Tag Archives: Bellerive

Sport and the Derwent River

A couple of weeks ago an international Test cricket match between Australia and the West Indies was staged at the Blundstone Arena in Bellerive. Australian cricket tragics (but probably not those from the West Indies) may enjoy these photos. When you stand in the open or sit in the grandstands, fabulous views of the Derwent appear before you and distract. Cricket Tasmania’s website shows a glorious aerial shot of the Arena with the Derwent River beyond and mysterious Mount Wellington looming behind the city.

Last Friday night, I was on the Hobart Domain at the Hobart tennis courts. First I watched retired Tasmanian tennis player Richard Fromberg (he reached about number 20 in the world when he was playing on the world circuit) play an up and coming Tasmanian player, Harry Bourchier, who hopes to break into the Australian Open Grand Slam in January. Fromberg is circled below watching a later match.

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A fun doubles game followed with two 7 year olds (one of which was Cruz Hewitt, Lleyton Hewitt’s son) teaming up with their adult coaches to play a short game. Those extraordinary 7 year olds stood firmly at the base line and served their balls over the net, despite the net being a great distance off and higher than they were tall. The night finished with ex World number 1 tennis player Lleyton Hewitt playing an exhibition match against Australian Sam Groth who currently has the fastest serve in the world. In the photo below, Groth wears red at the left of the net and Hewitt wears blacks to the right.

2015-12-18 20.43.38 Sam Groth in red and Lleyton Hewitt in black.jpg

I was thrilled by the hard and fast hitting. A good game!

Beforehand I wandered to one end of the main court and looked out through an overcast evening, to the Derwent River.

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On occasions when the sky is clear and blue, the Derwent River sparkles. Getty Images has one shot I particularly like. The blue tennis court in the foreground seems separated from the Derwent River by a giant cruise ship at anchor in port.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Between the bridges: Stage 14 of my walk along the Derwent River

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The achievement yesterday was to walk from the Bridgewater Bridge to the New Norfolk bridge on the western shore of the Derwent River.

I set off from home before the sun was up and I found Hobart was quiet when I arrived at the city bus mall.

Then I bussed to Granton and alighted from the bus at the intersection with the Bridgewater Bridge causeway.

From Granton I walked north-west then west towards the inland town of New Norfolk walking mostly along the Lyell Highway and then on a walking track for the last 5 or so kilometres. The morning was freezing and the afternoon warm. But the sun was out; its hard autumn light made the world seem alive and sparkling. The Derwent River was splendid, often still and reflecting the trees and hills on its surface, under a bright blue sky with the sun shining gloriously.

I finished my walk at the bridge crossing the Derwent River in New Norfolk.

During the walk, I covered about 15½km of the length of the Derwent River. By my reckoning, the total distance of the Derwent River on the western shore from the mouth of the River to New Norfolk is 54¼ km.

My walking distance was approximately 20¼kms. I have now walked approximately 191¼ kms not counting getting to and from buses, as part of this project to walk along the Derwent River.

The highlights of the walk to New Norfolk were finding the remnants of two clearly visible heritage lime kilns, seeing a family of 6 pelicans, finding the track along the river leading to New Norfolk, and being mesmerised by the spectacular autumn foliage along the walk and especially in New Norfolk.

I started walking from Granton around 8am and, despite wearing a thick woollen beanie plus a thermal top under my windproof jacket, I was frozen for the first two and a half hours. It was 8 degrees Celsius at Bellerive when I left home, 6 degrees at Glenorchy and I suspect much less with a wind chill factor along the first part of the walk. On this basis, I will not be walking further inland until sometime in Spring, and the timing of starting again towards Lake St Clair will depend on the air temperature.

Over the coming week I plan to enjoy writing up the journey and the discoveries of Stage 14’s walk in a series of different postings.

Pacific Seastars are multiplying in Kangaroo Bay

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Recently when I walked past the Marina at Bellerive, I looked down in horror to see hundreds of seastars foraging across the river bottom. The water was clear so their orange arms were spectularly visible. Some of these starfish were larger than a dinner plate.

The white lines in the photo above are the reflections of yacht masts.

I talked about these pests in two earlier postings; ‘Northern Pacific Seastars’ of 14 September 2014, and Stage 2 on 4/9/2014 Mitchell’s Beach of 5 September 2014. The Tasmanian government department responsible for parks (http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/file.aspx?id=6917) provides information about Tasmania’s 3 unique starfish and acknowledges the damage that Northern Pacific Seastars are doing to our marine life.

Pretty some might say. Perhaps that is why they are multiplying and limited collection and destruction actions are being taken.

