Category Archives: Hobart

My route for Stage 4 walking along the Derwent River

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Yesterday’s route took me from Tranmere to Bellerive on the Derwent River’s eastern shore of the Greater Hobart Area.

  1. I caught the Number 615 bus to Camelot Park and got off at bus stop 31 in Tranmere just before 9am. The bus continued onto it final stop 31, while I crossed the road to look down on the rocky foreshore, before striding out along the concreted Clarence Foreshore Trail (CFT) back towards the city.

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  1. When I reached bus stop 29, public toilets were located next to the Trail. I continued along the Trail to the left on a gravel path separating the rocks and water from the back yards of houses lining the river. Fifty odd minutes after leaving the bus, and after passing Punch’s Reef and Anulka Park, I arrived at a significant curve in the Trail. At that point it seemed to be returning up to the roadway for continuation on a concreted pathway next to Tranmere Road.
  2. Instead I walked on northwards, next to the river on a grassy terrace but was eventually forced down onto the rocks of Howrah Point. Fifty minutes later I arrived at the southern end of Little Howrah Beach where I sat and ate some of my lunch. I would not recommend followers take this route because when the tide is in, some rocks will be impassable. At other times some uncovered rocks will be slippery with moss. In addition, there are overhanging prickly bushes which will scratch if you follow this way. I suspect staying on the Clarence Foreshore Trail would have taken half an hour or more off my walk.

The photo below shows the tranquillity of Little Howrah Beach.

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  1. Half way along the road next to the Little Howrah Beach is bus stop 21. Close by are public toilets.
  2. It took 6 minutes to walk the length of this short beach, a minute to walk over a tiny rocky shoreline, and then 30 minutes to walk the long Howrah Beach. The photo below shows the Howrah Beach. Second Bluff is the treed area at the end of the beach.

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  1. From Howrah Beach, I walked up and around the Second Bluff headland on a well-marked path (the rocks below would be impossible to walk around) and arrived at the start of the Bellerive Beach approximately a quarter of an hour later. The leisurely stroll along Bellerive Beach took about 30 minutes. The photo below was clicked looking back along Bellerive Beach after my walk was completed.

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Near this end of the beach a large football and cricket ground is evident through the trees.  Between this ground and the beach you will find public toilets.

  1. I took the stairs at the northern end of Bellerive Beach up onto Victoria Esplanade, turned left and followed the road around Kangaroo Bluff to Bellerive Bluff where this fourth stage of my walk along the Derwent finished.

This Bluff marks the point where the small Kangaroo Bay opens off tto the east of the Derwent River. Northwards across the water I could see Rosny Point which will be the starting point for the next leg of this journey.

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On the other side of the river, the city centre featured prominently below Mount Wellington.

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A number 608 bus runs through this part of Bellerive and continues onto Hobart. Alternatively, if you continue walking along the edge of Kangaroo Bay, then through the Bellerive Village onto Cambridge Road, buses can be hailed to stop at Bus Stop 8 for travel into Hobart city.

How much of the Derwent River have I walked?

I strolled very slowly for almost five hours. If followers choose to stay on the Clarence Foreshore Trail and are not as engaged as I was in making notes and taking photographs, I believe this walk will take a comfortable 3 and a half hours including snack breaks. In total, I probably walked about 10 kilometres because of the convoluted nature of the Howrah Point rocks and other non-Clarence Foreshore Trail pathways which I followed from time to time.  In relation to meeting my goal to walk the 249 kilometre length of the Derwent River, I gained another 4 kms; the total distance covered so far is now 19.5 kilometres.

Tranmere, Howrah and Kolkata (or Calcutta if that’s how you remember it)

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My last posting determined a connection between Howrah and Kolkata.

This triggered my memory of Saroo Brierley’s real life story published last year by Penguin Books, in ‘A Long Way Home’.  Having survived the streets of India including Kolkata as a lost child, Saroo was adopted by a Tranmere family. The book is an uplifting and enlightening read. Saroo’s story is one of luck, extreme persistence, love, family and self-belief.  He achieved his dream against all odds.  An extraordinary story.

Howrah

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My walk today  (my fourth walk) along the Derwent River must pass through Howrah, an eastern shore suburb adjacent to Tranmere in the City of Clarence (part of the Greater Hobart Area).

