Day Sixteen: Tasmania, Australia

Dear All,

Today we went on a bus tour in Tasmania, which is actually an island state of Australia. Aborigines were the indigenous peoples, but the arrival of Europeans almost wiped out all 7,000 of them on the island due to warfare and the introduction of diseases they were not immune to. The few Aborigines who were left were rounded up and sent to Flinders Island.

Tasmania was settled permanently by the British in 1803 as a penal colony and originally called Van Diemen’s Land. Approximately 75,000 convicts were shipped there before transportation ended in 1853. Our tour guide, Daphne (not really her name, but it’s fitting), assured us that these convicts were not hardened criminals and they were not slaves. Of course, these same people would be her ancestors, so she seemed a little “Me thinks the lady doth protest too much” to me. The convicts built all of the roads, bridges, homes, churches and public buildings. They were indentured for seven years and then were free, but had no way to actually get back to England. So, anyway, Daphne. Beautiful buildings, though.

Our first stop today was at a small, family owned winery called Puddleduck. There are about 300 wineries in Tasmania and they produce mostly Pinot Noir, Riesling, Shiraz, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. We were given tastes of about five of the wines they make (teeny-tiny tastes) and served crackers with locally made cheese. They also had a super weird gift shop where they sold everything ducky—rubber ducks, stuffed ducks, wood ducks, metal ducks. You get the picture. Below is a pic of grapevines (they cover the vines with netting to keep birds from eating the grapes):

After that we stopped in a sweet little town named Richmond, which was packed with revelers. Daphne either didn’t know or didn’t say what was going on, but it seemed to be some sort of a Scottish festival. The guys in the kilts were my first clue.

Our last stop was at Runnymede House in Hobart where our ship was docked. You are probably asking yourself, what is Runnymede House? Well, it’s a “beautifully restored whaling captain’s house built in 1840” according to the literature. It was quite beautifully restored, but I now know more than I ever wanted to know about Captain Dayley and his extended family, James, Anna Marie, Emma, Susan, John and all of the other Dayley’s who inhabited the house at one time or the other. Enough said.