Prior to the joint New Zealand/Australia IPPS conference in Hobart, 17 New Zealanders joined members from the Australian region for a week’s tour around Tasmania, an island known for its spectacular scenery and rich cultural heritage. 

Starting in Hobart, the tour followed the Derwent River on the banks of which are two of Hobart’s main employers – Cadbury Chocolate and the Norske Skog paper mill which produces half of Australia’s newsprint. Along the way, we also saw a wide variety of land-based activities ranging from rows of cherries and currants, to hop production and forestry and even a trout hatchery – the first in the Southern Hemisphere. 

The spectacular Russell Falls in the Mt Field National Park was the first stop of the day and probably the most impressive one as well. A short walk through lush native bush, almost reminiscent of New Zealand, brought us to the spectacular falls which cascade down over two levels. The photos don’t do justice to this one. 

Continuing further on, we stopped at Derwent Bridge which is half way between Hobart and our final destination for the day, Strahan, on Tasmania’s west coast. Here we visited ‘The Wall’ a sculpture that is a commemoration of those people, past and present, who shaped the Central Highlands of Tasmania. The privately owned and funded work is being completed by Greg Duncan, a well known Tasmanian artist.

The sculpture consists of three metre high panels, mostly of the rare Huon Pine and when it is finished in 2015, will be a very impressive 100 metres long. At the moment, it’s a fraction of the size but still fairly impressive. 

Our next destination was Lake St Claire at the southern end of Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park. On a fine day it would have been spectacular but unfortunately the light drizzle and low cloud meant there wasn’t much to see. More spectacular scenery followed on the way to Strahan and it almost felt like you were back in New Zealand. 

Strahan, on the west coast of Tasmania was our starting point for visits to two of the region’s (and Tasmania’s) premier tourist attractions. The Gordon River Cruise is based out of Strahan and so we boarded the Lady Jane Franklin II for several hours of cruising in very calm seas, but low cloud obscured much of the view for the trip. It was also rather cold which didn’t worry the Kiwis that much but the Aussies weren’t used to it!

From Strahan we headed to Hells Gate at the entrance of Macquarie Harbour, a very narrow and dangerous entrance but one that has been enhanced with the construction of several rock walls. Further up the harbour, we stopped to view one of the fish farms and then continued on up the Gordon River and its magnificent rain forest right down to the water’s edge. This area, and indeed much of western Tasmania, is protected under World Heritage Status and is one of only two places in the world that have achieved 7 of the 10 criteria. 
About 12km up the river, we went ashore for a walk through the lush tropical rainforest, very much like parts of NZ and dominated by the Huon Pine. This was an important timber tree with the ability to withstand decay and rot for very long periods, so it was ideally suited to build ships. It is however very slow growing, only a centimetre or so each year so 700 year-old trees were only a few metres tall. It is for this reason that it is now protected and the only timber is that which floats down the river. 

The final stop on the cruise was Sarah Island, a penal colony which was used in the early 1880s, before Port Arthur was established closer to Hobart. Sarah Island had a very harsh reputation, so much so that many prisoners committed murder so they could be sent to Hobart for hanging or died trying to escape, either in Macquarie Harbour or in the vast area of bush in Western Tasmania. 

Two very entertaining and informative guides took us around the Island and the ruins of the various structures. One interesting feature was the slipyards, still intact and one of which could launch a 300 tonne boat. The slipway was made from Huon pine which again shows its strength and durability.

It was then back to Strahan and some free time to explore this small fishing and tourist town before seeing the play ‘The Ship that Never Was’ in the early evening. This play is based around the last ship built by convicts on Sarah Island. The prisoners overpowered the guards and sailed the ship to South America. A very entertaining evening with much audience participation, including several IPPS members who probably won’t be getting a call from Peter Jackson anytime soon. 

The other main tourist attraction at Strahan is the West Coast Wilderness which runs between Queenstown, a mining town and Strahan. We headed to Queenstown to board the train for the 35km trip back to Strahan with several stops along the way for various activities, including honey tasting and panning for gold. 
Several of the IPPS members struck it lucky and were able to take a very small speck of gold home with them. Of course, there was the magnificent scenery along the way – lush rainforest and spectacular views of the King River. 

Originally built in the late 1890s to transport copper out for export markets, the railway line covers some very harsh terrain which made its original construction a massive challenge and all by hand. 
It’s also very steep in places, meaning a third rail was used in the centre of the track that could give extra grip. The original line closed in the 1960s but a restoration project began in 1999 with the help of the government to restore the line as a tourist attraction which opened in 2002. Restoration cost $30 million dollars; the original cost of the railway was only $400,000. 

