Category Archives: Walking

Out on the Farm

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On the last day of October 2015, I walked along the river edge (part of Meadowbank Lake) and mostly on the property of Curringa Farm.  I am most appreciative for Tim and Jane Parsons allowing me to walk there.

Their Farm is home to thousands of sheep.

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While I walked along approximately 4km of the river’s edge towards where the Clyde River entering the Lake, my friend Alex waited. As she sat in the car reading newspapers and drinking tea from her thermos, the wonderful view down to the ‘river’ as shown below was hers to savour.  In fact this waterway is one part of the very long Meadowbank Lake through which the Derwent River flows. One of Alex’s photos is shown below.

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While I walked, the Lake was busy with jet boats and water skiers. Watch this video.

As usual, the water and the river’s edge landscape enthralled me.

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When I walk alone I hear and see things which are not usually available if I walk with another. That is, the talking or the crashing through the bush disturbs birds and animals and they disappear.  During this walk, when a Rufus wallaby was suddenly standing before me a few metres away, we were both surprised. The bush was so quiet and I must have been making foot noises which sounded like normal bush rustlings so that s/he wasn’t immediately aware of my presence.  Eventually s/he hopped off to watch me from some bushes in the distance. I hadn’t moved a muscle since we first eyeballed each other.  But after its bounce away, my eyes swivelled to focus on a movement on the hill above. Down hopped a small wallaby and on the crest his/her mother appeared.  The following video shows them almost camouflaged in the environment. I feel sure you will not find the smaller baby wallaby until it moves again.

Watch this video.

Through the undergrowth, many well ‘walked’ tiny tracks were visible but on closer inspection they seemed to be wallaby highways.

20151031_114746.jpg Clever animals – they had been able to gradually force up fences in order to continue moving through paddocks. If you study the photograph below, on the lower right hand side you can see the wire mesh fence has been raised by rounding it up from the ground.

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Substantial sandstone/mudstone rocks intruded at the water’s edge and as cliffs formed hillsides and cave-type overhangs.  I wonder if the original inhabitants of the land rested in some of these places.

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The next selection of photos shows a couple of examples of the profusion of bush flowers seen during this walk: I cannot identify the first but the second is a tiny native orchid.

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Generally the bush was extremely dry, so much so that the lichen growing on rocks was shrivelled and seemingly dead.

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Parts of the Derwent Valley have received so little rain over winter that there is insufficient vegetation coverage for the cattle and sheep to eat in the coming months.  Apparently many farmers will be selling their sheep soon before the animals lose their good condition.  It is so challenging to work on the land.  It will be so challenging for city dwellers wanting to eat lamb in a few months’ time – a few gold ingots might be needed to make a purchase.

Nevertheless, it is a beautiful part of the world.

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A change in plan due to the expected large volume of future information

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In a blog post written a few weeks ago, I said I would not post a record for any walk on a section of the Derwent River unless it fell into the continuous sequence; that is the next post describing the walk should be from Gretna (the location of the end of the last stage of my walk- Stage 15) westwards.

From now on I will walk sections (yes blow the knee problem, I will continue)  that fit with friends dropping me off at starting points or collecting me from destinations, or that fit with the Tassie Link bus timetable.  In any given week I could be located at any point between Gretna and the source of the river as it leaves St Clair Lagoon. Therefore, in any week, my blog posts will be about where I have been walking and the experiences gained along the route.

The reason for my change of heart is that from the reconnaissance and short walking trips that I have taken in the past few weeks, I can see that there will be simply too much information to dump into the blog once I finish the walk.  Therefore, despite the chance of confusing blog followers, I will write up and post as I complete sections regardless of whether they fit into a seamless sequence.

Another advantage of this approach is that there will be less Derwent River related posts, and more actual walk related posts.

Where is the source of the Derwent River?

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This question was on the minds of the new settlers to Van Diemens Land in the early 1800s.

In 1835 George Frankland, Surveyor General to the government of the time, organised a ‘search’ party to locate the source. After the expedition he wrote a report for despatch to the ‘mother country’, England.  The brief text has been published as The Narrative of an Expedition to the Head of the Derwent and to the Countries bordering the Huon in 1835.  The small book was reprinted by Nags Head Press for the publisher Sullivan’s Cove in 1983.