The Clarence City Council records that Howrah was named after Howrah House (or Howrah Farm, an alternative source suggests), a property established in the 1830s on Clarence Plains by a retired Indian Army officer Captain James Fielder. According to the Asiatic Journal of the times, when Fielder was a branch pilot in Calcutta (which in our recent times has been renamed Kolkata), his wife had a son in Kolkata on 3 March 1830 so travel to Tasmania occurred sometime after that. On 25 March 1835, ‘the lady of Captain James Fielder’ gave birth to a daughter at Clarence Plains. Fielder arrived in Hobart at least a year earlier if the information in http://vdlworldimmigrants.wordpress.com/stories-of-immigrants-pre-1900 is correct.  “A newspaper notice by James Fielder of Howrah Farm, Clarence Plains, dated 17 November 1834 reads: Run Away On Friday the 14th instant, my apprentice boy, named Charles Connor, a native of India, between 16 and 17 years of age. I therefore warn all persons against harbouring him. He has on a narrow blue striped shirt, under a blue baize shirt, duck trowsers, lace shoes, and a tarpaulin hat. A reward of ten shillings will be given by the Undersigned to any constable who may take him up.”

Captain James Fielder took the name Howrah from a place of the same name near Kolkata. Clarence Plains is now known as Rokeby, a suburb I passed through on route to my first two walking stages on the South Arm peninsula. Rokeby is located over the hill from Howrah.

I found another historical connection when I recalled that Lieutenant John Hayes, who named our Derwent River, sailed from Kolkata in 1793.

With a little online research, I found that Howrah is the twin city to Kolkata in the state of Bengal in India, separated only by the Hoogly River. Back when Hayes was in the India, Kolkata was the capital of India during the British Raj so I imagine a bustling, active and expanding city.

On 11 October 1760, the Indian Howrah district came under control of the East India Company (EIC) – a massive trading company with ships travelling the world.  In 1823, when Bishop Reginald Heber described Howrah as the place “chiefly inhabited by shipbuilders”, it confirmed that location as a significant base for the 27 year old Hayes before he took leave of the EIC, acquired a couple of merchant sponsors who built him two ships, and sailed to Tasmania.  In addition to the shipbuilding industry, I have been pleased to learn that the British created a balance in the landscape by establishing the Indian Botanical Gardens in 1786. Perhaps Hayes experienced this maturing garden before he left in 1793. When he sailed into the Derwent River the Rokeby Hills would have been heavily forested (not cleared or edged with suburbs as they are today) and might have seemed similar to a botanical garden – a place with unusual vegetation.

Is there any chance Lieutenant John Hayes looked at our trees and remembered the Indian Botanical Garden?

Stage 4 of the walk along the Derwent River will happen tomorrow

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Tomorrow, Friday 26th September will be marked by my fourth walk along the Derwent River.  The first two stages were on the South Arm Peninsula from Cape Direction to Gellibrand Point, and the third walk covered a little territory from Trywork Point to mid Tranmere. Tomorrow I will take up where I left off. This means I will be taking the Metro bus, number 615 which leaves the Hobart City Bus Mall at 8.23am for Camelot Park and travels through Bellerive and Howrah to bus stop 31, the starting point for the walk. The direction I will take will be northwards through the last part of the suburb or Tranmere and into Howrah. My intention is to walk the length of the Howrah Beach, then the Bellerive Beach and beyond. The weather and my feet will be the factors controlling the distance.  There is a 10% chance of rain so I will be unlucky if any drops fall while I am out and about.  All in all this means it should be a great day for anyone to be out and about and enjoying our gorgeous spring weather.

Tranmere

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Last week I arrived in the suburb of Tranmere, walked to Trywork Point and then retraced my steps back into Tranmere.

Today I have been wondering why this suburb was named so. Wikipedia was my only source of information. If that information is true, then this Derwent River edge suburb in the City of Clarence was named after a suburb of Birkenhead in the Wirral Peninsula in England.  And where is that I wondered. This is the Liverpudlian part of England on the north western coast of England. Home of ‘Gerry and the Pacemakers’ ferrying across the Mersey River. English Tranmere skirted the edge of part of that River in a similar way to our Hobart Tranmere skirting the edge of part of the Derwent River.

