Veronika Wild

West Head - a place for the birds West Head is the most easterly boundary of Narawntapu National Park. This is reached by taking the sealed road to Greens Beach on the West Tamar and then turning west. For the most part the road is excellent, but for the series of violent speed humps through Greens Beach itself, long a popular holiday spot, but now an almost urban community with large established houses.  The last four km or so, which probably fall under the jurisdiction of Parks and Wildlife rather than the council, are unsealed and an absolute chassis wrecker. I know Parks and Wildlife are strapped   – they have closed many facilities which they formerly ran – e.g. the picnic area at Detention Falls has been abandoned, the track at Holwell Gorge has not been reopened   and so on, but we should be wary of not killing the golden goose.   Even tourists who have their own campervans spend money in our small towns – they eat, they buy fuel, they visit attra...

This is very different vegetation to my usual walks - grass trees, silver banksias, open grasslands   It was way too early to make camp for the night and the shorter walk to the birdhide seemed a bit too tame. Though I like birds, I am not really a twitcher - I probably don't have the patience, and no bird I have ever seen looks like those in my Simpson and Day.  I put on my boots and my old painting jeans and started walking beneath arches of Silver Banksia in the direction of  Archer’s Knob, a lookout in the Eastern Section of the Park.   It’s   a fairly easy walk, mostly through coastal scrub, sandy underfoot and occasionally across swampy ground bridged by a boardwalk. The lagoon with the birdhide lies to my right and to the right of that is cleared ground. Higher hills lie beyond. View from the Birdhide My feet make no noise on the soft sandy track. I admire the scenery and startle the occasional pademelon sending it skittering through the bush.  Th...

Symbol of hopes dashed - This was once going to be the Capital of Tasmania I had my lunch at Yorktown where the B 741 turns off to go to the Narawntapu National Park. No town exists there now, just a pleasant picnic area and a historic walk, but it was the first settlement in Northern Tasmania and was intended to be the capital. As rivalry between the French and the English intensified and Frenchman Charles Baudin's ships came passing by in the early 1800's, Lord Hobart instructed Lt. Governor King to immediately secure Bass Strait and Northern Tasmania by establishing a settlement there. In 1804 he sent Colonel William Paterson to do the job along with three ships, soldiers and convicts. The first ship, the Buffalo, foundered, losing all the cattle.    Availability of water was its main attraction and the now Lt. Governor Paterson set about establishing barracks, a storeroom, a sturdy gaol, and three rows of cottages. Being a bit of a botanist himself and a friend of Joseph...