KANGAROO ISLAND

                                    Australia's Third Largest

     Kangaroo Island, discovered in 1802 by the English explorer, Matthew Flinders, is Australia’s third largest island. It is 90-miles long, 20-miles wide, and about the size of Long Island. The population of 4500 is located mostly in four cities, the largest of which is Kingscote with a population of 1800. The island is home to 20,000Kangaroos--about five kangaroos for every person.

    The island was hilly, covered with trees, and had no public transportation, but has 19 conservation/ national park areas. Norfolk Pine trees always grew along the coastline. Because they are tall and straight, if a ship, in days of old, lost a mast, the pine was ready and waiting to be cut to make a new mast.

Only pockets of land on the island are fertile enough for agriculture. Crops include canola/ olive oil, honey, and eucalyptus oil. Vineyards are in their infancy on the island. Fish farming is taking hold. Fishing includes crayfish, oysters, and mussels. There are two cheese factories. The narrow leaf eucalyptus grows only on the east side of the island. Trees can be re-harvested every three years. At the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Oil Distillery we learned much about making eucalyptus oil from the wife of the owner.

Japan is the top producer of the oil as only 10% of the world’s eucalyptus oil comes from  Australia, and 3% of that from Emu Ridge. At one time there were 48 distilleries on Kangaroo Island, we visited the only one left. Sheep raising replaced the industry as it is easier work and the money is better.

A ton of leaves is put into a large caldron of boiling water. Depending on the season the ton of leaves produces 5-30 liters of oil. At this point the oil is light amber in color but after a second distillation the oil is colorless. We held a leaf up to the light to see the small oil seeds from which the oil is extracted. It was amazing, the seeds were so tiny.

Seal Bay Conservation Center is located at American Beach, the site of an 1803 ship wreck. A National Park naturalist, took us to the beach. The area is home to a colony of 600 Australian sea lions. The population has remained pretty constant for several years, and it is thought that the environment cannot sustain any larger numbers. These opportunistic feeders are loners and not at all family oriented.

Hunters used to hunt sea lions for the skin and blubber until they were almost extinct. A reef protects the bay, and the sanctuary extends one mile out and five miles along the coast.

The gestation period is 18 months.  An adult female with an un-weaned pup will consume 8-10 kilos of food a day. The female goes into heat again 17 days after birthing! They are not synchronized breeders. A female has four teats. Sea lions are mammals and have hair and ears. The large front flippers allow the animal to walk, where seals cannot. They are deep divers. These animals go to sea for three days at a time, then return to rest and sleep on the beach. A bull often stays a month at a time on the beach.

Living up to 25 years, males can weigh up to 600 kilos, and are brown to yellow in color, where the female is more cream colored. Forty bulls live in the bay. Pups stay on the beach 12-18 months to suckle from mom. Mortality rates are high, only about 30% of pups will make it to maturity.

It was very windy and cold on the beach. It was a long walk, but worth it as there must have been three dozen sea lions sleeping on the beach in the immediate area.

land

MANGROVES and CROCKS

                              Beware of a Crocodil
        I’ve seen many mangroves and snorkeled for a short time in one in Belize, but I’d never seen any as tall or as big as some we saw in Australia.

Mangroves protect 70% of the tropical shore around the world. As much as 70% of the mangrove roots are above the surface. A filter at the bottom of each root filters salt out of the water. Mangroves in that area grow 30-50 feet tall. Mangroves grow in brackish areas.

Our skiff captain kept up a steady commentary as we moved slowly along. Thornton Peak, 1300+ feet, towered in the background. That mountain range collects the rain clouds and then sends the rain to the valley and coast. The normal rainfall is about 60-inches a year. The estuary we were floating in contained 20 of the 69 known mangrove varieties.

After awhile the captain started talking  about crocodiles. Crocks prefer temperatures of at least 30 degrees C. Female crocks are territorial and  can grow 14 feet long. Males, reach 23-27-feet long and can weigh up to two ton! Males wander in and out of territories. It is possible for them to live 80-100 years. Crocks eat mud crabs, wallaby, and mud pigs among other things. Capable of slowing their heartbeat, they can stay submerged in the water for an hour.

Crocks breed December to April. They lay 30-80 eggs in a nest and the gestation period is 6-8 weeks. Mama monitors the nest for the first 90 days and then uncovers it removing the 10-inch hatchlings to the water.  The temperature of the nest determines the sex of the egg, 85 degrees is good for a female, 90 degrees for a male. While laying her eggs the crock goes into a trace-like state, afterward she returns to her vicious self.