In addition, I discovered that South Australia also contains a suburb named Tranmere in its capital city. However, so Wikipedia tells me, that Adelaide suburb was named after a town in Cheshire, England.   These bits of information raised more questions. Good ol’ Wikipedia.  Another of its sites tells me that Tranmere was, before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974, a part of the County Borough of Birkenhead within the geographical county of Cheshire. It seems a reasonable guess that Adelaide and Hobart’s suburb are named after the same English town.

Vikings!

Apparently the name Tranmere was given by Norwegian Vikings who settled and colonised Wirral in the 10th century. Tranmere in Old Norse is Trani-melr, meaning “Cranebird sandbank” or “sandbank with the Cranebirds”. So … now I am wondering whether cranes rested on the shores of the Derwent in the area of Tranmere. Australia has only one cranebird: the Sarus Crane lives mostly in the northern tip of the Northern Territory. However Australia has a number of Herons and, despite being considerably smaller and shorter their long necks might have been considered comparable to a Crane. Tasmania welcomes both the White Necked Heron and the White Faced Heron. This former bird is similar to England’s Common Crane in colour. Is it possible that a person from England’s Tranmere area was walking along our river’s edge before the suburb spread, saw the White Necked Heron wandering around, felt the power of our Derwent River providing a separation ribbon from Hobart city on the other side, and remembered standing at Tranmere looking across at Liverpool city?  I don’t know the answer.

Music lovers

A final bit of trivia. Tranmere in England is home to Dave Nicholas the last resident cinema organist in the United Kingdom. You can read more about him at http://picturepalace.org/cinema-staff/organists/. In addition there are some extraordinary videos to be watched.

 

Stage 3 Concluding the Trywork Point walk 20 September 2014 Posting 6 of 6

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I walked for 3 hours and around 6 – 7 kilometres today. A comparatively short walk. But a walk of discovery of what not to do and what to do.

Approximately eleven kilometres of the Derwent River were walked on the South Arm Peninsula and today I covered a further 3 kilometres of the River’s length.  So far, 15.5 kilometres of the 249 kilometres have been accounted for on the eastern side of the Derwent River.  This includes the watery gap between Gellibrand Point and Trywork Point.

Note that there are no public toilets on this Trywork Point walk. There are no shops or other public facilities. Therefore it is important to take a supply of water, food, and a range of protective clothing for all weathers.

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This is my pick of the photographs taken today – it looks marvellous as a screen saver. The tufty moving grasses contrasted against the soft clouds scudding across the blue sky.

 

Stage 3 Continuing the Derwent River walk 20 September 2014 Posting 5 of 6

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Leaving the Derwent River edge, I walked up the concrete path to Vaughan Court in Tranmere, turned left, walked until I reached the T junction with Oceana Drive, turned left and then followed the suburban footpath back in the direction of the original bus stop.  From the bottom of the concrete path until I reached that bus stop, it took approximately 15 minutes.

I turned left down into Tranmere Road. Three minutes later, when I reached Pindos Drive, a No Through road, I turned left and followed it to the end and arrived at midday. This road ending named Tranmere Point, is marked by Pindos Park, an area with children’s play equipment, seats to admire the views, and places to enjoy a family picnic. Locals were walking and cycling.

I looked southwards and could see that Pindos Park was another possible starting place for a walk to Trywork Point. The soft grassy track between the houses and the River was wide and clear and continues around until a connection is made with the track to the gate at the beginning of the small pebble beach.

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This photograph is taken from the Pindos Park area. The trees on the hill in the distance are the forest of Casuarina trees I referred to in an earlier posting.  I walked though those trees in order to reach the other side and then down to Trywork Point. What I am now suggesting is the walk to Trywork Point starts here at Tranmere Point and the track visible in this photograph can be followed eventually down onto the rocky shore and then around the bays and small headlands. In this way, walking on private land can be avoided.

Once I turned away from this southwards direction to continue my walk northwards, I was blown around the Pindos Park headland with its markers indicating underwater pipes,

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and continued on following the River into the sun. I could see the suburbs of Howrah and Bellerive with their golden sandy beaches in the far distance.