No description exists of how Frankland and his party travelled inland until they reached a property or area then known then as Marlborough (now known as Bronte) in the Lake country, located west of Lake Echo and directly east of Lake St Clair by over 30 kilometres. Marlborough was a probation station for North American prisoners in the 1830s/40s.

Map of probation stations including Marlborough

The map above can be seen in the story: ‘They left Jefferson County forever…’

The Marlborough district was discovered by Surveyor Sharland who also found Lake St Clair, in 1832, only three years before Frankland felt compelled to find the source of the Derwent.  It seems Sharland did not realise it was the Derwent River that flowed from the southern end of Lake St Clair. Further information can be read in G. H. Stancombe’s paper Notes on the History of The Central Plateau.

The Lyell Highway, according to the Highland Lakes Settlement Strategy has been known as the Marlborough Road where it runs westwards of Ouse and towards the area around Bronte.

Information, which is totally irrelevant to my writings about the Derwent but nevertheless interesting, concerns an earthquake near Marlborough that was recorded in The Courier, a Hobart newspaper on 25 April 1854. Thomas Bellinger reported ‘I beg to inform you of a very strange occurrence on the evening of the 24th of March last. A shock like that of an earthquake was felt in almost every part of the Marlborough District. Two shepherds were gathering sheep the other day and discovered the cause of it.  I went to the place yesterday: there has been some fearful volcanic eruption, rocks of enormous size have been driven about, the face of the earth appears to have been hoisted in the air and pitched surface downwards. I cannot describe to you the appearance, but if you will come up I am sure you will be highly gratified – the distance is about ten miles from this.’  I have no information about where Thomas Bellinger was writing from but I am curious to hunt out the location of this upheaval.

After that information detour, let’s go back to the expedition to find the source of the Derwent River.

Following a ‘difficult journey from the settled Districts’, all members of George Frankland’s party assembled at Marlborough on the 7 February 1835.  The record shows that George Frankland did not follow the edges of the Derwent, rather he crossed the Nive River (which empties into the Derwent River much further south), then travelled north-westwards. Initially densely forested hills stymied progress with horses, and then the boggy plains ahead slowed him down.  He continued generally in a westward direction and after almost five days, found Lake St Clair; ‘we suddenly found ourselves on the edge of a beautiful Lake in the heart of Scenery of the most picturesque Character’.  After further walking around parts of the lake, Frankland reports ‘It was a fine summers day and the Air was so serene that the surface of the Water was scarcely ruffled but the sandy beaches bore evidence of the Lake being at times as rough as the Sea. I will not here dilate on the extreme beauty of this scenery as it might be considered out of place in an official report, but … I feel it difficult to avoid expressing the impressions of delight which were inspired by first discovering of such a romantic Country…’

On the 14th February, Frankland despatched two of his party to return to the source of the Derwent and follow it downstream on the left bank while he set out to explore the country on the right bank.  Both parties walked across open plains where Lake King William now fills the area.  They reunited the next day.  One of the party, a Mister Calder was despatched to continue along the edge of the river until he met the entrance of the Nive, which he successfully achieved (although details are absent).  Meanwhile Frankland tried to continue following after Calder but was only able to proceed for 3 miles. ‘At that point we plainly perceived that the Country had … become such a thick forest that to take the horses any further was out of the question.’  The result was that Frankland split the party further with the horses taking an easier route to Marlborough.

On their first day trying to walk the edge of the Derwent, Frankland recorded ‘This day was consumed by a laborious march of two miles through a most obstinate scrub – and we bivouacked on the steep edge of the Derwent after wading for a considerable distance through the torrent, up to the middle, as the easiest mode of travelling.’  The forest is as dense in 2015 as it was then, so regular blog followers can appreciate why walking some sections of the rest of the way to Lake St Clair concerns me.

At this point Frankland was for giving up. ‘On the 18th February I determined on leaving the Derwent and accordingly struck away to the N.E. The forests continued depressingly thick – but by dint of labour we accomplished about four miles this day’.  Only four miles in a day for strong men!  What chance do I have of walking this part quickly or easily?

A couple of days later Frankland reached Marlborough and from there he set off to cross the Derwent River and explore the Huon River area further south.

Thank you Andrew for alerting me to this report and for the loan of the book.

The best laid plans of mice and men …

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Other people have sore knees or knees that can’t walk downhill without discomfort or pain. Not me.  That is, until a week or two after my walk to Gretna.  For the first time in my life, I noticed my knees.