 A baby crock is 4-5 years old before it is safe to be on its own. Survival rate is a half percent! Crocodiles have been protected since the 1970s and there is a fine for those caught poaching.

These cold-blooded reptiles can swim up to 20 miles an hour and run 11-mph but cannot zig zag. A crock has no tongue and cannot swallow under water. It has piercing, but no grinding teeth. The growth rate is about a meter every ten years. Its brain is in its head between the eyes. They thermo-regulate through an open mouth.

We spotted a baby crock close to the water’s edge, and later a large crock sunning on the river bank. They look pretty harmless when sleeping, but beware of this predator’s strong jaws!

DAINTREE RAIN FOREST

                                What a Wonderful Stay
       I have stayed and visited several rain forests and I have found them all exciting and delightful. Our accommodations have always been great, but the Daintree facilities were especially nice.

      It was a two-hour ride (160 K) from Cairns to Coconut Beach Rainforest Resort, our hotel at Cape Tribulation in the Daintree Rainforest. We drove onto a small cable ferry to get across the Daintree River. The road after crossing was narrow and winding. It seemed like a long ride as the last hour or so was in the rain.

    It was still raining quite hard so the hotel supplied us with large umbrellas and guides escorted us to our cabins. The first part of the facility opened in 1989. Our large cabin had a gorgeous wooden floor and was lovely, but it was morning before we could see where we were situated. During the night we listened to lots of nature noises. It was great! Waking in the morning, I was quiet so not to waken my travel partner.  While I sat with a cup of coffee in our sitting area I looked out into a forest of greenery and could see nothing but lush foliage! It was beautiful, quiet and peaceful!

     The impressive facility also has a 40-unit villa, large reception area, long house, pool, bar, in-house accommodations for 70 staff, and an education and adventure lodge. There is also a private beach.           Because of its rainforest location, great care had been taken to design the resort to blend into its surroundings, and to be ecologically sensitive to the World Heritage Area. Covering 250 acres, it was designed to have minimal impact on the local flora and fauna.  The cabins were built on high set poles, requiring minimal removal of trees. The use of boardwalks minimized the impact of pedestrian traffic, preventing damage to the forest floor. The facility has its own water supply and generates all its electricity.  It truly was a fabulous place, somewhere I would love to return to!

Capt. Cook named the area Cape Tribulation after his ship ran aground on Endeavor Reef. The rain forest, only 10-20 degrees south of the equator, was named  in 1832 after Richard Daintree, an explorer and businessman. It is all wilderness area, covering 100 hectares, and is 130 million years old. The Daintree National Park, established in 1979, was designated a World Heritage Site in 1988.

The area protects 70 species of animals and over 200 bird species including the cassowary, plus many flowers and plants. It is the only place in the world where two World Heritage Sites meet---the Daintree Rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.  The Daintree Rainforest is a  coastal rainforest and runs in pockets for 450 kilometers. It is an upland rainforest and is the largest rainforest in the Heritage complex. Thirteen of the 19 flowering plants are found only here, and 60% of Australia’s bat species live in this rainforest. There are no monkeys in the country.

One afternoon a biologist took us on a nature walk to identify much of the flora and was most interesting. She was very animated and it was obvious she loved her job.

Another day we took a catamaran several miles to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. The snorkeling was much better, the reef more alive and interesting here than when I went off from Green Island, a much more popular and busy tourist attraction. Five years earlier Green Island with its tourist mentality had been a big disappointment.  

TASMANIAN DEVIL PARK

                               Interesting Animal
       On our way to Port Arthur in Tasmania, Australia’s only island state, we stopped at Tasmania Devil Park. At the relatively small, but rather pleasant park, we were able to observe three or four devils in an enclosure. It was fun to watch them run around and play.

A park guide told us, “The Tasmanian Devil is a wolverine-like animal extinct on the Australia mainland and found only in Tasmania. It is a carnivorous marsupial. The size of a small dog, black in color, it has a spine tingling screech. Its powerful jaws can crack bones so when feeding it can devour the entire animal. It is fearful rather than aggressive. A picture showing its teeth is usually a yawn rather than an aggressive act. Aggression is shown with loud noises.

“Tasmanian Devils are synchronous breeders, mating in March, the babies are born in April/May. A female can have 6-8 pups, but she only has four nipples so only four pups survive. The gestation period is only four weeks, but the pups suckle in the pouch for another six months. They generally live about five years. Inhabiting virtually all of Tasmania, they survive any and all climates, sleeping by day, and eating at night.”

