Gordon River Cruise

We were up and out early this morning, having booked a cruise on the Gordon River first thing. 

I was woken by the birds shouting and hollering, just as it was getting light (0509hrs). The sky was beginning to turn orange, the ocean was glazed and silver, and the air was still. Priceless, and something for which there is no match; first light is a special time wherever you are, the promise of a new day.

Anyway, the cruise. The boat headed out to The Heads, the place where the Gordon River and Port Macquarie Basin meet the Ocean proper. This was a very dangerous place for the early ships because of the turbulent waters which also churned up the seabed, rendering many of the channels too shallow. And this was uncharted water too at the time, so it was a double whammy.

According to the captain, this was one of the calmest days for a few weeks so we were exceptionally lucky. The water was still, very little wind, and we zipped along at 26 knots, getting close up looks at the several islands in the Basin, as well as the fish farms located there. Its mostly salmon and Ocean trout, which are fed a very high protein diet of bait fish pellets and grow very quickly, giant super fish.

The water both in the Ocean and up the rivers looks brown and dirty but it’s not; the colour is down to the tanin which leaches out of the soil. 

And the former sea level can be seen on surrounding rock faces, a clear line having been worn thousands of years ago by waves lapping against them.

But the best sea creatures today were dolphins which appeared suddenly and swam alongside us for several minutes, keeping pace with the ship, jumping in and out of the water and generally putting on a show.

A particularly nasty former convict island is in the Basin; Sarah Island, a prison island for repeat offenders. We got off the boat here and had a good walk around.

Apparently, the island was heavily wooded but they cut down the trees when they turned it into a prison. Big mistake as there was then no shelter from the wind, which lies right in the path of the roaring forties, coming across from South America. Its bad enough in summer and spring but the winter became unbearable as a result, for staff as well as convicts. 

A part solution was to build a 12 m high fence right round the place, but that is long gone, having blown away or rotted or both. But the convicts had to live with wooden screens separating buildings in an attempt to make it slightly more survivable.

The whole of the east side of the place was built up Blue Gum was brought across from the main island lashed between two boats as it is so dense and does not float. What with Huon Pine, which is light but high in oil content, it became a ship building haven. But these had to be kept locked to a cliff to stop convicts nicking a ship and escaping, although a gang did do just that later on. For various reasons, they were left there with no supervision, expected to build a ship and then it sail it to Hobart, and go back to gaol, but instead they built it and sailed to Chile, where most of the crew gained their freedom, while four were shipped back to Van Diemans Land where they were sentenced to hang for piracy. But they argued that they had  only nicked the materials as it was not a ship when they took it ( as they were still building it) and it wasnt piracy as they werent on the high seas but still in harbour  waters. That made them guilty of felony only so they won, and were transported elsewhere and finally got their freedom.

There was an excellent play about it on the waterfront. Two actors and audience particiaption, all of us being dragged out to play various roles. Very funny, very good and and excellent way to finish off the day.

The ship  also went up the Gordon River where we had a bit of a bank walk amongst Huon Pines, Blackwood and Myrtle in the temperate rainforest. It was like a set from ‘The Land that Time Forgot’  but this was the real thing. The Huon grow very slowly, as little as 2mm in diameter per year, so they are very old. 

Those we walked through were probably 300 years old but had been left because they were either crooked or knotty, or too small, and so no good for ships timbers,when the piners found that bit of forest back in the early 1840s. 

The Huon Pines are a pecuilar tree in that they are either male or female, and grow by layering; when bits drop off the trees, they start growing again on the forest floor. Thats what helps keep the forest so dense.

The trees also have to be about 500 years old before they produce pine cones, but these are so small that you’d think they were mouse droppings.

The trees on the river bank are smaller than higher up, having been stunted by waterloged roots, and there are very few birds on the Gordon River as it is so deep; immediate fall off fro the sides means that its too deep for even waterbirds to feed off the bottom.

The place is a temperate wilderness that was nearly lost in the 1970’s if a plan to dam the Franklin and Gordon Rivers had gone ahead. The Gordon is Tasmania’s largest river by flow and the Franklin is huge too. But  Eco warriors  saved the day and it was eventually declared a world Heritage site, saved for all time, or at least until somebody changes the law. It would have made  huge difference to the area  and the eco system. The flow rate would have changed, meaning that the mix of freshwater to sea water would have changed thus upsetting the flora and fauna.