A trip to Tasmania is on lots of bucket lists and 2017 will see many members take advantage of rally plans to finally – or perhaps again – make it across Bass Strait. The attractions that take people this far south are many and well-known: Port Arthur, Freycinet and other national parks, Wineglass Bay, Cataract Gorge, Strahan – the list goes on. You can cover most of these highlights in two or three weeks. So why is it that people keep going back, or postpone returning to the ‘other’ island? 

Mostly, it’s the picture-postcard-around-every-corner syndrome that lures you in, but also the feeling of stepping back in time, the abounding hospitality, the history, the special interests, the festivals and, especially, the RV-friendliness. 

In 1998, I went to Tassie for five weeks and swore to return for at least three months. It took me 15 years but I did go back – for five months in three consecutive years. On my last return to the mainland, I lamented that I still hadn’t been ‘everywhere’, had still driven past some town and locality signs without venturing off a particular road. I vowed to return at least once more, for a period of 12 months and for the purpose of seeing all those spots that I previously missed. 

The river's been cutting its path for millions of years and won't be stopping any time soon.

Of course, this meant a winter in Tassie; most people cried, “Are you mad?”

Visiting all the missed places would no doubt mean re-visiting many locations with which I was already familiar, so the project turned into visiting every town in Tassie. With a passion for amateur photography, I envisage the possibility of a coffee table book entitled - what other than ‘Every Town in Tassie’. There are any number of books on Tasmania featuring tourist highlights and interests such as fishing, boating, rivers, mountains, old huts, national parks, history, convicts, etc, but there’s no book featuring every town in Tassie.

The project is current and hopefully I can report ‘mission accomplished’ at a later date. In the meantime, it’s documented on Facebook at a group page titled ‘Every Town in Tassie’. Followers are welcome.

The winter months, if not the winter weather, have been and gone. The diesel heater installed before leaving my home state of Queensland has been invaluable but I still await the horrible bitter cold that I have heard about so much. Perhaps my blood has thickened to its birth status, from Holland.

Call that snow? That's not snow - that's just a light Dutch frost. 

Just now, I’m enjoying a very rare – for me – park up, looking after Archie, a West Highland White Terrier whose owners are spending eight weeks on the mainland, hiding from ‘the worst of the winter’. Archie gets on well with my own two Westies, Angus (11 years) and Maggie (nine months). The park up, at Shearwater, offers the luxury of utilities but also a magni? cent location just 200m from a dog-friendly beach. Knowing that a third Westie, Mollie, was joining our family in mid-August was another reason to set down roots, if only for a few weeks.

Prior to the park up, I concentrated on the north-west coast but was slow to start due to the floods that occurred just four days after I arrived. Evacuation from the Forth camping area was part of the adventure that I had not counted on, but no harm was done to me and mine, and it enabled me to relate to the turmoil of the state suffering from what was the worst flood for a century.

In the days before the flood, I quickly learned that a town name didn’t necessarily mean a town. There were town names, sometimes one sign at each end, with no town in between; perhaps two or three houses or properties but no towns. Some locations had a hall or a fire station with nothing else that would indicate a town. 

A properly wet winter has filled the creeks and waterfalls, to the benefit of keen photographers.

If ever the saying ‘it’s not the destination but the journey’ is applicable, it’s in Tassie. The scenery is magnificent. The pace is relaxed. The distances are short. The terrain is varied. The locals are friendly. The potential for free camping is almost unending. 

How many towns are there? My estimate is about 400, with 130 done so far. After the park up, we head for the less-populated north-east, and a swing around to Campbelltown where the Solo Rally is being staged. Will 12 months be enough? Who knows? I have no return booking, so it doesn’t really matter.

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Written: Tue 01 Nov 2016
Printed: November, 2016
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