On a couple of occasions since that walk, a shooter of a pain in one of my knees left me staring wide eyed and grunting. During a visit to my GP, she listened to both knees and (they didn’t speak to her but …) she heard them grinding away.  Subtle noises, of course.  Noises not available to the common ear.  Now, after X-rays and ultrasounds, the verdict is clear. I have little to no cartilage left between my knee bones.  Yes, you guessed it. Walking is not advisable.

I whined … ‘but the source of the Derwent River is still a long way off.’  My GP looked at me purposefully, ‘it’s going to take you a long long time to finish that walk. You can add ice or heat treatments, compression knee bandages, and walk with two poles to help, but you shouldn’t walk too far, too often or on uneven ground.’  I pursed my lips. I knew cartilage does not regenerate and I realised that a lifetime of walking has gradually taken its toll on my knees. A number of expletive deletives passed through my mind.

Can I let such a ‘little’ thing get me down? What’s my plan for the future?

I have some day walks planned along the upper Derwent with friends who are ferrying me to and collecting me from various locations. I plan to walk those. If my knees fail me then I will crawl or slither back to cars or buses. No probs!  But I feel that scenario is unlikely.  I suspect I will get through a shortish day walk just fine. Nevertheless the remaining cartilage is a finite quantity and I have to think about how much I want to aggravate the situation.

Many of my blog posts have mentioned my sore feet and how by concentrating on taking one step at a time, I can continue for hours with that focus.  Each walk in the future will continue on this basis until my knees indicate it is unwise to go on.

What else can I do to achieve something like the original goal?

Thinking laterally – here’s the first idea which comes to mind and that therefore is not necessarily one to be converted into action: so far I have covered about 90 kms of the 215 km length of the Derwent River.  If, during the future planned walks I cover another 20 or 30 kms of the river (which I expect requires lots more actual walking kms to achieve those few), I am now considering the idea that whatever kilometre gap remains, I might swim that length, not in the cold Derwent but in a heated Olympic-sized swimming pool located next to the Derwent. One kilometre at a time. Maybe swimming two or three times a week.  One of my original motivations for the Derwent River walk was my need to create a personal physical challenge; the goal of swimming 100 or so kilometres would give me something major to pursue (one armstroke at a time – until the shoulders fail . Hmm perhaps I shouldn’t tempt fate by making such jokes.). Watch this space for the continuation of this idea – or a new one.

Fires above the Derwent River

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On too many nights last week the sky was dense with a rosy fire haze across my suburb.  The smoke slipped through crevices in my house so that, through each evening, I felt like I inhaled a camp fire.  Back then I checked the Tas Fire Alert website and learned the closest fire was in Quarry Road less than half a kilometre away. Today I went off to see what the burn looked like.

I chose to walk through the bushland of Waverley Flora Park first and then descend down Quarry Road.

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From the top of one of the Park’s walking tracks, I looked through stands of gum trees towards the mouth of the Derwent River.

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In the other direction Mount Wellington loomed large over the Hobart CBD and the Derwent Harbour.

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I followed in the footsteps of Charles Darwin, ‘father’ of the theory of evolution, who walked around Hobart in 1836. At some time during that visit he crossed to the eastern shore and wandered around the Bellerive suburb and beyond.

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I saw unfamiliar medium-sized birds collecting nesting material and insect food morsels (who flitted away far too fast for me to take a photograph): one was dressed in silvery greys with a long strand floating after its tail, and another with a rich olive green coat. None of my bird books help me to identify either of these birds – any locals with bird knowledge?

A profusion of native spring flowers carpeted parts of the Park, or stood as single colourful spikes amidst the dull dry green grasses.

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It soon became clear that lots of burned vegetation and scorched earth passages were scattered next to the walking track and beyond.

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Later when I walked down Quarry Road with not a burn mark in sight, I realised that for bureaucratic purposes the Tas Fire Alert site had to indicate the best road for fire trucks to follow.  It had been parts of the Waverley Flora Park that suffered fire damage.

As I continued downhill, I heard the siren sounds of a fire truck and watched it whip past the intersection below.  When I turned the corner, the truck was parked askew with hefty yellow clad guys preparing their gear.  The screams of other sirens were closing in. I watched wisps of smoke escaping from all manner of slits and slots and dirty brown smoke puffing from the front door of the house below.  I saw an approaching ambulance and guessed this wasn’t someone’s best day.