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Ten minutes later I reached the official start of the Clarence Foreshore Trail, a cemented path for both cyclists and pedestrians. By 12.15 I reached bus stop 32, and five minutes later I arrived at bus stop 31. However I was beginning to plod because my feet were sore so I waited for a few minutes by the rocky foreshore of Tranmere in the glaring sun amidst a stiff wind, for the 12.23 pm bus which was scheduled to return to Hobart. It came on time, and when I hopped on and sat down I realised that I had not stopped or sat since the bus trip to Tranmere 3 hours earlier in the morning. During my walk, I hadn’t stop to have a morning tea snack – hadn’t felt the need. Was enjoying the scenery and the weather too much to consider food. Lost in all the gorgeous moments of the day.

I left the bus at the Shoreline shopping plaza for a toilet stop and a chance to buy a newspaper and a few groceries.

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Note that in this photograph taken outside the Shoreline Plaza, there is a distant hill in the centre background. That’s the hill with the Casuarina trees through which I walked on the way to Trywork Point.

The Shoreline was very convenient. Then I jumped on a later bus heading towards Hobart.

Stage 3 One starting point for a Derwent River walk to Trywork Point 20 September 2014 Posting 4 of 6

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If you choose to walk to Trywork Point, I recommend one starting point could be the pathway down from Vaughan Court (which runs off Oceana Drive to the right), and turn left at the bottom onto a grassy walking track. If my experience is a guide, you are likely to meet happy dogs and their owners enjoying a stroll along this route.

If you choose this route, I think you should allow at least 2 hours for a one way journey that has nil or minimal walking on the cattle tracks on private land.

This walk is not for everyone.

It requires specific equipment (supported walking boots) and a reasonable level of fitness, a tallish size and common sense. There are a number of dangers to be considered; the chance of rolling or spraining an ankle on the rolling rocks, the chance of injury on the slippery slopes where the needles from the Casuarina trees form a moving mat on the ground, and the surprising number of pieces of rusty fencing wire that pop up unexpectedly. In addition, if the herd of cattle was in the vicinity where you might be trying to edge along a cattle track, there might be some associated dangers. But above all, you are skirting around private land and that needs serious consideration.  If you are not very tall, you may find some of the rock climbing to be unsafe and perhaps impossible.

This walk is for the few.

 

Stage 3 Walking from Trywork Point back to the suburb of Tranmere 20 September 2014 Posting 3 of 6

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I left Trywork Point at 10.30 am intending to walk back along the edge of the River in order to determine what could be achieved without walking on private land. I am delighted to say that the low rocky foreshore from Trywork Point is very walkable if you wear strong ankle supporting boots. Of course it is slower than walking the cattle tracks but quite spellbinding.

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I did come upon one section as shown in the photograph above of rocks that rose in the air, and I couldn’t descend (it would be perfectly easy to ascend if walking towards Trywork Point by the rocks, but long legs are required to descend – and mine are short) so I climbed back up to a cattle track and followed that until I reached a gully – no water running and grassed over – where I could easily step down onto a large pebble beach.

Smooth grey driftwood pieces in all sizes and shapes were washed up to where the pebbles met the land.

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The blanching shells of thousands of mussel shells and the occasional oyster shell fitted between the pebbles. Detritus, the flotsam and jetsam of human activity was interspersed across the beach. The remains of polystyrofoam containers, blue plastic containers, empty plastic drink bottles, beer bottles, and frayed ropes were typical. Attracted by its bright yellow colour, I picked up a perfect Spalding high-bounce ball which can be used when learning to play tennis.

Around a tiny rocky headland I walked from the large pebble beach to a beach of smaller pebbles. All the while treading slowly as the stones rocked and rolled, and as pieces of rusty metals thrust up unexpectedly from below. At the northern end of this pebble beach, and as I neared the first houses of suburban Tranmere, a falling down fence crossed from the land over the pebbles and continued into the water. Once near the fence, I could see that someone had built a gate that swings in the wind, so that locals can access the beach from the suburban side of the fence.  I passed through the gate and continued on a home grown track for the occasional pedestrian traffic.  There were no signs here or around about indicating entry to the beaches and rocks where I had been walking, was prohibited.

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The white structure is the make shift gate through which I had walked.  Note that in the foreground a variety of native pigface fleshy foreshore plant are growing.  Today, the flowers were like jewels as they gleamed in the sun.

