the profits go back into the local community. They, together with Rotary and Lions, have built many facilities for locals and tourists to use. There are riverside paths and 2 pedestrian bridges over the river so one can stroll around. The town has all the facilities a traveller needs but is also very arts orientated with art galleries, craft and antique shops, a sculpture trail and also has a very 'involved' community. One of the highlights is the 'Yarns' artwork in silk. This was a community project worked on by 300 people and took 10,000 hours to complete. It comprises 4 panels depicting the history, flora and fauna of the area in the 4 seasons of the year. Each panel measures around 4 X 4 metres so is a very striking and impressive work of art.

We were lucky to be there for a concert by Pierre Bensussan, a world-renowned guitarist from France. He was in Australia to appear at the National Folk Festival in Canberra at Easter but has a friend in Deloraine so was persuaded to do a concert in the Little Theatre there. What a treat as he is an amazing artist and performer as well as being technically brilliant on the guitar. Our evening out was made even more special on spotting a Platypus (our first in Tassie) swimming along as we walked, in the moonlight, along the river bank back to our caravan.

Huntsmans Lake

 From our peaceful base we explored the surrounding area; yet more lakes for fishing and 'to stay' next time and beautiful bush-walks.

David's hat just blew off

One memorable walk was to Alum Cliffs lookout on a very windy day as David lost his hat; it simply blew away into the distance never to be seen again.

Alum Cliffs lookout near Mole Creek

On to the north coast to Burnie and an exposed, oceanfront camp at Cooee Point.

Cooee Point, Burnie

This is another interesting town full of surprises. It has many buildings in the Art Deco style making a pleasant stroll around town. Our unexpected favourite was  'Creative Paper' to which David accompanied me with reluctance but ended up being impressed by. It is a wonderful success story in this world of 'doom and gloom'; the company was started in 1996 by Darren Simpson whose career started when he joined a training scheme for getting long term unemployed people ready for work and he has been making paper by hand ever since. He is locally born and, at times, had to work on a voluntary basis to keep the place going. Now the company makes paper from such unusual recycled materials as 'roo poo', denim jeans, cotton fabric, plant fibre and the latest; local Spreyton apples.

Creative Paper, Burnie 2

Darren has also involved local artists and the display of life-size papier mache figures is beautiful. We joined a tour with Darren and made a sheet of paper each, complete with watermark. I did an echidna and David a kangaroo. A most interesting visit.

Along the coast from Burnie is a town called Penguin; an interesting and attractive seaside place to visit as you may gather from the photos.

Penguin

Penguin

More photos in the album if you haven't already 'got the picture' of the town's theme.

In Tasmania local food producers are never very far away and here we visited  a cheese factory and also a farmers market at nearby Wynyard. One fruit stall had punnets of tiny, fragrant, rose-coloured berries for sale. On enquiring we were informed that they are 'Tazziberries' (Myrtus ugni). We had never heard of them and, apparently, they are native to Chile. They have an excellent flavour being sweet and slightly fragrant. We have not seen them before or since but would love to eat them again. David did not have much luck catching edible-size fish so we visited a local salmon farm, '41degrees south', to purchase some locally hot-smoked salmon; delicious.

Fresh Meat

We also visited a local country butcher/abattoir to buy meat; probably fresh as you may judge if you click on the photo.

Our next stop was Latrobe; self proclaimed 'Platypus Capital of the world'. Another attractive, inland country town with a river running through it and, on our evening stroll, we were lucky enough to be able to watch a platypus swimming in the river and follow it for quite some time. I think they are my favourite creatures and it is so thrilling to see one.

2 other towns in this area that we enjoyed are Sheffield and Wilmot; 

Up until the 1980s Sheffield was a typical rural Tasmanian town facing decline until they followed the inspiration of Chemainus, a small saw-milling town on Vancouver Island in Canada.

Sheffield Murals

They embarked on a project to paint their district's pioneering history on their walls.

Sheffield Murals

Now they are enjoying a surge in tourism and even have an annual 'Mural Fest' when artists compete to have their mural added to the collection.

Sheffield Mural Fest

We were there during the festival and voted in 'The People's Choice' but neither of our picks won either that or the official judge's choice. So much for our artistic sides. Maybe we should stick to bush-walking and fishing.

Wilmot is another village that is trying to reinvent itself for tourists and has a novelty mail-box trail.

Wilmot Mailbox Trail 3

Most colourful and great fun. Thay also have the Original Coles Store; apparently owned and run by the father of G J Coles who founded the Coles stores.

Coles store interior, Wilmot

Village notice board Wilmot

This notice board outside the store caught our eye; not the usual missing cats or dogs out here in the Tasmanian countryside.



What a lot of touristy things we have been doing. We are now ready to get back into the wilderness again; the rivers and forests of the wild west await us.