            We also learned Devils were a nuisance to early settlers, raiding poultry yards. At one time there was a bounty offered for them which drove them to more remote areas. When protected in 1941, they had been hunted almost to extinction. The population has survived, and today is a healthy one.

            Although they have a reputation of killing sheep, they are rather inept killers, preying on small animals when they do kill. They prefer to scavenger, and are very good at it.  When under stress they produce a rather unpleasant odor, but when calm are not smelly but rather and tidy clean animals.

            Walking around we saw several wallabies, emus, and walked through a bird aviary. Then we came upon a park guide who was holding an animal neither of us had ever seen before. It turned out to be Lilly, a baby wombat who was just as cute as can be. About 18 months old she was still small enough to be held in a caretaker’s arms.

       The guide told us, “Wombats grow to about the size of a pig, and they can do a lot of damage to a car if one is unlucky enough to hit one on the road. Wombats burrow. See how their front and back claws are different. They dig with their front claws then throw the dirt back with the hind claws. Also a marsupial, they suckle in the pouch for six months, then stick around with mom for another twelve months. Related to the koala, wombats are vegetarians, and are nocturnal. In the wild they live 5-8 years, about 20 years in captivity. They have a hard steel-like back plate. When threatened, they head into their burrow, placing the hard plate at the entrance, which protects them, as nothing can penetrate it.”

Like the kiwi bird it is unlikely to see either of these nocturnal animals in the wild or in the daytime, so it was nice to be able to see the Tasmanian Devil in a natural setting. They are not the cutest animal in the world, and I don’t think I’d want one as a pet, but it was nice to see them and it was a nice and educational stop.

HOBART,TASMANIA, AUSTRALIA

                         Capitol of the only  Island State

      Located at the foot of 4160’ Mt. Wellington, Hobart is a blend of heritage, beautiful scenery, and a relaxed island lifestyle, but with all the amenities of a thriving city. Graceful old trees cover the manicured lawns of the many small heritage parks and gardens in the city. Forty percent of Tasmania’s population live in the capitol. The lush lowland farms and villages with their Georgian cottages look very English.  Tasmania Botanical Gardens, originally a land grant for a farm garden, became the botanical gardens in 1918.

  In 1804 Colonel David Collins settled Hobart with 262 people. He named the city for Lord Hobart. The same distance south of the equator as Boston is north, Hobart is Australia’s second oldest city. (after Sydney) Once a whaling base, the city of 139,000 has one of the finest deep-water harbors in the world, and is now a busy port. The Derwent River runs through the city. St. David’s Park was first a burial yard for Hobart in 1804, and turned into a park in 1926.

 Hobart is the center of the state’s government. 1105’ Mt. Nelson has watched over ship movements in and out of the Derwent River since 1811.

 Governor Macquarie established Battery Point after a visit in the early 1800s. The oldest building at Battery Point is from the 1818 signal station. Twelve relay stations made full communication available between Hobart and Port Arthur. Battery Point was named for the guns that once protected the area. There is a lot of history at the Point and much to see.

Some of Hobart’s  old buildings  include St. David’s Church, 1868, a Regency Egyptian style synagogue 1843 (the oldest in the country), Parliament House, built by convicts in 1840 as a Customs House, and turned into its present function in 1856, and the Cascade Brewery, the country’s oldest. The oldest theater in Australia is located in Hobart. The city also houses a maritime museum and a folk museum.

The Royal Hobart Hospital is the largest teaching hospital in the state. The University of Tasmania is also in Hobart---Errol Flynn’s father taught zoology at the University.

There is much reclaimed land at the harbor, and it took convicts 60 years to reclaim it all. Apples grow well in Tasmania and many of the 250 varieties are exported to Japan.

The main street in the city is Liverpool. The expressway out of town was built in 1954.

      Warm sandstone buildings line the uncrowded waterfront in an area called Salamanca. The series of old warehouses were built in 1930 to store apples, corn, and wheat for export. At one time a jam  factory occupied one of the buildings.    Now the area is full of trendy restaurants, sidewalk cafes, stores, and art studios.

      The city is very walkable and we took advantage of the warm sunny day to walk by St. David’s Park where a sweet little gazebo stands in the center. Later we learned that there were no native trees in the park.

      A specialty of Tasmania is Lemmington---a lemon sponge cake covered with chocolate dough and coconut. I found the one we ate a bit dry. Unlike the Pavlova dessert that the Aussies have such rivalry about, I believe the Lemmington is strictly Tasmanian.

      Hobart is a delightful city and we had a great time there in Australia’s only island state..