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When I looked across the Derwent River, Mount Wellington in all its magnificence towered over Hobart city. The pebble beaches and later pathways offered superb vantage points.

After walking for ten minutes from the gate, on the public verge above the river in front of many houses, I came to a public pathway leading uphill to the road; a steep concrete path that would be impossibly slippery when wet.  The pathway is located between 24a and 26 Vaughan Court and could be the starting point for a legitimate walk to Trywork Point via the rocky foreshore.

Stage 3 On the way to Trywork Point along the Derwent River 20 September 2014 Posting 2 of 6

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It was 9.13 am when I got off the bus at Tranmere (that is, a 25 minute bus ride from the Hobart city centre) and I was ready to walk but unsure which route to take.  My first idea was to walk up some side streets hoping their ends would be in open paddocks which I could walk across. I can now tell you not to walk up Norla St or Spinnaker Crescent to the locked gates and fences,

Top of Norla St- gates blocking progress

unless you want to appreciate the fabulous views of the River and beyond. At 9.45 am I was back down onto Oceana Drive near its southern end where the Crescent makes its connection.

The sealed bitumen road of Oceana Drive quickly changes into a gravel road. Then across my path a padlocked gate and a barbed wire fence that descends towards the River, effectively blocked my progress.  The tiny yellow sign glowed in the sunlight: Keep out private property.

Ahead of me on the other side of the gate, a car track wound into the distance and then disappeared into a gully. On the crest of the distant hill sat a forest of casuarina trees. Before these trees, and across the hill, golden grasses rippled when the wind blew onshore.  The sky was blue.

Sometimes there is a correct way and an incorrect way to go about doing things.

My intention has always been to provide directions for people who would like to follow in my footsteps and so if I was to describe a way that cannot be repeated, then I would mislead you. It is sufficient to say that I went the wrong way but returned the right way.  Yes yes yes. You guessed it.  I jumped that gate onto private property and continued on with plovers wheeling overhead all the while trying to protect their little bird that ran in terror into the tussocky grass. 20140920_095305

In a later posting I will describe how to walk to Trywork Point without walking on private land.

It is clear that someone is currently subdividing this land and I guess that new blocks of land will be offered for sale at some time in the future. Once this happens, then the land will be opened up and become accessible. Well-worn single file cattle tracks, evidenced by hoof marks and weathered cow pats, ranged through this land. Everything was dry and disintegrating so that I didn’t believe a herd had passed along these tracks recently.

I reached a new fence with a prominent sign on the other side: This is NOT public land.  Uphill the fence stopped in the middle of nowhere so I continued across the hill towards the forest of Casuarina trees.  I was careful that the short tussocky grass and the occasional hidden rock didn’t roll and sprain my ankles.

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Once into the trees, and dodging low branches, I followed meandering tracks all the while making sure the Derwent River remained clearly on my right. Throughout today’s walk occasionally and unexpectedly rusty pieces of fencing wire wanted to trip me up and harm me, so constant vigilance was required to avoid these dangers.

Before long and once out of the trees, a wonderful vision of The Spit and Gellibrand Point on the South Arm peninsula greeted me. Between me and Trywork Point was an ocean of moving grasses. Golden. Shimmering. Glorious. Winds sweeping. Isolation.  Silver Gulls floated overhead.

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In the photo above, the two small green trees at the bottom of the hill mark Trywork Point. Gellibrand Point is on the left across the water. The dark blue represents the huge expanse of the Derwent River’s grand harbour.

The cattle hadn’t made tracks down to Trywork Point so I thumped my own path down through the tussocks and occasional scrawny remnants of rose bushes. Eventually I arrived and unfortunately disturbed a pair of Dominican Gulls who seemed to ‘own’ the rocky point. I couldn’t see evidence that people had been here in a long while.

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The photo above is the rocky edge of Trywork Point, with Gellibrand Point on the South Arm peninsula in the distance.

When I looked eastward towards Droughty Point, a headland at some distance inside Ralph’s Bay, I was surprised to see before the point was reached, a small secluded sandy beach.

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Between the beach and Droughty Point, a healthy herd of red brown cattle rested and munched comfortably on an area of luscious looking green grass.  I guess they are the beef steaks of the future.