For a split second I thought to throw off my clothes, jump in and start throwing these scavangers onto the jetty. Of course, common sense prevailed: I could have been overcome with hypothermia. In addition, I realised there were too many for one person to collect. Their removal needs a devoted crowd of wet suit clad divers to be methodical and dedicated. Of course the sadness is that thousands more are grazing out of eye shot. And they continue to breed so well in these cool waters.

You can read Louise Goggin’s story on these marauding seastars at http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/starfish/. ‘Enjoy’ the photo in this article “Community divers pulled 30,000 sea stars from the Derwent River in 1993 and hardly put a dent in the population”.

Mount Nelson Signal Station

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Overlooking the centre of the city of Hobart and with a view sweeping across to the eastern shore of the Derwent River, Mount Nelson is host to a significant historical site, the Mount Nelson Signal Station.

Wikipedia provides the information that originally this rise in the landscape was named ‘Nelson’s Hill’ after botanist David Nelson, who sailed on the ship ‘Bounty’ which visited Van Diemens Land on its way to Tahiti (the ship that was involved in the infamous Mutiny on the Bounty). In geological form, Mount Nelson amounts to not much more than a low foothill, however its name gives an indication that something grand awaits you if you venture to the top.

And such a visit is easy in a vehicle, or if you want to take an uphill walk from Hobart’s suburb of Sandy Bay. In addition, the Mount Nelson via Dynnyrne and Tolmans Hill Metro bus service can deliver you to your destination. If you like walking, you might choose to catch a bus to the top and then follow any one of a number of clearly marked tracks downhill. Yesterday I made a visit thanks to blog follower Je’s transport, accompanied by another follower Be who is visiting from Cairns.

From different vantage points, the spectacle of the Derwent River spread out below, made us breathless with delight. When I am walking at ground level along the Derwent River, the grand panoramas extending into the distance are denied me. But yesterday it was exciting to see the bays and hills further afield.

The photo above looks toward the mouth of the Derwent River on the eastern shore. South Arm peninsula can be seen extending along the water. As I stood on Mount Nelson I could clearly identify the Iron Pot, Fort Direction Hill, South Arm Beach, Opossum Bay and its beach, and Gellibrand Point all of which I walked on during Stage 1 and 2 of my walk along the Derwent River.

The photo above shows the eastern shore of the Derwent River with Gellibrand Point to the right on the northern tip of the South Arm peninsula. Then the great gaping space of Ralph’s Bay appeared straight ahead. To the left of the image, Trywork Point is in view; this was the starting point for Stage 3 of my walk (after I had walked there from the suburb of Tranmere).

The photo above shows Ralphs Bay to the right, Trywork Point and then the suburb of Tranmere to the left – on the eastern shore of the Derwent River.

The photo above shows the eastern shore from Tranmere on the right, through the suburbs of Howrah to Bellerive on the left – the River edges which I walked during Stages 4 and 5.

Across the parkland at the Mount Nelson Signal Station, native Wrens flitted around feeling safe as they hunted for insect meals on the ground.

I enjoyed looking at information panels on the site and learning more about how the place operated. In addition, one panel showed the location of walking tracks.

So … what is the history? Not long after Hobart was settled in the early 1800s, locals needed speedy and efficient communication between the convict settlement at Port Arthur and Hobart. In addition, Hobart residents wanted foreknowledge of sailing ships approaching from the ocean through Storm Bay and on their way to the Derwent River in case any provided a threat to trade or security. To gather this information, in 1811 the Mount Nelson Signal Station was established and designed to use semaphore. The method of communication was flags waving across the hills. Details about the semaphore flag signalling system can be read at http://www.anbg.gov.au/flags/semaphore.html. The site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaphore_line provides further information. At the Mount Nelson Signal Station, flags were run up a pole – this seems a very cumbersome process compared to a person waving flags. I hope that someday the signal station will offer a demonstration to the public so I can understand the process. Give me a re-enactment please.

This semaphore communication service continued in use until a more reliable system was available (what happened at the Signal Station on windy days, in wet weather and when clouds obscured the view?). It was not until 1880 that a telephone line connected Hobart and Mount Nelson.

Walking around the area is free of charge. Some pathways are provided. The site has various public amenities including picnic tables, public toilets, carpark, barbecues and a restaurant.

For further information about eating in the heritage building pictured above, go to http://www.signalstation.com.au. I recommend that you phone in advance if you are depending on eating there. Yesterday, despite permanent signs indicating the Brasserie was open, another sign on the building indicated it was closed.

During my visit, clouds loomed powerfully over the city and river. The day light was so bright and strong that when I turned northwards and photographed the land and riverscapes, the sky glowed white. So I clicked a few images pointed at the sky and this silhouetted the landscape. Using my simple mobile phone as camera, I was never able to control the light of the images.