Personal Locator Beacon – walkers have one with them

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Recently I posted the story of a man who got lost for two days and then was lucky to get out of the Mt Anne region without a Personal Locator Beacon.  Today the news is that a couple of walkers needed to use their Personal Locator Beacon in the same area.  This good news can be read here.  I am pleased to read that the walkers plan to make a donation because the cost of their rescue would have been thousands of dollars.

Both stories are timely reminders of how difficult the terrain can be in Tasmania. When coupled with the uncertainties of extreme weather, the walking experience can become very dangerous.

Revisiting sites

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With a friend last Thursday and then with another yesterday I returned to Bushy Park,  where I introduced them to the hop kilns/Oasthouse precinct that is hidden at the end of 10 Acre Lane, next to the Derwent River.  They were amazed and delighted with the discovery.

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As it was when I first walked there, no-one else appeared on site. Thanks Alex and Andrew for the revisits. This site proves to be enthralling and special each visit.

Yesterday I realised the vegetation had grown dramatically and lushly in recent weeks so that ‘fences’ of flowering and green leafed Hawthorn blocked some previously easy views.  When Alex and I smelt delicate fragrant perfumes floating in the air, our noses were led to a throng of tiny roses clambering over themselves with a very strong but beautiful perfume. Standing beside this tangle was a flowering tree with perfumed drops of flowers somewhat similar to those on a wisteria, although coloured white.  We couldn’t identify this tree.  In another part of the precinct was a mass of trees with flowers in cone shaped clusters sitting up above their branches. Alex thought they might be chestnut trees.

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The ducks ran out of the Junior Angling Pool hoping for a feed.

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Idyllic.

Revisiting the hop kilns was my reward after walking a little more of the edge of the Derwent River. But more about that in later posts.

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My sunhat has seen better days but it has a long way to go yet.

The euphoria continues

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Yesterday a friend An drove me up along the Derwent River where we stopped off at a few dams, power stations and lakes. I was studying the terrain at ground level (our most recent Service Tasmania maps are aged and Google Earth photos are not current either), seeing where forestry and hydro tracks existed and determining where I will need to make my way through bush ‘with walls’. I can see a line of fiction here – turning an almost impassable density of bush into a character (an evil character – even though the bush is sublimely beautiful and bountiful) that has to be overcome.  My strategy will be as always, one slow step at a time and then the bush won’t even know I have come and gone (although my muscles will).

I walked some small sections yesterday, but I won’t write them up until I have walked in the areas westwards from Gretna to those sections.  I know now that it is difficult for some local readers to understand where I have been and therefore, if I change the blog posts from being a chronological record, it may be even more unclear.  Besides, by writing the stories in order and finishing with the last walk to the source it will be clear I have walked the Derwent.

Yesterday explorations and walks were as uplifting as the previous day’s flight; it was as equally wonderful, just different.  I feel gushy with delight when I am in the bush on a blue sky day, with no wind, and with a temp that rises sufficiently but not so that I boil.  Once I am sitting on rocks in the river bed with my lunch, listening to the birds, and sensing the spirit of the place, my life feels so right.  This is the place for me.

Then, despite the day’s experiences already being a treat, life added a new wonderful surprise.  Recently one of my blog followers, Justy, alerted me to the fact she and her partner were engaged in creating a new work of art for GASP beside the Derwent River at Glenorchy, a city in the Greater Hobart Area.  As part of their project, they had already walked along the Derwent River in Cumbria, England and now were planning to walk from the sea to the source of the Derwent early next year.  I hadn’t met them and only communicated a few times by email.  But yesterday, as An drove me towards Cluny Dam, I saw two women step from their car.  I waved and smiled as you do on a country road. As we drove on, I said to An “I bet they’re the two women who are engaged in the GASP project, out conducting a reconnaissance trip”. There was no reason to believe this except I felt I knew it to be the truth (the bush works its miracles). Nevertheless we continued on and had parked near the northern end of Cluny Lagoon when the two women drove past us. Again we waved. On a later road we found ourselves coming towards each other from opposite directions, so An waved them to a stop. The women looked at us queryingly. “Are either of you Justy or Margaret? we asked.” “Yes”, they responded. Instantly I called out, “I’m Helen”.  Their nod of acknowledgement followed. And then we all poured out of our cars, and hugged and had a lively chat standing on a dusty road in strong Spring sunlight. It was a brilliant unexpected meeting and capped off what had been a day of immense discovery and pleasure.