Stage 3 Getting to Tranmere for another Derwent River walk 20 September 2014 Posting 1 of 6

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This Saturday morning in Hobart was gloriously sunny so it was time to take a walk along the Derwent River. The Camelot Park number 615 Metro Bus departed from the city bus mall at 8.48am and travelled to the eastern shore of the Derwent River. I jumped on the bus a little after 9am having already enjoyed the short walk to the bus stop past ornamental cherry trees plump with green buds and a sprinkling of newly opened palest of pink flowers, past the mass of flowering jasmine strangling a fence between neighbours, and past the rich red pink jewels of a flowering nectarine tree that promises tasty juicy fruit in the new year.

The bus continued along Cambridge Road before turning left along Clarence Street, which runs parallel to the Derwent River.  I wondered whether the name was in remembrance of Lieutenant John Hayes’ ship the Duke of Clarence, a British Duke of Clarence from some era, or whether there had lived an interesting Mrs Clarence once upon a time whose memory is now enshrined in this long street.

Half way along the street, a sign noted the change of suburb from Bellerive to Howrah. Soon the bus was pulling into the mini bus mall in the Shoreline precinct of a hotel and a shopping plaza.  Moments later the bus was travelling down the road towards the River and, after sweeping around a bend, it continued through the suburb of Howrah then the suburb of Tranmere, always parallel to the River. I had a clear view of Mount Wellington and the city centre of Hobart on the western shore. Between sat an almost rippleless dark blue Derwent Harbour. It wasn’t long before I could see, in the distance, the treeless hills that I expected to be tramping across.

Around ten minutes after leaving the Shoreline, the bus circled into bus stop 33 at the corner of Tranmere Rd and Oceana Drive. This was the final stop, and as I got out the driver turned off the engine and stepped out to stretch his legs while waiting for his return departure time to arrive. The air was clean and the day was colourful. I stood on Oceana Drive edged by large suburban houses and felt the strength of a cool breeze.

A number of black and white magpies were broadcasting their fantastic singing voices. Their melodious sounds were crossed with a cacophony of the de daaa tt de daaa tt of the wattlebirds.

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I was standing at the bus stop when I took this photo looking along Oceana Drive in the direction that I needed to walk. But despite my maps and internet research I stood still looking and puzzling, and not clear where to walk or whether I would be able to access my starting destination: Trywork Point.

Stage 2 of my walk along the Derwent River finished at Gellibrand Point and the next point directly across the inlet to Ralph’s Bay was Trywork Point on an exposed headland. So today’s walk needed to start at Trywork Point, south of this bus stop, but I had to get there on foot somehow before retracing my steps to continue walking northwards along the Derwent River.

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I started walking along Oceana Drive then looked back from where I came and clicked this photograph. The bus is still ‘resting’ where I left it.

How did Hobart’s Derwent River get its name?

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Dan Sprod’s information for the Centre for Tasmanian Historical Studies was a great help in understanding that our Derwent’s (http://www.utas.edu.au/library/companion_to_tasmanian_history/R/River%20Derwent.htm) European discovery was made during the second (1793) visit to what is now the island of Tasmania, by French explorer Bruny d’Entrecasteaux. The given French name ‘Rivière du Nord’ never took hold. When Englishman Lieutenant John Hayes arrived in April 1793, he was unaware of d’Entrecasteaux’s visit two months earlier, and named the river after the Derwent River in England.

Great Britain’s Derwent River flows through Cumbria, a sparsely populated non-metropolitan county in the north west of England.

Cumbria contains the famously beautiful Lakes District, and presents as a combination of mountains, rugged seashore, parkland and rural landscape. In the early eighteenth century, the landscape and climate similarities between Cumbria and our island’s river backed by the stunning Mount Wellington make it easy to understand how our river came to be named.  In England, the name Derwent is derived from a Celtic word for “oak trees”.  Australia and Tasmania do not have native trees with the same leaf and character as English Oaks. However the heavy thick forests with large stands of trees either side of Tasmania’s Derwent River, would have made a strong impression on Lieutenant Hayes.

