Island Trek: Fossil Cliffs
Mar. 16th, 2010 05:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xenith(Sections in italics are from the Parks and Wildlife Service's information leaflet. Any comments I've added to these are in square brackets.)
So around and up the hill. The first stop is the brick barn.
This building was constructed [in 1846] by convicts using bricks made from clay puddled with sea water. Look at the way some of the bricks are disintegrating. The salts from the water have crystallised and weakened the bricks.
Now it's full of agricultural equipment.
and stuff. The thing over the back looks like a wool press.
I didn't see this fence at first, then it was suddenly in front of me. It's down over the hill from the barn and sort of blends into the grass.
The cemetery. There's a cloud of flying ants hanging around the gate. You had to walk through then.
The cemetery was in use for all the settlement periods. During the convict eras, it was only used for free settlers, the prisoners being put in a mass grave. With one exeception.
I lost my leaflet about the cemetery, which is a pity because there were some interesting stories here. Also, most of the headstones have fallen down and broken so you don't see them until you're on top of them. That's the "rocks" in the photos there are.
Charles Henry Lapham,
Born June 27, 1849
Died June 28, 1848
Samuel Lapham was Superintendent of Convicts. He was dismissed for leniency towards a prisoner, William Smith O'Brien, Irish Nationalist who will come up later because there was a display in his former residence.
There is a plaque in the ground nearby that says:
"Thomas Adkins and his wife Rosa were married in Warwickshire, England in 1870. They came to Tasmania in 1884, settling on Maria Island in 1890. Thomas Adkins was Works Manager of the first cement works and died in an accident whilst preparing a sample of cement for the 1890 Melbourne Exhibition. Rosa, aided by her seven children, became a pastoralist and also ran the boarding house. She was the last person to be buried on the island. (First erected by descendents in 1979)"
Hohepa Te Umuroa, one of seven Maoris transported for "rebelling against the Queen".
Moving on now, because there's a lot to do still
Looking back where we've walked, and this is just wrong. Small islands, especially small north-east corners of small islands, should not have large, open grasslands. And still a way to walk.
Looking over the grassland to Ile du Nord
Looking back again. We're up on a hill so there's a better view across to the other hill. The town and buildings near the jetty are down between the hills so not visible.
I am putting these up in the order I took them :) There is this never-ending stretch of grass with no sense of distance, so the camera zoom makes a big difference.
This is the airfield, the site of a vineyard from the 1880s. With Ile du Nord in the background.
Walking on a some more, and still there's grassland with Ile du Nord in the background (and Freycinet Peninsula behind that).
Something different!! I think that's Bishop and Clerk.
And there's the coast, with our destination in sight too. (Top right.)
Cape Barren Geese, which along with other endangered wildlife, were introduced to the island when attempts were first started to make it a reserve.
This area is flat because it used to be a quarry in the 1920s where deposits full of millions of fossilised shellfish were mined for lime.
Lots and lots of fossils right through the rock. (Did I mention camera didn't want to take photos of things close up?)
For scale :)
Going back up now.
The track now goes up this horrid bloody hill. I stopped partway to take a photo: Ile du Nord with Freycinet peninsula in the background.
That's well, the same as before just higher up. It doesn't look that steep but it was horrid hill, that hurt my legs. I did think about not even tackling last part of it but there's wasn't really an alternative, other than walking all the way back down. Also mother was showing off and walking up ahead of me.
Yay, at the top. Now we get to walk down through the bush and look at cool stuff!
So around and up the hill. The first stop is the brick barn.
This building was constructed [in 1846] by convicts using bricks made from clay puddled with sea water. Look at the way some of the bricks are disintegrating. The salts from the water have crystallised and weakened the bricks.
Now it's full of agricultural equipment.
and stuff. The thing over the back looks like a wool press.
I didn't see this fence at first, then it was suddenly in front of me. It's down over the hill from the barn and sort of blends into the grass.
The cemetery. There's a cloud of flying ants hanging around the gate. You had to walk through then.
The cemetery was in use for all the settlement periods. During the convict eras, it was only used for free settlers, the prisoners being put in a mass grave. With one exeception.
I lost my leaflet about the cemetery, which is a pity because there were some interesting stories here. Also, most of the headstones have fallen down and broken so you don't see them until you're on top of them. That's the "rocks" in the photos there are.
Charles Henry Lapham,
Born June 27, 1849
Died June 28, 1848
Samuel Lapham was Superintendent of Convicts. He was dismissed for leniency towards a prisoner, William Smith O'Brien, Irish Nationalist who will come up later because there was a display in his former residence.
There is a plaque in the ground nearby that says:
"Thomas Adkins and his wife Rosa were married in Warwickshire, England in 1870. They came to Tasmania in 1884, settling on Maria Island in 1890. Thomas Adkins was Works Manager of the first cement works and died in an accident whilst preparing a sample of cement for the 1890 Melbourne Exhibition. Rosa, aided by her seven children, became a pastoralist and also ran the boarding house. She was the last person to be buried on the island. (First erected by descendents in 1979)"
Hohepa Te Umuroa, one of seven Maoris transported for "rebelling against the Queen".
Moving on now, because there's a lot to do still
Looking back where we've walked, and this is just wrong. Small islands, especially small north-east corners of small islands, should not have large, open grasslands. And still a way to walk.
Looking over the grassland to Ile du Nord
Looking back again. We're up on a hill so there's a better view across to the other hill. The town and buildings near the jetty are down between the hills so not visible.
I am putting these up in the order I took them :) There is this never-ending stretch of grass with no sense of distance, so the camera zoom makes a big difference.
This is the airfield, the site of a vineyard from the 1880s. With Ile du Nord in the background.
Walking on a some more, and still there's grassland with Ile du Nord in the background (and Freycinet Peninsula behind that).
Something different!! I think that's Bishop and Clerk.
And there's the coast, with our destination in sight too. (Top right.)
Cape Barren Geese, which along with other endangered wildlife, were introduced to the island when attempts were first started to make it a reserve.
This area is flat because it used to be a quarry in the 1920s where deposits full of millions of fossilised shellfish were mined for lime.
Lots and lots of fossils right through the rock. (Did I mention camera didn't want to take photos of things close up?)
For scale :)
Going back up now.
The track now goes up this horrid bloody hill. I stopped partway to take a photo: Ile du Nord with Freycinet peninsula in the background.
That's well, the same as before just higher up. It doesn't look that steep but it was horrid hill, that hurt my legs. I did think about not even tackling last part of it but there's wasn't really an alternative, other than walking all the way back down. Also mother was showing off and walking up ahead of me.
Yay, at the top. Now we get to walk down through the bush and look at cool stuff!
