Tasmania

During the summer months many mainlanders (inhabitants of the Australian mainland) like to spend their holidays in the temperate climate of the 'Holiday Island', with its scenic beauty and range of facilities for leisure activities.Tasmania was known in the 19th C. as a convict island on which prisoners transported from Britain were condemned to hard labor, breaking stone, hewing coal, felling timber, building roads and bridges.The topography of this hilly island in the cool temperate west-wind zone was shaped by glacial action during the ice age. Its highest peak is Mount Ossa (1617m). In the west of the island are temperate rain forests and, here and there, expanses of moorland; in the drier east eucalyptus forests predominate.The island is comparatively rich in minerals - auriferous copper ore, tin, iron ore, wolfram and coal. Ample power is available from the island's vast hydro-electric potential, and over the last few decades an elaborate system of artificial lakes has been built up, particularly in western Tasmania, to power hydro-electric stations.Tasmania has more hills than any other Australian state. Roughly two-thirds of its area is covered by plateaus bounded by escarpments ('tiers'). In the southeast, round the capital city of Hobart, the landscape is friendlier, and the early settlers were attracted by its fertile soil. Particularly attractive parts of the island are the Tasman Peninsula, with Port Arthur, and Huon Valley, the 'apple valley'. Along the north coast, too, Tasmania has the appearance of a well-tended garden. The volcanic soil and mild climate produce good grazing land and rich crops of fruit, potatoes and other vegetables. Important towns on the north coast, in addition to Launceston, are George Town, Devonport, Burnie, Wynyard and Stanley. The east coast has quiet fishing ports and beautiful sandy beaches, with such holiday resorts as Swansea, Bicheno and St Helens. In the hilly Midlands, so green and English that the early settlers at once felt at home, are a number of old settlements (Ross, Evandale, Richmond, New Norfolk, Oatlands), living museums which recall the early days of the colony. The central plateau reaches out towards the inaccessible south and west in imposing ranges of hills. The eastern part is known as the 'land of a thousand lakes', after the innumerable glaciated valleys and barrier lakes. Lake St Clair, 17km long and 200m deep, is a relic of the ice age. Almost the whole of the southwest - a unique expanse of undisturbed wilderness - is on UNESCO's World Heritage list and under strict statutory protection. The South West National Park, with an area of 605,000 ha, occupies a tenth of Tasmania. The damming of Lake Pedder to supply a hydro-electric station led to a sharp conflict between environmentalists and the electricity authorities. One benefit for visitors is that the construction of a road to the reservoir made the national park more easily accessible. The wild storm-lashed west and south coasts are still unspoiled. Apart from Strahan, on Macquarie Harbor, there is no better sheltered harbor.