From Strahan, the tour headed further up the west coast and inland to Cradle Mountain National Park which covers 161,443 hectares. It is also part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area which covers about 1.38 million hectares (about 1/5th of Tasmania) and satisfies 7 of the 10 requirements in order to be listed as a World Heritage area – this is the only place on earth that this occurs. 
Our day at Cradle Mountain started with an explorer tour which told of the history behind the park. Because the terrain and climate is so severe, human impact has been limited and so the park today is relatively untouched by man. The tour took us to a replica of Waldheim Chalet - the original was built by Gustav and Kate Weindorfer in 1912. Gustav was the main driver behind the Cradle Mountain area being protected, something which happened in 1922.
Most of the group then headed up to Dove Lake and walked the track around the lake which is at the base of the spectacular Cradle Mountain. The more adventurous and energetic walked up to Marion’s lookout with great views over Dove Lake. 

Continuing north, the tour visited the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden. This garden was started by members of the local rhododendron society and its development has all been done on a voluntary basis by members. 

The garden covers 13ha and includes over 20,000 rhododendrons arranged by country of origin, including an extensive collection of vireya’s rhododendrons set among plantings of trees and shrubs. Included in the collection were a number of rare species so the garden is very important in the conservation of many species threatened in their natural habitat.

The autumn colours were fantastic and one could only wonder what the garden would be like at springtime in full bloom. The website is www.emuvalleyrhodo.com.au 

In Tasmania, the main industries are tourism, mining and forestry. Our next visit was to Gunn’s Nursery at Somerset, just out of Burnie on the northern coast. 

Gunn’s is the big forestry company and the nursery supplies an estimated 18 million seedlings, mostly eucalyptus and pinus species for plantations. It has also recently diversified into producing grapevines for Gunn’s vineyards in Tasmania. 

The nursery is extremely mechanised with only two full time staff and casual labour being brought in for busy times. Once the seeds are sown in the plug trays, there is no further transplanting until dispatch when the plants are removed and packed bare root into cartons. Large frames on tracks are used to move the plug trays from the germination house to the outside growing areas and then into dispatch. 

One of the innovations we saw was encasing the seedling at dispatch in a red net in order to reduce losses through animal browsing once transplanted out into the plantation. The net then breaks down in the field allowing the plant to grow. Despite the extra cost of applying the nets manually (about 13c per plant), it has been shown to significantly reduce the losses through browsing and a machine is in development to automate this process further. 
Travelling around the north coast where forestry gave way to farmland, we headed inland to the town of Sheffield which is known for its murals and a visit to Clematis Cottage Nursery which is run by Todd and Carol Miles. The nursery grows over 100 varieties of clematis which are sold through the adjacent garden centre, over the internet and to retail customers across Australia. 

At Launceston, we visited the scenic Cataract Gorge which is less than 2km from the city centre. The gorge is most famous for its chairlift which is the longest single span in the world at 357m, and from the Alexandra Suspension Bridge, we had a great view.
Our next visit was to Allan’s Production Nursery at Youngtown which is part of the United Nurseries group across Australia. Established in 1964 and still run by the Allan family, the nursery employs around 20 staff and also has several retail outlets. Production is based around bedding and vegetable plants, potted colour, house plants and a small selection of trees and shrubs. Bill Allan showed the group around the very tidy nursery which was in full swing for autumn sales. 
One trend noticeable in the nursery was the rather large labels being used for some of the seedlings. In fact you wondered if a garden centre was selling the label rather than the plants!

The tour then continued into the very scenic north – west of the island and we visited Woodlea Nursery between Scottsdale and Launceston. It is another forestry nursery producing around 8 million seedlings a year to forestry and revegetation projects, farmers and the general public. 

The level of mechanisation here was less than at Gunn’s Nursery with staff still transplanting seedlings from trays into plugs, although there are plans to use a mechanical transplanter more.

From the scenic north east, we moved down the much dryer east coast which only receives 1/5th the rainfall the west does to the Freycinet National Park. Our time here was very limited but we did manage a brisk walk up between two peaks known as the Hazards to the lookout over Wineglass Bay, a very picturesque bay popular with tourists. There are also some spectacular rock formations in the area which is mostly granite rich in minerals. It is also very dry so there was little in the way of animal or bird life. 

From Freycinet, the tour continued south to Pulchella Nursery at Buckland which is run by Les and Helen Payne. Specialising in Australian native plants, there is a particular focus on cold hardy and east coast plants and they also do revegetation projects for south east Tasmania. 

The display area is well laid out with plants grouped according to regions and heights. Next door to the nursery is the Tasmanian Bushland Garden with 50 hectares of plantings not yet opened to the public, but we were told would be well worth a visit next time we were in Tasmania.

Our final stop before Hobart and the end of the tour was the historic town of Richmond which is home to the oldest bridge in Australia, built by convict labour in 1823. 

Touring with a group from IPPS is a great way of meeting fellow members and you learn a lot from each other during the trip. You also get to visit some places not usually seen by the average tourist and have a bit of fun along the way. If the chance comes along to tour as part of an IPPS group, I suggest you go for it.

Train at Rinadeena Saddle, the highest point on the West Coast Wilderness -- Is that the Platt!

Netted plants ready for distpatch from Gunns