Macquarie Harbour & Hells Gates – The cruise – Pt 1

We chose World Heritage Cruises for our day on the water exploring Macquarie Harbour, Hells Gates & the Gordon River. It was money well spent & I would do it again. 🙂

Macquarie Harbour, Hells Gates, Sarah Is., & the Gordon River - it's a 5 hour cruise

Taken from top deck of the boat. You can see the Wild Rivers shop on the wharf and the shops of the Esplanade behind. Fish Café had good food.

Road junction on the Esplanade, choice of Queenstown or Zeehan.

The bridge of the Eagle.

Natalie, with her brand new, pure wool, Tasmanian sourced, spun & knitted beanie!

Built in 1897, this rock wall helps keep the channel open for boats to sail through Hell’s Gates, the entrance to Macquarie Harbour.

Hells Gates is the notoriously shallow and dangerous channel entrance to the harbour.  Why “Hells Gates”?  Reputedly because the original convicts’ claim that it was their “‘entrance to Hell”, the Macquarie Harbour Penal Station on Sarah Island.

Naturally enough, with such a dangerous and tricky harbour entrance there are a number of lighthouses to guide the way in.

One of the lighthouses near the entrance to Macquarie Harbour. This one is on Bonnet Is.

Bonnet Island near the Hells Gates

One of the beaches at Macquarie Heads.

Close-up of the wall in Macquarie Harbour

Remote housing. Out near Hells Gates on Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania

Another of the shacks out on Cape Sorrell at Macquarie Harbour entrance

You can see a Google map of the area here. I’ve zoomed it right in so you can see where those houses are. They’re actually on Cape Sorrell. Zoom out to get a view of where this spot is in relation to Strahan.  The cruise covered a big area!

Hells Gates = entrance to Macquarie Harbour

Geological folds, tannin & fish farms – The cruise – Pt 2

Continuing on with our day on the water.

I should mention that the cruise boats are very comfortable & more importantly the water is also comfortable.  Little to no swell on the inside of the harbour which meant no sea sickness.  This is a good thing. 🙂

Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania.

One of the small bays along the far side of the harbour. Tannin stains the water dark, making it look black.

Note the colours & folds in the rocks as well as the wild, tangled vegetation.

Fish farms!  Fish farming in Tasmania = salmon.  Fine, Tasmanian salmon.  Which most people seem to enjoy eating.  These farms are on Macquarie Harbour.

Feeding the salmon.

A bag of fish!

A petrel flies overhead, looking for a free feed of salmon.

Sarah Island – The cruise Pt 3

Image sourced from the National Archives

Sarah Island, previously known as Settlement Island when it was a penal station (1822 – 1834).

Landing at Sarah Island. Note that this is all regrowth you see on the island.

Grommet Rock, where the women were housed. Rather small isn't it?

Grommet Rock sits just a little way off from Sarah Island. The women were rowed across to Sarah Is each morning to work & returned to the rock at the end of the day.

Looking out to the waters of Macquarie Harbour from Sarah Island.

Both islands were completely cleared by the convicts, this is all regrowth. According to documents, Sarah Island was fully regrown by 1836, a mere two years after closure!

All the vegetation you see in these photographs is regrowth. When the convicts lived & worked here the island was almost totally bare, having been cleared by the convicts.

The main “industry” of the penal settlement was ship building.

Looking out through the regrowth of Sarah Island, Tasmania.

Looking down at what remains of the shipyards on Sarah Island.

One of many ferns on Sarah Island.

Sarah Island.

The Round Earth Company, a theatre group based in Strahan, provide the guided tours on Sarah Island. This is Franz, one of the actors.

The Round Earth Company, a theatre group working out of Strahan provide highly entertaining tours of Sarah Island. A bit of an interactive show, the guides will use members of the tour group to “play” the roles of various historical characters of Sarah Island.  You don’t have to actually do anything if selected, but it does make for a more amusing telling of the history & keeps people interested.

One of the convict ruins on Sarah Island. This was once the main building housing the convicts, the gaol in other words.

Sarah Island's convict built Sussex bakehouse oven!

We spent around an hour on the tiny island, most of that time was taken  up with the tour.  Groups were broken in to two smaller groups, each with a guide.  Then we walked the island via differing routes to ensure no crowding at the sites.

Okay, time to get back on to the boat & head up the famous Gordon River!