xenith | Island Trek: Arriving (Reply)

When I hear of people who set stories in places where they've never been I always think that no matter how much you read about a place, it's never going to be quite what you expected. Which is really a good thing, or by bother travelling? You could just look at places on web sites.

The trip over on the ferry took about 40 minutes. We saw no seals, dolphins, southern right whales (with or without their calves) and even fairy penguins. The latter were offered as the consolation animal: if we see nothing else, there'll be the penguin. Long 40 minutes. The water was so smooth it looked like a blue glass floor lifting and rising.

The first recognisable building as we approached the island was this little cottage out on its own on the hill. "What was that for?" "I don't know."

As we came in, there were more isolated structures.

The aboriginal name is given as Toarra Marra Monah, but I can't find what it means (and I should stop reading vocab lists ~~I'm starting to see the patterns in them~~ or I will never get this done). The modern name of Maria was bestowed by Tasman, after Maria van Diemen, wife of the governor of Batavia. At the beginning of the 19th century, Baudin dropped by and stuck French names on everything.

They're cement thingies! Soon...

Town?! I hate this waiting to get off bit.

There were four main periods of settlement. The First Convict Era was 1825-1832, whenthe island was used for men who re-offended but weren't considered bad enough to sent to Macquarie Harbour. Only two buildings remain from this time. The Second Convict Era, 1842-1850, saw two probation stations established, at Darlington and Port Lesueur. The First Industrial Era was 1884-1896, when Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi thought the island would be good for wine and silk making. The Second Industrial Era was 1920-1920 when Bernacchi tried again by establishing a cement company.

At other times, there was farming, fishing, whaling etc going on. The island was proclaimed a National Park in 1972.

One very noticeable thing, even from the ferry, is how spread out everything is. It's an island. You sort of expect things to be close together.

Have a look at the map. See on the bit right up the top the word "Ruins" with a black dotted line around it? That line is pretty much the walk we did, then down the red bit to Magistrates Point. Just the one tiny corner.

Of course, we had to be one of the last people to disembark and then I had to put my camera in my backpack so I could climb off without losing my balance and then stop to take it out again...

"What's that?"
(Looking at leaflet) "Old brick barn constructed by--"
"That's not a barn."
(Further consultation of leaflet)
"The massive clinker store held material ready to be ground into cement powder."

Beyond that is the Commissariat Store, which is our first stop because it has the information centre in it.

Whale bones. I'm not sure why I think they're whale bones.

The Commissariat Store was built 1825 From the leaflet "Downstairs was used for storage and distribution of food, while the upper story housed military supplies." It's one of two buildings left from the First Convict Era. Now I forget what it's called but it's where you got to get information about wildlife, walks, buy your Parks pass if you haven't already etc.

Looking at the walks, I thought, after we'd check out Darlington, that the walk to the Fossil Cliffs sounded the most interesting. I pointed it out. "I want to do this walk."

I picked up some more leaflets and we left.