Although these looked like rain clouds, it did not rain. These large puffs were just passing through.

Cruise ships berthing at Hobart

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On a recent afternoon I could see the Marina cruise ship berthed at MAC2/3 (the name of one of Hobart piers). This ship arrived early in the morning from Geelong in southern Victoria on mainland Australia.

For more information about the ship go to http://www.cruiseaway.com.au/ship/marina?gclid=Cj0KEQiA6ounBRCq0LKBjKGgysEBEiQAZmpvAxP6_HcT_3xcTvA4bqjanWX6gz9rMqc1ga4ZVAGuCFoaAiMt8P8HAQ

Later, I watched the Marina depart at 6pm. The early evening sun sparkled across the Derwent River and brightened the ship so it made a spectacle as it gathered steam. The Marina’s next destination is Milford Sound on the south island of New Zealand.

This cruise ship is one of many which dock in Hobart and release thousands of tourists across the city and further beyond, for day trips. If you want to know which ships are due in port in the coming days then read http://www.tasports.com.au/port_services/arrivalshobart.html

The overall cruise ship schedule into Tasmanian ports can be read at http://www.tasports.com.au/port_services/arrivalscruise.html. This list is staggering because it shows the bookings up until 2020!

From my Bellerive home I can see these large ‘towns’ on water as they arrive and depart. I can almost feel the thrill that I expect new arrivals might experience as they reach this new destination ready to discover a new world. One day I hope one of my blog followers will be on such a cruise ship and will ask me to take them on a walk somewhere along the Derwent River.

Nudging into Blackmans Bay on Stage 12 of my walk along the Derwent River

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At 3pm I turned left onto Roslyn Ave having walked up from Boronia Beach. Within 10 minutes I could see Blackmans Bay Beach.

Five minutes later I turned left at Blowhole Road in search of a Blowhole. The road was narrow with no pathway and limited edges on which to walk. Wattle trees were blooming and I passed an apple orchard laden with red globes. Flowering gums are spectacular at the moment.

I reached the Blowhole sign, which indicated the entrance to a small park on a hill at the northern end of Blackmans Bay Beach, at 3.22 pm.

The weather wasn’t gusty and so the water ebbed and flowed rhythmically but undramatically beneath a rock bridge. There was no blowing of water through the gap.

I continued down hill.

I reached beach level at 3.34pm and proceeded to walk on the path beside Ocean Esplanade. Inset into the pavement were handmade tiles and mosaics presumably made by community effort. These were similar to those impressed into the footpath in parts of Kingston.

A little way along the Esplanade public toilets and a kid’s playground provided useful amenities.

I decided to stop, look, listen and smell. Looking over the Derwent River to the South Arm peninsula and around about me watching people enjoying the beach and surrounds, listening to the seagulls calling, and smelling the salty air kept me seated for 10 minutes. I had walked two thirds of the way along Blackmans Bay Beach and it seemed a reasonable place to stop for Stage 12. So I headed for a bus stop. I found one by turning into Hazell St and then into Wells Parade. As I arrived at the stop, a Metro bus came over the hill in the distance. Wonderful timing. It was 4pm. The experiences of the day had been rich. I enjoyed the bus trip back into Hobart via the main Kingston shopping centre, and then the southern outlet highway. The view when we came to the top of the final hill is majestic (please ignore the dirty bus windows in the photos below).

Some of Hobart and the eastern shore suburbs are laid out below with the blue Derwent River flowing between. Always stunning. After half an hour on the bus I arrived in Hobart city, then headed off for my Bellerive bus and was home before 5pm. All together a brilliant day. Stage 12 was complete! Because of personal commitments and what I have seen in the weather forecast, I do not expect to walk Stage 13 until next week.

Starting out from Hinsby Beach and walking south to Wandella Avenue – Stage 12

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I left home in Bellerive on the eastern shore of the Derwent River before 7am while the morning was cool and the light was soft grey. By the time my bus into Hobart city was travelling over the Tasman Bridge, the sun had hit the top of Mount Wellington, the sky was blue, and the day promised to be sensational. The dramatic circus tent on the Queens Domain was being dismantled. People on the bus seemed to be dozing. Yet outside the bus, I wondered at the stunning crispness of shadows and sunlight causing windows to sparkle. The look of the day made me feel like I was sparkling. But my eyes were wide open. Waiting at the bus stop at Franklin Square for a bus headed towards Kingston but passing through Taroona, all I could think was ‘glorious, glorious, glorious’.

