Bruny Isand

 Bruny Island  

We took the vehicle ferry from Kettering just 33 kilometres from Hobart across the D'Entrecasteaux Channel to Bruny Island. Both were named after Bruni d'Entrecasteaux (1737 - 1793) although they mis-spelt his name. D'Entrecasteau was a French naval officer, explorer and colonial governor. He is perhaps best known for his exploration of the Australian coast in 1792, while searching for the Laperouse expedition. That expedition had resulted in a shipwreck in the Solomon Islands and d'Entrecasteaux never found the Laperouse expedition. He died of scurvy in what today is called the Bismarck Archipelago in Papua New Guinea.

Leaving Kettering.

A sister ferry.

Vehicles on board the ferry.

Our first stop was at a honey shop. There was lots of different types of honey including manuka honey on offer plus other apiary products. The structure to the left o the photo was a playground, monkey bars and sand pit for children.

We moved on to the Bruny Island Neck Game Reserve. The neck is an isthmus that connects the northern island where we had landed to the southern island. There are 217 steps rising from the beach to the top of the Truganini Lookout. 

Truganini (1812 - 1876) was a woman, famous for being called the last 'full-bloodied' Aboriginl Tasmanian to survive British colonisation although that claim is not true. She lived through the devastation of invasion, colonisation and the Black War in which most of her relative were killed although she survived as she was a guide for expeditions organised to round up indigenous Tasmanians to tanspot them to Flinders Island where she was also taken. She was later moved to Oyster Bay with 48 other survivors. She died in Hobart and her skeleton was placed on public display at the Tasmanian Museum until 1948. Her remains were finally cremated and laid to rest in 1976.

A bluetongued lizard. The neck is also home to a colony of fairy penguins, the smallest penguin species and to a flock of shearwaters.

It was a long walk up the hill to reach the Cape Bruny Lightstation.

A close up of the light house. It was completed in 1838. It was built by convicts. There are over 600 shipwrecks around Tasmania. This is the third oldest light house in Austalia and the second oldest still standing. It was designed after the sinking of the George III with the loss of 137 lives including convicts who were being transported to Port Arthur. The convicts who built the light house were promised their ticket home if they built it within a specified date. It took them 18 months to complete but they received their tickets.

A view of some of the cliffs from the top of the hill.

A view back to the three houses that were home to the light house keepers. Two are occupied as residential homes and the third is a modest museum.

We stopped off at the Bligh museum, a private collection of items owned by William Hamilton. The door was closed but the curator came off the beach to oen it for us. The building is a replica of the church that was built just up the road. It took 26,000 bricks. It faces the beach and the curator had been watching wildlife but she came over to open the museum when she saw us arrive. She had been watching dolphins and a whale in the bay opposite. It was a quick tour of the museum and then we move to the beach to see the dolphins and whale.

On the way back to the ferry back to the mainland, we stopped for a beer and cheese tasting.

The original house.

Four beers and six of the seven cheeses tat were part of the tasting. We had a talk about the cows, the different methods to make the cheeses from soft to hard cheeses and tasting notes for the four beers lthough there were other beer available.

ANd as if that asn't enough, we stopped next door at the Get Shucked oyster farm to taste oyrters. I had some at the Salamanca market in Hobart but these were even better if that is possible

And on the ferry back to the mainland, off in the distance by the fish farm, were more dolphins.