The Cumbrian Derwent flows westwards towards the Irish Sea; the city of Workington sits at the mouth. Google Earth includes photos of a mountain, powdered with snow, showing similarities with our Mount Wellington at cooler times.  I imagine Lieutenant Hayes would have been away from England for many months, if not years, and so his ability to make direct comparisons between his English and our river would be based on hazy memories.  Notwithstanding this, when I look at a current photo of the Derwent in Cumbria, the landscape has a character similar to our local environment. Of course, the landscape and its features at both locations will not be the same as when seen in the late 1700s. However and despite the passing of centuries, I can see how and why Lieutenant Hayes chose to name our river, the Derwent.

But what about the man; what was Lieutenant Hayes connection with Cumbria and the Derwent River?

The Australian Dictionary of Biography (MUP Volume 1 1996) notes that Sir John Hayes (1768-1831), naval officer and explorer, was baptized on 11 February 1768, the son of Fletcher Hayes of Tallentire on the River Derwent, England. On 7 December 1781, when 13, he joined the Bombay Marine as a midshipman on the Bombay. By December 1788 he was promoted to second lieutenant and his rise through the ranks continued over the years. Hayes is best remembered for a private voyage undertaken between February 1792 and December 1794. Glowing accounts of New Guinea’s economic potential fired Hayes to lead an expedition financed by some Calcutta merchants. On 6 February 1793 the Duke of Clarence (250 tons) and the Duchess of Bengal (100 tons) left Calcutta, India. Because of adverse winds Hayes could not sail direct to New Guinea, so at the young age of 27 years, he decided to voyage round New Holland (this was the original European name for Australia). He reached Van Diemen’s Land on 24 April and left on 9 June. During that time, he discovered and named the Derwent River, and other features of the terrain. Risdon Cove and Cornelian Basin still bear the names he gave them. According to the publication “British Heritage of Tasmania’, (http://members.iinet.net.au/~rwatson1/britishheritage/BRITISH%20HERITAGE%20OF%20TASMANIA.pdf

Hayes named Ralphs’ Bay (a beautiful bay which I have mentioned during both my first and second stage of walking along the eastern shore of Tasmania’s Derwent River) at Lauderdale, after William Ralph who was in charge of the Duchess of Bengal.

While I would like to think that the City of Clarence (the eastern shore city of the Greater Hobart Area and the one in which I live) must have been named specifically after the ship which Hayes’ commanded, this apparently isn’t true.  It seems that the City of Clarence was named after King William IV of the United Kingdom who as he ascended the throne was titled His Royal Highness, The Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. However, let’s look at this a little more closely. In 1843, Prince William (the future King William IV crowned in 1830) began a career in the Royal Navy by becoming a midshipman at 13 years. In 1789 he was made Duke of Clarence, and then retired from the Navy in 1790.  The elements are: the future king is a naval man who held the title of Duke of Clarence before Lieutenant John Hayes (who started his naval career as a midshipman) set out from India towards Australia. Travelling to Tasmania, Hayes just happens to be in command of a ship named the Duke of Clarence in 1793. How did his ship get the name?  Considering the timing, surely Hayes ship was named in honour of the new Duke of Clarence (the Sailor King or Silly Willy as the future king was known). I would prefer to believe that the name of today’s City of Clarence lying along the eastern edges of the Derwent River, is a reference to the ship of the man who named our River, and only indirectly refers back to the early title of King William IV.

Vistas of water

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I am fortunate to live in a part of Hobart with daily views of the Derwent River.  Travelling to and from work in the city, I bus over one of the river’s main bridges the Tasman Bridge. In these ways, I see the wonderful watery play of the moods, colours and water traffic across the Derwent River.

Since many people from around the world now read this blog I am reminded of the watery views near some of those readers. Most recently, the blog statistics indicated I have some Greek readers.

A few months ago I visited Greece, and while I am probably one of few travellers who did not ferry around the islands, from the mainland I did look out at the glorious expanses of the Aegean Sea and marvel at the islands in the distance. The joys of discovery were not limited to searching in the distance. Sometimes, as I found, you can enjoy the sea even more because of structures on the land – you can see through them and they create frames for seeing other landscapes. South-east of Athens is a ruined temple, the Temple of  Poseidon. Almost picture postcard imagery. I had to keep pinching myself.  I was there.  I smelled the freshness of the wind.  I tasted the salt on the air. I felt the sparkle of the sun in my eyes. I heard the passing of seabirds. And I touched the remnants of the workmanship of creativity from over 2000 years ago. And there below and spread out into the distance was the deep blue of the water capped by the blue of the sky.  The gods certainly found one part of paradise.
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The photo shows the ruins of the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounio/Sounion located south east of Athens, Greece.  I hope you can you feel the sun in the air.