With few people on board, the trip to bus stop 30 in Taroona (the one where I finished in Stage 11) only took 22 minutes and then I was out in the fresh air on the Channel Highway at 7.52am. Gulls calling. Gardens were flush with sunflowers, roses, agapanthus, wandering pumpkin plants, lavenders of all types, and flowering gum trees. All overlaid by the sounds of bush birds flitting here and there.

By 7.58am I had walked down Hinsby Street and reached the top of the walkway leading to the Hinsby Beach. I could hear the shushing of the soft waves along the beach and glimpse a tiny bit of water at the end of the shady path.

I could see the Alum Cliffs through the trees.

A swimmer was leaving the water as I clicked a photograph. When I registered his angry body language, I realised I had been feeling the place without really seeing. Of course my finger on the tablet’s camera clicked mechanically without seeing or feeling – but featuring photographs with him was not to his liking. I immediately claimed to be photographing the Alum Cliffs at the end of the beach and promised not to blog his picture.

I guess the swimmer was not used to sharing the beach with anybody else that early and could only repeat rather manically, ‘you must come in’, ‘you must come in’ as he gesticulated towards the water. I was thickly dressed from neck to toe and already wearing my sun hat. ‘Going in’ was not in my plan. I continued along the beach. A little later on a path, I took the following photo – I hope you can understand that getting undressed would never have been an option.

At 8.05am, at the end of Hinsby Beach, I looked back for one last sea-level view of Hinsby Beach.

I reached a stairway with rails and walked uphill until I seemed not to be on a clear track.

When you read further below you will realise the photo above does not show the start of the track which I should have taken.

Very soon I arrived at a gully with a small trickle of water passing downhill. I chose not to cross by balancing as a gymnast on the dead tree trunks that criss-crossed it. Instead I simply walked easily down, stepped across a few rocks and walked up the other side. Before long it was clear I was fenced in and that a proper dirt track passed on the other side of the fence. The fence was elastic so I swayed over it rather dramatically without falling off and down the cliff on the other side of the track. When I righted myself and looked back along the track which I hadn’t known existed, three women and a dog stood very still, their mouths agape. ‘Are you alright?’ they chorused. ‘Yes’, I assured them as I smiled. Some moments I wonder if I am losing my once good judgement. ‘But where have you come from?’ I asked with a puzzled wrinkling of my forehead. ‘Where did you find this track?’ Apparently, if I had bypassed the stairs and track I had chosen and walked around over the rocks of Hinsby Beach a little further, the real track started there. Time for the installation of a few signs!

This ‘new’ track was fine.

Although there were occasional diversions across the track.

The view back towards Hinsby Beach was clear.

The time was 8.22am as I offloaded my jacket, smeared sunscreen across exposed parts of my body and continued walking along the track until it extended up into a suburban street. At 8.25am I turned left into Wandella Ave, wandered along past houses for a while, could not see any further tracks back to the Alum Cliffs, talked to a local who did not think there was one and recommended that I should walk up to the Channel Highway and continue southwards on that road.

Not to be defeated, I retraced my steps down the original pathway until I discerned an old disused track that seemed to continue along the Cliffs. I walked it but casual inexperienced walkers and those walking alone absolutely should not. Incredibly unsafe in just about every way. I didn’t fall nor receive injuries but there were so many ways and places I could have damaged or killed myself on that route. I won’t relay all the details of that walk except to say that the views across the Derwent River though the trees were grand. Blue Wrens darted around me through the bush. Waves pounded against the Cliffs, and I could hear the roar of waves crashing on distant beaches. Because photographs flatten the vistas, the ones I have taken do not present the feeling of isolation, steepness nor roughness of this non-track. But it was incredibly beautiful and I am glad to have seen that landscape.

I started this diversion at 8.37am. After following a collapsing path (although parts were good), I managed a deep descent into and an ascent out of an unnamed gully by 9.12am, rounded an extensive private house, talked with the house owner about the future of tracks along the Alum Cliffs and the non-availability of any tracks passing his house (which stood on the very edge of the Cliff) around 9.25am, and walked down and around the very long winding private driveway over a trickling creek, I reached suburbia again at 9.35am – the same point on Wandella Ave I had been earlier in the morning. I had completed a loop. Certainly I had been close to the Derwent River more than most but I had not advanced along the River.

The first photo below shows the house I climbed up to on top of the cliff after descending into a gully, the waters of which plunged over a rocky edge to the River.

I recommend that all evidence of the existence of the disused track should be eliminated.

Taroona’s coastline as experienced on Stage 11 of my walk along the Derwent River

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The last leg of this Stage was the most interesting because I made discoveries which delighted me deeply.

