Matt Down Under

Over the Easter holidays I went to Maria Island for a week, an island off Tasmania’s East Coast, between the Tasman Peninsula and Freycinet. In 2008 I visited Maria Island for the first time, as a sidetrip when I was cycling around Tasmania for two weeks. It was the most fascinating place I had ever been to, for a European who wasn’t used to such an abundance of wildlife it felt like a Jurassic Park. An uninhabited island where you literally share your campsite with kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and dozens of other mammals and birds, with great mountains and walking tracks, pristine beaches and an interesting history.

Two years later, having seen much of Tasmania in the meantime, I still remembered Maria Island as the most beautiful place I had ever visited, so I had a strong wish to visit the island again. I love the Tasmanian East Coast, the climate is rather stable and mild compared to the Southwest for example, where the only stable thing about the weather is the fact that it is not stable. When I found out there were 5 days of Easter holiday upcoming, I quickly took an additional day off and booked all transport.

Some history and facts about Maria Island

A few simplified bits and pieces from the island’s history, to show why it is such an interesting place to be. Parts are taken from the great Wikipedia article.

• Before the colonial area, Maria Island was frequently visited by Aboriginal people. Evidence is still present, like the shell middens that can be seen at Chinamans Bay.
• The island was then mostly used for convict settlements, industrial work and farming. There are still ruins of former convict cells visible near Encampment Cove, and the Penitentiary in Darlington, the only (former) town on the island, is used for accomodation today.
• Today no one lives on the island, except for the Parks and Wildlife staff. The whole island is National Park. Around 1970 the state government started to aquire all properties on the island and declared it a National Park in order to protect wildlife and birds.
• You can find buildings and ruins all over the island that reveal the island’s industrial history as well as the following period when it was mostly used for farming. Old farming equipment can still be found. Some buildings or ruins go back as far as 1825.
• Several species were introduced to the island that are not endemic to Tasmania or the island itself, e.g. the Eastern Grey Kangaroo or Bennett’s Wallabies. Even though they are a great tourist attraction and probaby half of my enthusiasm comes from the kangaroos (I just love them), from today’s conservation point of view this probably wasn’t the brightest idea as their population quickly exploded.
• Apparently there is a population of Tasmanian Devils on the island that is isolated from the public. It is an attempt to save the devils from extinction through the facial tumor disease they are facing on the mainland. I recently read in the newspaper that they are planning to release some of them on the island later this year.
• You can either book accomodation in the Penitentiary or camp on one of the 3 official campsites across the island. In Darlington there are good facilities, even warm showers (coin-operated).
• There are enough tracks, highlights and mountains to keep you entertained for a week.

If you time your stay wisely (not during school holidays, public holidays or on weekends) there’s a good chance there will only be a handful of people on the island. It’s a very cool feeling to have an uninhabited island full of wildlife and spectacular cliffs almost for yourself.

I added a new photo gallery on my Picasa account here.