There are so many dimensions to the Gordon River experience it’s hard to know where to start. For a Tasmanian — and I am a native of that place — there are the still fresh memories of the battle that pitted the State Government against an embryonic environmental movement that was determined to let the world know what was happening to the wilderness and rivers of the South-West. The fight between loggers and “greenies” continues in other parts of Tasmania, but the Gordon and the South-West are now safe, part of a World Heritage Area that protects 20% of the state.

To understand exactly how special Tasmania’s South-West is, it’s useful to look a little closer at the World Heritage listing. The 800-odd World Heritage sites around the globe are listed for both their natural and cultural heritage values against a set of ten criteria. Sites such as the Grand Canyon, the Taj Mahal, the Serengetti Plains, Stonehenge and the Galapagos Islands all satisfy one, two or three of these criteria: Tasmania’s SouthWest satisfies seven, a total matched by only one other site worldwide, China’s Mt. Taishan.

Hell’s Gates: A Calm Day

This blend of cultural and natural heritage is apparent as you drive through the Tasmanian Highlands en route to Strahan, the West Coast town that acts as gateway to the South-West. It’s a four-hour drive from Hobart through a world of cliches… verdant countryside, lush valleys, “blink and you’ll miss them” towns and thick eucalypt forests. An hour before Strahan you encounter Queenstown: I chose that word carefully, because Queenstown isn’t a place you just happen upon without realising you’ve entered its domain: the barren hillsides and treeless river beds that surround it are a shocking reminder of the time when mining was everything and collateral damage to the environment was simply a fact of life.

The road to Strahan winds down the mountain away from Queenstown, but there’s no hint you are approaching the coast until you are upon it. This is no ordinary coastline: west of here is nothing but ocean, and the wind blows the cleanest air on the planet onto the land here every day. The beaches and rugged coastline are not the main attraction though, although the narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour, Hell’s Gates, is well worth seeing. The day I visited was tranquil and our boat more than a match for the currents that rip through the 70-meter gap, but it wasn’t hard to imagine another type of day, and gale force winds blowing any ship, big or small, into the brutal rocks.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The Gordon River Cruise on the Lady Jayne Franklin II sets out from Strahan at 8:30am. The Lady Jayne was built in Hobart with the Gordon in mind and is more like an airliner than a boat, especially if you choose the Captain’s Deck option, where gourmet food and wine is served, and the Captain invites guests to take the helm — or joystick, more accurately — for the race across Macquarie Harbour to the mouth of the Gordon.

Yes, that’s how we steer the boat…

Before the Gordon, though, there’s another dimension to investigate. After the cool, pure waters of the Southern Ocean rush through Hell’s Gates into the vast and relatively calm harbour, they provide a perfect environment for aquaculture, and a vibrant industry has developed around the Atlantic Salmon and Rainbow Trout that are farmed here at Strahan. The Lady Jayne stops to watch the morning feed, and later her passengers will enjoy smoked salmon from the local producers: a little like tasting wine at the cellar door, but different.

Anyway, enough of all this feasting… a wild river is waiting. Except it’s not so wild here, at the mouth of the Gordon. It’s tranquil, deep, dark and winding, and its edges are overhung by trees and ferns that seem somehow unfamiliar. There isn’t much bird life: the forest pre-dates the evolution of birds, and in any case the river here is too deep to support the sort of feed that river birds need. Keen eyes spot the occasional finch or parrot, but this cool temperate rainforest is not a jungle.

Most of all, it’s an explosion of green. More greens than you every imagined, green all year round, from the forest floor to the top of the pines. And certainly that very special pine, the one that has a dimension all to itself, Huon Pine. Essentially waterproof by virtue of its excruciatingly slow growth and the resulting close grain structure, there’s no more prized wood for boatbuilding.

Sarah Island ruins

How lucky were the British? First, create a penal colony on the other side of the world. Second, choose a really, really remote part of the country for a maximum security facility. Next, discover the world’s best wood for boat building right outside the door of the prison. Finally, train prisoners to build boats and churn them out at the rate of ten a year for ten straight years before some nitwit in Hobart or London decides boatbuilding sounds like too much fun for prisoners, and ships them all to Port Arthur.

That’s essentially the story of Sarah Island, the tiny speck inside the Harbour that transformed itself from a barbaric prison into a productive shipyard with near-monopoly access to the world’s best materials. The Gordon River Cruise includes a guided tour of Sarah Island; a few guests on our tour chose to walk the island on their own, but that was a mistake, I think. The guides are brilliant and the history so deep it’s a pity coming this far and missing out on the full story.

Wild river’s edge

Back to the river: after drifting a few miles upstream at a gentle pace that won’t erode the fragile banks, we dock and enjoy a walk in the rainforest. Immediately you see why prisoners had little chance even if they did escape: it’s impenetrable, it’s wet, it’s all green and impossible to navigate, there are snakes that bite and mean it, and it just goes on like this for miles. But mate, it’s peaceful. And calm. Most escapees died a few miles from the prison, probably cold, certainly hungry, but definitely not from the stresses of their newly industrialised world.

The Gordon River cruise lasts six hours and every minute is an education. This is one of the most remote and unaffected parts of the world. Thanks to the “greenies” it’s safe now, protected and cared for and accessible to everyone. Don’t miss out. And don’t bring your Blackberry, either. It won’t work down here…

-Rod Cuthbert

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 31st, 2006 at 4:05 pm and is filed under Australia & Pacific, Best of the Viator Blog, Destinations, Musings from Viator's Founder, Travel Inspiration, Travel Wishlists. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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