At 12.18pm, I left my Channel Highway resting spot and walked downhill toward the people-free Taroona High School (closed for school holidays). Close to the bottom of the hill I could see the tops of boathouses and a ‘beach’ to my right so I took a dogleg to Melinga Place on my right and continued downhill.

I didn’t know this existed. Mostly a rocky shore, a little sand, edged by a mown green lawn. Serene. Across the Derwent River, I could see Gellibrand Point at the north of the South Arm peninsula.

Walking southwards it wasn’t long before I entered the foreshore bushland on an easy-to-walk dirt track.

Later I found this had a name: the Taroona Foreshore Track. At one point the ‘track’ passed over a ‘beach’ of shells and rocks then returned to dirt and rose up over areas raised above the water.

An onshore breeze kept me moving. Every so often, steep trails descended to the rocky shore but I realised that staying on the track would be more comfortable than rock hopping the edge of the River.

When I walked through a grove of trees that were obviously different, I was delighted to read an information panel which informed me this was an “unusual and isolated stand of blackwoods. Acacia melanoxylon.” The species is also known as Sally wattle, lightwood, hickory, mudgerabah, Tasmanian blackwood or black wattle. Their rough bark seemed as if it would flake off in small pieces but it was toughly attached.

At 12.46pm I looked back northward and could still see the boathouses near the High School.

A couple of minutes later I reached Crayfish Point where I noticed craypot markers bobbing in the Derwent River as evidence that fishing for crayfish/lobster was taking place. However, a sign seemed to indicate this was part of fisheries research by the University of Tasmania.

Brilliant orange lichen sprawled across some of the rocks. Huge Pied Cormorants rested on rocks with water lapping at their feet. This was one of those brilliant days when all the superlatives in the world seem inadequate.

It was near here that an information panel enlightened me about some of the native vegetation. Now I can identify not only Pigface which I love, but also Bower Spinach and Grey Saltbush. Why I didn’t take photos of the real thing while I was walking I cannot say. Daft! So I have Googled for images: If you type in Bower Spinach Tasmania Images, up comes a suite of pictures showing this fleshy leaved plant. Try something similar to find images of the softly grey coloured Grey Saltbush.

When I reached the start of Taroona Beach at 12.53pm, I looked up the hill and in the distance I could see the Shot Tower that had been built in 1870 (the Shot Tower, a major tourist attraction, is normally accessible from the Channel Highway).

The Batchelor’s Grave Historic Site, just above the foreshore of Taroona Beach, was a surprise. Wikipedia provides the information that this is “the grave of a young sailor, Joseph Batchelor, who died on the sailing ship Venus in the Derwent Estuary in 1810, and was buried ashore on 28 January 1810. It is reputed to be the oldest European grave in Tasmania”. I am amazed at this idea. I cannot imagine that many Europeans didn’t die and were buried in Van Diemens Land before 1810 – however, maybe this is the only stone grave marker left from early in the 19^th century.

Taroona Beach is backed by Taroona Park with pleasant picnicking facilities and public toilets.

I left at 1.06pm and walked along Niree Parade for a couple of minutes until the Taroona Foreshore Track restarted.

Within moments I arrived at Hinsby Beach, which was the find of the day as far as I am concerned. Isolated. Small. Tree edged. Calm. Small wave break. A few boathouses. A family beach with a few swimmers and sun bathers. Located at the end of the River edge before the steep Alum Cliffs which flow for 3 or four kilometres to Kingston.

I soaked in the atmosphere before starting uphill on a public access walkway at 1.22pm, under shady bushes with lush surrounding ground cover. The track connected to the bottom of Hinsby Road. At the top of Hinsby Road the Channel Highway flowed by. As I arrived at bus stop 30 at 1.36pm, a Metro bus came by on which I made the trip back into Hobart. Half an hour later I was in the city and ready to make the bus trip back home in Bellerive. I walked in the door at 2.40pm after an exhilarating day when my feet didn’t want to carry me, but I insisted and they persisted. This really is a wonderful part of the world.

From Sandy Bay to Lower Sandy Bay on Stage 11 of my walk along the Derwent River

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After Maning Ave Reserve I continued walking along Sandy Bay Road and used every opportunity to glimpse the Derwent River down the driveways of large houses with expensive River frontage.