Best wishes for your project Justy and Margaret!

Dams on the Derwent River

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The potential of the volume of water passing down the Derwent River for hydro-electricity generation was seen over a century ago.  While a few power stations were built in the early decades of the 20th century, with an influx of migrants from war ravaged Europe in the 1940s-50s, the numbers of dams and power stations increased quickly.  Overall, many dams and approximately 30 power stations have been built across central Tasmania.

On my way to Lake St Clair, I will reach and walk past each of the following 7 markers along the River:

  • Meadowbank
  • Cluny
  • Repulse
  • Catagunya
  • Wayatinah
  • Tarraleah
  • Butlers Gorge

One of the Hydro websites provides detailed information about these and others which feed into the Derwent River catchment.  In addition, the site includes the diagram below.

Derwent dams

Brilliant bird’s eye view

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Thankyou blog follower Ju.  Recently Ju connected me with a woman with a husband who has a Private Pilot’s Licence.  Once I made contact, Michelle and Dave were delighted to fly me in their four seater plane, a Cirrus SR20 which Michelle referred to as the BMW of the skies.

Today we flew.  Not a cloud in the sky.  Clean blue sky. Hardly a breeze.  The landscape rich and varied.  The Derwent River sparkled from start to finish.

The experience was stunningly magnificent.  I love words but I find it difficult to express my excitement, my pleasure, and the sheer joy of the flight in the depth which I felt.  There below me was the river I have come to love and know a little more. There below me were the tracks, paths, roads and landscape over which I have walked – and I laughed occasionally remembering certain experiences during my walks. There below me were logging tracks, dam roads, and fading vehicular pathways.  And then we were flying over impenetrable sections which may not be walkable.

We left Hobart airport and flew to Storm Bay by rounding the Iron Pot, then we followed the river upstream to the source. Dave flew on until we reached the northern most point of Lake St Clair. The return journey was equally as beautiful and engaging. The light had changed presenting us with a ‘new’ landscape.

Of the hundreds of photos taken by Michelle, friend Chantale and myself, I include a tiny selection here.

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The photo above taken by Michelle caught me totally preoccupied by the view.

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MIchelle’s photo above shows the Derwent River snaking around the Claremont Golf course with Cadbury’s Chocolate Manufacturing buildings in white to the left.

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The photo above shows a straight section of the Derwent River before the township of New Norfolk on the upper left.

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The photo above shows the Derwent River circling part of Reid’s cherry orchards.

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Chantale’s photo of the Pumphouse Point accommodation projecting into Lake St Clair, also shows the dam across the Derwent Basin where the water enters St Clair Lagoon.  The source of the Derwent River starts to the right of the photo.

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Michelle’s photo above shows part of sprawling Hobart set against the Derwent Harbour.

Those photos taken while flying over the river westwards of Gretna will be incorporated into the stories of my walks from Gretna onwards, in future posts.  From now on, you can expect both ground-based and aerial photos to enrich the stories.
I feel like the luckiest person in the world for the opportunity to travel in a smooth flying small plane, to see the Derwent River winding through the landscape in glorious blueness, and to be reminded Tasmania is a superb place. A truly wonderful and memorable day. Thankyou to all concerned.

William Wordsworth and Richard Holmes

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I introduced Simon Armitage and his record of walking the Pennine Way delivering poetry readings each night to locals, in his book Walking Home, in an earlier posting Walking Home-the Pennine Way.   Walking is so interesting but then so is reading.  So now that I have finished reading Armitage’s book, I want to share a couple of pieces of information previously unknown to me:

“Wordsworth was the poet-walker par excellence. “Writing about Wordsworth’s legs, his friend Thomas de Quincy once remarked ‘undoubtedly they had been serviceable legs beyond the average standard of human requisition; for I calculate, upon good data, that with these identical legs Wordsworth must have traversed a distance of 175 to 185,000 English miles.’… Even in later life. A five-mile round trip to the hardware store or a twenty-mile perambulation was hardly a rare occurrence, but these distances should be viewed as a gradual slowing down considering the marathons of his youth, most notably in 1790 when instead of revising for his exams at Cambridge he went walkabout in the French Alps  with his friend Robert Jones. They covered three hundred miles in two weeks …”

Armitage also refers to Richard Holmes who as an eighteen year old produced a new form of travel writing.  Apparently he donned a felt hat and walked in “the footsteps and hoofprints of Robert Louis Stevenson and his troublesome donkey from Le Monastier to St Jean-du-Gard in 1878, a walk of 220 kilometres through the ‘French Highlands’, which Stevenson completed in under a fortnight.”