Yearning to walk the next stage

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For the past almost two weeks I have yearned to be out walking and discovering another length of the Derwent River. Unfortunately, when snow storms powdered the mountain (Mt Wellington) last week it was simply too cold and then some of the days when I was free to walk were overcast. I find that I continue to make my own rules about what should happen as and when I walk the Derwent River. The latest ‘rule’ is that I will not walk unless the sun is shining.  The reason is that I only want to take photographs to show you the land and the river in full sparkle. I only want to see it that way myself as I walk.

Again yesterday snow storms on the mountain brought the temperature low and the forecast is for rain to continue off and on until this Saturday, when not only will the day be dry but the sun will shine.   Come on Saturday!

Another thing I must consider is the availability of public transport because, as you know, my walks must be able to be reached and finished in touch with our local public transport system, the Hobart Metro buses. If you have a car to duplicate my walks then you are lucky. Not everyone has access to their own transport.  Weekend bus times are not nearly as frequent as during the weekdays.  For example, the Camelot Park bus that I need for travel on Stage 3 of the walk is around in that suburb every half an hour during the week but only once an hour at the weekends. Research and vigilance is always the key.

 

Preparing for the next stage of my walk along the Derwent River

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The image featured directly above is of the watery inlet from the Derwent River on the left into Ralph’s Bay on the right. The low hill in the distance is north of and opposite from Gellibrand Point (which is at the northern end of South Arm peninsula). The low hill is Droughty Hill: Trywork Point will be to the lower left of the hill.

Previously, I walked from the mouth of the Derwent River and covered the length of the South Arm peninsula which amounts to approximately 11 km of the River. Stage 1 took me from Cape Direction to the Opossum Bay shop. Stage 2 took me from the Opossum Bay shop to Gellibrand Point. Only 238 Kms to go!

Continuing on from the last walk will require me to leap-frog over approximately 2kms of water for the next starting point Trywork Point which is south of the Rokeby Hills. The reason for my ‘jumping over’ is that I am guessing that the Derwent River was measured as a ‘straight’ length and did not count the many extra kilometres going in and out of every bay and crevice. The water between Gellibrand Point on the South Arm peninsula and Trywork Point is the entrance to the large Ralph’s Bay which feeds off the Derwent River.

So my initial destination for Stage 3 is Trywork Point – that will mark the start of the walk. To reach this starting point I will need to walk south from a bus stop and then later be prepared to retrace my steps or find a more suitable alternative route before continuing northwards through as many Hobart’s eastern shore suburbs as my feet will carry me.  The suburban area has frequent bus services (by comparison with the Opossum Bay bus service) so that timing the duration of Stage 3 is dependent on my health and inclination rather than on bus timetables.

Unfortunately, TasMAP Taroona 5224 is not a great deal of help for reaching Trywork Point. It clearly shows the acres of land between the bus stop and Trywork Point but offers no roads or tracks. I am clear that I will walk from the last Camelot Park bus stop (Metro Bus number 615) south to the Point – somehow. The Hobart and Surrounds Street Directory is only of marginally more use than the TasMAP. However this Directory will be especially useful with the names of streets as I return northwards and walk in and through the suburbs in the later part of this Stage 3 walk.

The most useful mapping and tracking information comes from the Google earth map of the area (which was also useful to see tracks on Gellibrand Point in Stage 2) – although the name Trywork Point is not recorded and does not appear on their map (Note that Trywork Point and some other landmarks are indicated on the TasMAP).  The best that Google can offer is Droughty Point Road. From there I moved the map westward until I found the T junction with Tranmere Rd and Oceana Drive – this intersection is the bus stop from where I will start walking.

Walking south, the bitumen road peters out and the tracks across the land are variously strong and faint on the Google earth map. With this limited information, finding my way will be an experimental process.

Years ago friend Je and I walked from the end of Tranmere Road across some of this land. However, I remember that we encountered stout almost impassable fences. This memory makes me wonder what I will find now, and how easy the access to Trywork Point will be. I look forward to my ongoing discovery of the land besides this wonderful Derwent River.