By 9.10am I reached the Red Chapel Reserve. Red Chapel Ave is one of Hobart’s well-known streets extending up the hill and connecting to other main streets but I had never known, until this walk, where the name came from. I wonder how many Hobartians know the source. Of course the source turned out to be so obvious once I knew and used my eyes. It was named after the red coloured chapel of the 20^thcentury St Stephens Anglican church that was built on the River side of the Road next to the Reserve and opposite the uphill Avenue. What can be said about the impoverishment of imagination? Refer to https://stainedglassaustralia.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/1914-st-stephens-anglican-church-lower-sandy-bay-tasmania/ for some glorious images. The photo below is courtesy ofhttp://www.anglicantas.org.au/parishes/?item=37

A minute or so further down the road and on the right was the highly esteemed Lipscombe Larder on the corner of … Lipscombe Ave. Where else would it be?

In addition to all its tasty delicatessen products and wines, this food paradise also sells exquisite cakes: refer to http://lipscombelarder.com.au/ for images.

At some stage during my walk in this suburb, I realised that no one was walking a mongrel dog. At the end of leads were expensive pedigreed dogs. Certainly their owners seemed happy.

Before long, a set of steep stairs attracted my attention on the left. These were for public access to Nutgrove Beach. As I approached the Beach I was staggered by the size of an old pear tree on the dune edge, and loved the pigface plant which carpeted the area either side of the pathway. I was on the beach at 9.20am and turned right to walk southwards.

Behind low sand dunes on my right, the roofs and second storeys of beach front houses were visible. At 9.23am, I passed public toilets almost hidden under a large pine tree, and by 9.30 I reached a corner of the beach with the Sandy Bay Sailing Club located up in the dunes.

Moments later I turned the corner and was no longer able to look back at Wrest Point and Battery Point in the distance.

I continued on a pathway over the shore and over the dunes some of which would be impassable at high tide without getting wet feet. Some of the rocks were unstable underfoot presenting the risk of a turned ankle or knee. Nutgrove Beach had been a simple delight, and before long I was on an easy, vegetated, and shaded walking track to Long Beach at Lower Sandy Bay. Then I arrived.

Back out into the open by 9.35am, I could see public toilets nearby, and by looking across the Derwent River to the eastern shore, the yellow strips of Bellerive and Howrah Beaches (on which I walked in an early stage of my walk) were visible.

I had been walking for over two hours so sat for a while in the gorgeous sun, watched the tiny waves rippling fluidly and regularly, stared at two fishing boats motoring out of the Derwent Harbour, listened to kids’ riotous laughter in a kids’ playground nearby, and then stood up and got going again at 9.50am.

I was delighted to discover Stephen Walker’s huge many part bronze sculpture, Tidal Pools, with its inbuilt water feature at Long Beach in Lower Sandy Bay.

The remarkable 86 year old Tasmanian artist died only about 7 months ago leaving a great many large scale works around Tasmania and other parts of Australia, such as his Tank Stream Fountain (1981), near Circular Quay in Sydney. In the 1950s, Stephen Walker studied under the celebrated sculptor Englishman Henry Moore. Apparently Walker continued his bronze casting work well into his 70s using his foundry underneath the house.

Five minutes of walking the developed walkways of Long Beach brought me to a cul-de-sac with its carpark full of vehicles. Further along that loop off Beach Road were bakeries, cafes, restaurants, etc.

Yesterday I walked Stage 11 from Hunter St in Hobart city to Hinsby Beach south of Taroona

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The goal of my walk along the Derwent River for Stage 11 was to start at my last stopping point, Hunter St at the wharf in Hobart on the western shore of the Derwent River, and continue to Kingston in the local government area of Kingborough. But I did not get that far. My feet said enough was enough once I found the delightful and almost hidden Hinsby Beach.

Over future posts, I will write up the stories of the walk, what I saw and what I experienced, but for now it’s enough to say that I am continuing with this massive project to walk both sides of the Derwent between the mouth and Bridgewater, and then onwards to Lake St Clair.

The day was sunny with a bright blue sky, Mount Wellington was clear, and a cool breeze featured through much of the day – making it perfect walking weather.

Yesterday I covered 8 kilometres of the length of the Derwent River on the western shore (making 30 kms in total on the western shore), and walked approximately 13kilometres (making a total of 143 kms to date) to achieve that distance. This distance also takes in the streets and paths on which I walked that led to dead ends so that I needed to retrace my footsteps.

The highlights of the walk include discovering the road next to Taroona High School is a public access route which took me down to the Derwent River to a row of colourful boathouses, getting off the main road at places like Cartwright Park Reserve, and seeing the Alum Cliffs in all their majesty. My next walk will start along the top of these.

It was a revelation to watch the eastern shore and to see the suburbs and beaches on which I walked in the early stages of my walk. The day started with my being roughly opposite Bellerive and finished with my being opposite Gellibrand Point at the northern tip of South Arm. The photo below, taken from Hinsby Beach, looks across the Derwent River to Opossum Bay Beach.

