Bushwalk Australia

This is probably a load of nostalgic dribble.

Whan I first set foot in tassie .. there were FJ Holdens a plenty on the roads... no fast bypasses or freeways ... black and white TV was the go. Hobart .. I stood in the main street at about 6pm one weekday evening..it was totally deserted..not a soul in sight ... everybody had gone home ! All shops closed .

As students all we could afford was a 1953 Anglia ..it cost $50. It wasn't much of a chick magnet ... they would laugh at us . We got it bogged so many times ...it ended up with a heavy wire cable permanently wrapped around the bumper bar ..just in case . We traversed paddocks in it .. cross country jaunts . .. taking along run to make it up steep grassy hills .. youth is wonderful .

Passenger trains .
Mike

Nostalgia what a wonderful thing means we have really been there etc

Trouble is when you think waaay back it can make you realize just how looooooong you've been on the planet.
I suppose there is something in favour of ---not sure what --- can't remember

FF

By the way, don't forget the OTHER Real Tasmania Forum.

FF

What happened to the real TASMANIA? Gunns, Forestry Tas, government in private pockets, television, developers, too many people moving here....

From Mike ..more ravings ..

I spotted the history of the Guys road Wills house on the Cygnet web site. In 1974, myself and a fellow 18 year old student lived in the house for a few months. The house had been derelect for many years and we did our best to make it liveable again. We cleaned up the front garden and painted the window frames. The little loft in the roof had its own steep stairway. Our neighbour was a old fellow called Merv, he was so kind to us, he would lend us his tractor to pull out our often bogged car. The separate kitchen and laundry had us wondering why it was built away from the main house. Amazingly, the old house wiring still worked. Guys road was deserted then, we had it all to ourselves.

We attended the then new Tasmanian College of Advanced Education, Mt Nelson, on the outskirts of Hobart. Our car was a 1953 Ford Anglia, we bought it for $50. . We picked apples at an orchard with old Merv occasionally. Merv told us he had lived in Cygnet his whole life and he saw the first motor car ever to come to Cygnet. We bought our groceries at the old store on the corner, the bare wooden floor and shelves were very quaint . It was so quiet, we used to set up targets on the fence opposite the house and shoot them from the verandah of the house using a .22 rifle. Nobody ever came up Guys road. Cygnet was rather run down as the apple industry had fallen on bad times, empty houses were dotted around town. Many apples were left on the trees as it wasn't worth picking them. Houses were $5 a week to rent ( ours was free ). I guess at that time, early 1974, Cygnet was still a quiet, out of the way place that displayed a special ambience. People were very kind to us despite our long hair and being from the mainland as well. Living in the house was rather basic, we had no bath or shower, we used to use a little camping gas stove to cook things. The house internally was lined with hand split boards, some type of native softwood I think, a orangy colour. The old newspapers used on the walls (cheap insulation), dated back to the 1880's, Tasmanian Mail. Our stay in Cygnet was upset by a nasty car accident, we had a head on prang on the Lymington road with a Ford Falcon. Better stop raving. Bye from Mike

Adding more to my earlier ravings.. the gorgeous little valley I described above is now a well settled location with numerous new dwellings and a golf course .... cars .. and the whole mess . Our little cottage atop the rise .. alas .

Devon Annie wrote:too many people moving here....

Guilty as charged.
Happy to be in Tasmania, been here nearly half my life, by choice.
I would not be into walking as much as I am had I not moved here. Possibly too, if I hadn't been introduced to walking in Tassie by a mate who took me on a few walks in what was the late 80's / early '90s.
What will the young folk of today be asking in 50 years?
Perhaps, the same question as the title of this subject.
They will say "I rememhber doing blockies in my turbo Skyline, a real chick magnet that car..."
or "Ha, remember when Jim lost his car for a few days when the cops caught him melting rubber?"
or "I remember when you were allowed to drive home after having a beer or two (but not 3) at the local."
or "I remember when I did a walk to Melaleuca from Cockle Creek and when I flew out, only half the view was of forestry clear felling." (Yes it's true)
or "Remember when the mud was waist deep on the Lodden plains?" None of this travellator stuff.

Times change.

The real Tasmania is the Tasmania it is today. Like anywhere, it is changing.
It is up to us, the people who live here and love it, to shape how it changes and what it becomes. This to a great extent is done at the electoral booth.
Get out there and express your views. Be heard. Shape Tasmania into what you want it to be. Have a say. And good luck getting heard.

Good topic red tag gets a new thread going

It's hiding somewhere in the the Southwest, with the ghosts of Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis.

I've been all over the world, and I've never been to a place where the wilderness beckons me- physically pulls me. It feels different to other wild areas I've been in- I resent my inability to just vanish into the wilds of it and embrace it fully. I sit on my back porch and look up at the Tiers, and I can feel it looking back at me. Wild, untamed, mysterious, and far beyond human comprehension.

For me, this is Tasmania- and it's still there, though I doubt my daughter will see it at my age.

An excellent post. Well said.
I can feel that.

the_camera_poser wrote:It's hiding somewhere in the the Southwest, with the ghosts of Olegas Truchanas and Peter Dombrovskis.

I've been all over the world, and I've never been to a place where the wilderness beckons me- physically pulls me. It feels different to other wild areas I've been in- I resent my inability to just vanish into the wilds of it and embrace it fully. I sit on my back porch and look up at the Tiers, and I can feel it looking back at me. Wild, untamed, mysterious, and far beyond human comprehension.

For me, this is Tasmania- and it's still there, though I doubt my daughter will see it at my age.

I can only say nil desperandum,I walk in forest that was logged and has re grown ,I walk in forest that is pristine,I traverse areas where trappers tracks prevail ,I have seen coal mines ,copper mines,gold mines ,tungsten and bismuth mines in so called widerness and can still hear the birds singing so dont despair ,just remember how much is reserved in perpetuity

Yay, the glass which we thought was half empty is in reality half full.

FF

It is difficult putting all of this into words .. you cannot convey it all ... emotions don't work in words .. Why do people build horrible out of date brick veneer houses ... they are ugly and soooo inefficient in terms of energy use...

In town here, a recent sub-division has had a glut these monstrosities spring up out of nowhere.

Similar things I witnessed in Tasmania .. a beautiful old late 19th century cottage , resting in its own niche for 100 years.. and some moron comes along and builds a 1960's designed brick veneer thing that you would see in myriad suburbs across Australia... right next door or across the road .. Yuppies and retirees from the capital cities ... it's not always them.. often, its conservative native Tasmanians who do it too. And, remember the HIPPY invasion of the mid 1970's... god, they were a plague ... and they brought along the trendy goats too.. often the goat escaped and before you know it.. a herd of wild goats is destroying the bush .. I witnessed this ... Not forgetting the donkey .. oh yes, you've got to have a donkey to pass as a bona fide 'Hippy' . I would see them buying food at supermarkets ..just like you and me. Build your little wooden shack and play 'nature' .. most of them lasted a year or two and got bored . Some stuck at it and are still doing it ..30 years later.

Yes, I'm cynical ..

Mike