Day 5. Strachan - Gordon River Cruise

Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Strahan, Tasmania, Australia
There was cloud all day and frequent rain showers but evidently this is typical for this region so we made the best of it. The boat left at 9.00, but we had to be there by 8.30. We had allocated seats but could go anywhere on the boat, even the wheelhouse. Our itinerary was to go to the entrance of the Macquarie Harbour - Hells Gate, then to pull up beside a salmon & trout farm, land on Sarah Island for an hour, have lunch while slowly going down the Gordon River. We then had half an hour for a rainforest walk to see some Huon Pines and then back to Strachan,  for a visit to a saw mill. All up about 125 kilometres.
Some information about Huon Pine. It only grows in the wet, temperate rainforests of South West Tasmania – on the whole planet! It is not actually a pine and is the only member of its family, so a pretty unique tree which grows extremely slowly, averaging just 1 millimetre in girth per year. They can grow to be 2,500 years old which means some of them started life BC! Add to this the fact that they do not start to reproduce until 600 to 800 years of age and you have a very special tree whose timber also has remarkable properties. The timber has a very high oil content, methyl eugenol to be precise, which renders it impervious to insects, waterproof, and imbues it with its characteristic sappy perfume. The high oil content also means the timber can be bent, shaped, worked and sculpted without splitting and finishes to a superb, fine lustre. Pale straw coloured when first cut, it ages to a rich honey gold. Today it cannot be removed from the forest, so supplies can only be taken from the river where the logs may have been there for hundreds of years.
The whole day was great, but we really enjoyed our guided walk around Sarah Island. This was a brutal place where the worst re-offenders were sent to. Thousands of lashings were meted out for almost any misdemeanour. But over the 12 years they made many Huon pine boats. This was before Port Arthur was built. All the wooden buildings have disappeared but some brick remnants remain. And the slipway where they launched their boats is preserved under about a metre of mud. The best remaining example in the Southern Hemisphere.
Lunch was buffet but well controlled and seconds were available if you could fit it in. Our walk through the rainforest was amazing. How the Piners moved through this jungle to harvest the Huon pine and float it on the river, is unbelievable. All in all a very good day . Tomorrow we head east to Bronte Park.

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