I intend my next walk will start from Hinsby Beach and continue to Blackmans Bay. But before then I need to record the details of yesterday’s walk. So my walk for Stage 12 could be a week or more away.

Queens Battery

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One of the great things about my walk along the Derwent River is that I find sites I did not know existed and I also discover new information. The location of the Queens Battery under the current site of the Cenotaph and Regatta Grounds within the broader area of the Queens Domain is one such item.

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery have created a short video which uses photographs from its historic collection. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVEGkgDZMMg

From my time in an earlier stage of the walk, at the Kangaroo Bluff Fort at Bellerive, I knew that Hobart established a series of defensive posts along the Derwent River. Built in the 19^th century by the British colonials who settled here, these defence services were designed to counteract their worries about protecting trading ships and then later concerns that Russian forces might invade (I ask you – really? At the other end of the earth!!!! Was this ever likely?).

Wikipedia informs me that … between 1804 and 1942 there were 12 permanent defensive positions constructed in the Hobart region. The start of construction of the Queen’s Battery began in 1838, named in honour of HRH Queen Victoria who was on the throne at the time of the fort’s construction. This was expected to be the grandest of forts and prominently overlook the entrance to Sullivans Cove; however the full plans were never developed. The battery was delayed by funding problems, and not completed until 1864. The Queens Battery remained in operation until the 1920s. The excavation of the site in 1992 revealed the hot shot oven and the metal parts for rolling the shot were preserved. The oven and archaeological trenches were filled in at the request of the RSL (Returned Services League). The cannon was never fired in anger.”

Location: https://www.google.com.au/maps/vt/data=U4aSnIyhBFNIJ3A8fCzUmaVIwyWq6RtIfB4QKiGq_w,RxhryNB7L5JOppJVjT-1-R9cFyBVxNXF90HhgNOerRCLFKA0zhnI73KC6M5MNa5q95GGnBSCATceYGtWfCO0Xbhedz4BfgEB94Q8t3utHEcf2IzasqMYwzgOJWcTExF5GUO4ledjJPLwKg

Hobart’s Regatta Grounds and Cenotaph; missing Macquarie Point but reaching Hobart’s Sullivans Cove.

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Leaving the navy depot on the edge of the Derwent River, I realised the distance to Hunter St and the beginning of Sullivans Cove in Hobart was not far. That seemed like a perfect finishing destination for Stage 10 of my walk along the Derwent River, so onwards I plodded.

The ex-navy depot sits immediately next to the Regatta Grounds so I reached the Regatta Stand, set up for the annual audiences, very quickly – by 4.10pm.

Hobart’s Regatta has a long history. According to http://www.soldierswalk.org.au/walk_domain.html , “The Hobart Regatta is the nation’s second oldest and commenced in 1838 and has been staged every year since, bar two. A grandstand was built in 1877 and replaced by the John Colvin Stand in 1919-20.” History and photos (including some of Queen Elizabeth visiting) can be seen at http://www.royalhobartregatta.com/History.html.

The day had become bleak and windswept. The area was empty of people and movement. Nevertheless, I continued walking along the dismal disused railway line and passed empty wood chopping competition blocks.

Eventually I was stopped from walking to Macquarie Point on the Derwent River by a high fence with locked gates. I did my best to continue walking around and as far as I could. But it was useless to think I could get much closer to the Point. It simply was not accessible to walkers like me.

I clambered up a weedy section and eventually climbed over a lower fence until I was standing on the lower grounds of the Cenotaph, a monument commemorating the men and women who have died in various wars. This is a significant site in Hobart on our nationally celebrated ANZAC Day each April 25th. As I began to leave, the time was 4.18pm.

I walked around the Cenotaph,

down an avenue onto the Highway opposite the Aquatic Centre, then turned left and continued until I reached the Grand Chancellor Hotel, which sits opposite the end of Hunter St, at 4.38pm. A bus stop was nearby and within moments I was on a bus travelling back to the eastern shore to my home in Bellerive. I felt like I was glowing from the achievement of having covered so much territory and history during this Stage 10 of my walk along the Derwent River. It had been a marvellous day!

On tip toes above the Derwent River

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The home in which I took a holiday in Kingston overlooking the Derwent River until the afternoon of Christmas Eve (I moved back home to Bellerive late that afternoon), was interesting. All houses absorb my attention for the objects they contain and their general ambience. I moved into an environment the like of which I had never experienced; I moved into the home of a dancer.

Red satin ballet shoes, holding memories, hung in the hallway.

Nearby, other used ballet shoes hung on hooks sometimes alone and sometimes clustered together. Two satin blacks were paired with pale pink shoes.