Dangerous rivers

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‘The Derwent is ranked No.8 in the country’s top 10 most dangerous inland waterways, with 12 victims since 2001,’ said David Beniuk in his article “Don’t run the risk in rivers”, published in The Sunday Tasmanian yesterday.

He explained that ‘Tasmanians are being reminded of the dangers of their beautiful, but potentially deadly rivers in a national campaign.’

The Royal Life Saving Society says ‘We are a state that absolutely loves our waterways … But our inland waterways, in terms of drowning fatalities, are really where it’s happening in Tasmania. The perception is that the still waters of a river are calm and are safe. But it’s what we don’t see and don’t know, things like ice cold water, snags, things like tree branches as well as river currents, that often get people without notice.’

Beniuk reports that ‘The state registered the highest per capita rate in the country, with men over 55 at risk.’  He noted a number of things we can do which offer protection: ‘wearing a regularly serviced life jacket, avoiding alcohol, never swimming alone, knowing the area, telling people where and when you’re going and learning first aid.’ In addition, ‘checking weather conditions and the Maritime and Safety Tasmania website were also important.’

This article was timely; over the weekend a friend urged me to stay with my decision not to canoe/kayak down the Derwent River.  As I mentioned in a recent post, a strong fit male family friend canoed down a short section and had never been so frightened.  I got the message then.

Plea as lost walker is found

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My recent post Personal Locator Beacon explained how taking only a mobile phone when you walk in our Tassie wilderness isn’t smart: the batteries will go flat over time and any GPS location function may not operate.

A couple of days ago a man phoned the Police to say he was lost in some of Tasmania’s most inhospitable territory.  He carried only a mobile phone and had left his camping gear at a spot while he took off on a solo day walk. Thankfully, after two near freezing nights, the man who was described as an “experienced day walker”, found his way to Tasmania Police and their searchers.

If anyone is planning a walk in remote areas in any part of the world, please protect yourself and make it easy for emergency services in the event of an injury, illness or getting lost. Remember in some parts of Tasmania you can be 10 metres away from another person and not be able to see or hear them because of the density and size of the bush.

Tasmania Police made a plea for everyone to carry an EPIRB location device; a Personal Locator Beacon. “With a mobile phone you can only communicate with us, until the battery fails. AN EPIRB tells us where you are.”

Derwent River Wildlife Guide

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This booklet titled Derwent River Wildlife Guide, by Veronica Thorp and published in 2000, is a 73 page listing with colour photographs and basic information about all the environments, the flora and the fauna which can be seen at some point along the Derwent River. The booklet is available for loan through the Tasmanian State Library system.

I am sorry that my discovery of this information has come after I have walked so far – it would have been most useful for me to walk with this booklet from day 1 of the entire project. Having said this, there is only one photograph per item and a tiny paragraph of information so that identifying plants and fungi correctly would have been a challenge.  While some entries indicate a location where a plant could be expected, most do not have this information. I have a sneaking suspicion that the listings in the booklet may only cover the areas that I have walked which are easiest to access.  I suspect that intensive investigation of the Derwent River shoreline and general vicinity between Gretna and Lake St Clair might not have been studied so rigorously.

A Visitor Guide (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=16546) to Tasmania offers a limited selection of animals and environments compared to the comprehensive catalogue available in the Derwent River Wildlife Guide.  The Visitor Guide covers all Tasmania which is much broader.

Ferries on the Derwent River

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D.G. O’May authored Ferries of the Derwent A History of the Ferry Services on the Derwent River in 1988.

Ferries of the Derwent by Dave OMay book cover

The O’May family is well known for their connection with the maritime history of the Derwent River over many decades.  The chapters of the book cover different aspects of the ferries that travelled across and up and down the river, and many old photographs of ferries, key people and historic documentation including licenses have been reproduced.