Further along, a lone shoe encrusted with silver sparkles, glittered greyly in the lowlit hallway.

I reasoned that the shoes hang as reminders of great movements made, of painful toes, of the grandness of storytelling with the body, and of fabulous tutus and magical music.

When on the stage, dancers move rhythmically and the spectacle of dancer’s en pointe seems delicate and fragile. From my comfortable theatre seats, their professional satin ballet pointe shoes have always looked soft, even when the platform tips clunk onto the stage with a dull sound.

Then I touched these pre-loved ballet shoes and recoiled. The shoes are worn-out at the wooden flat toes where the silk frays dirtily. They are not pretty to look at now. But my greatest surprise came when I felt these ballet shoes. They were hard and unforgiving to the touch. Now that I have handled these shoes, I no longer feel attracted to watching a ballet being performed. Or maybe if I do attend a performance, I will wince with the memory of the way the shoes feel. What an extraordinary sacrifice dancers make in the pursuit of their passion.

9th Stage of walk along Derwent River completed yesterday, Tuesday 25 November

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I caught two buses from my home in Bellerive on the eastern shore, via the Elizabeth St CBD Hobart and the Glenorchy City bus malls, to reach Granton on the western shore of the Derwent River in the northern suburbs of the City of Glenorchy in the Greater Hobart Area.

At 8.26am I stepped off the Metro number X1 bus at stop 47 outside the York Hotel in Granton South and, with excitement about what the day might bring, I looked around and admired the view across the River to the suburb of Bridgewater before starting the tramp south.

No footpaths or walk ways had been laid for pedestrians and so vigilance was required against the traffic on the Main Road. Occasionally a few metres of concrete or bitumen were laid for a new subdivision but generally a track for smooth safe walking was not on offer.

The weather started sunny but during the afternoon rain passed intermittently. In the photo below you can see the grey background blurred by rain, but meanwhile three pelicans were enjoying themselves on Lowestoft Bay.

Relentless buffeting wind was the main feature all day. As a result, I couldn’t keep my sun hat attached to my head. Needless to say, I returned home with a blasted red face. But happy from the pleasure of walking, discovery and the fresh air. Being a tourist in my home town is a revelation and a joy.

I walked southwards from Granton South to MONA (the world famous Museum of New and Old Art) at Berriedale and passed through the suburbs of Granton South, Austins Ferry, Claremont and half of Berriedale.

I experienced Goulds Lagoon, Austins Ferry Bay, Rusts Bay, Beedhams Bay, Bilton Bay, Dogshear Point, Windermere Bay, Knights Point, Windermere Beach, Connewarre Bay, McCarthy’s Point, Lowestoft Bay, and Cameron Bay. I plodded around bays and a golf course (I gained special permission to walk this private property but I would NOT recommend anyone else try it – see later postings), had a stopover at Cadbury’s, and hid from the rain in gazebos and art works. All up, I probably walked 18 kms.

Yesterday I covered 9 ¼ km of the River’s length on the western shore. This adds to my previous tally of 3/4km on the western shore making a total of 10kms covered as I trek southwards from the Bridgewater Bridge to the mouth of the Derwent on the western shore.

Specific details of the different legs of this 9^th stage walk will be written up and posted in the coming days.

My favourite photo of the day was taken near the end of my walk, when I sat at the point where the southern end of Cameron Bay met the Derwent River (with MONA just over the hill). The water had been frothed by wind and I liked the lacy remnants floating by. The intense colours are the result of the rich light quality caused by the heavy clouds overhead.

Walking the Derwent River

The ribbon that separates the eastern and western shores of Hobart, Tasmania's capital city

Tag Archives: Bellerive

Sport and the Derwent River

Fires above the Derwent River

Between the bridges: Stage 14 of my walk along the Derwent River

Pacific Seastars are multiplying in Kangaroo Bay

Mount Nelson Signal Station

Cruise ships berthing at Hobart

Nudging into Blackmans Bay on Stage 12 of my walk along the Derwent River

Starting out from Hinsby Beach and walking south to Wandella Avenue – Stage 12

Taroona’s coastline as experienced on Stage 11 of my walk along the Derwent River

From Sandy Bay to Lower Sandy Bay on Stage 11 of my walk along the Derwent River

Yesterday I walked Stage 11 from Hunter St in Hobart city to Hinsby Beach south of Taroona

Queens Battery

Hobart’s Regatta Grounds and Cenotaph; missing Macquarie Point but reaching Hobart’s Sullivans Cove.

On tip toes above the Derwent River

9th Stage of walk along Derwent River completed yesterday, Tuesday 25 November

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