tasmaniasafari: 2015

Monday, May 25, 2015

The Story of the Cascade Brewery

The Cascade Brewery, located a few kilometers west of Hobart in the foothills of Mt Wellington, is Australia’s oldest continuously operating brewery.6 There is some mystery surrounding the establishment of the brewery. Until very recently (2001) it was believed that the ex-convict Peter Degraves started up the brewery in 1824. However, after careful research by one Gregory Jefferys for his undergraduate thesis brought new facts to light, it is now believed Degraves falsified records of the brewery’s establishment.10 In fact, Degraves and his brother-in-law Hugh Macintosh constructed a sawmill on the same site in 1824 upon their emigration from England. Seven years later, while Degraves was serving a prison sentence for debts left in England, Macintosh built the brewery with Peter’s two sons, Henry and Charles Degraves. Upon his release in 1832, Peter Degraves took over running the brewery while Macintosh retired for his last few years to his farm to pursue making wine and raising sheep.

When Macintosh died in 1834, Degraves offered to buy up his share of the business from his son William who lived in India. However, Degraves never actually paid William and merely took over the business by default. It appears that it was at this juncture Peter Degraves changed the record of Hugh Macintosh’s involvement to cover up his theft.10

Despite these contentious beginnings, Cascade was commercially successful very quickly, and currently sells Tasmania’s most popular beer, the Cascade Draught. Its branding features a picture of the iconic Thylacine, and the brewery has maintained strong connections to Tasmania, producing several beers that are available only on the island.9 This picture alone makes me want to visit.

References

Ecological Zones of Tasmania

I’m guessing the biggest reason we’re visiting Tasmania is because of its exceptionally dense and varied biodiversity, both flora and fauna. Tasmania is particularly known for unique endemic plants and animals like many of the marsupial species. Tasmania is able to support so many incredible life forms because of its surprising range of ecological zones, from reefs to atolls to smaller islands, beaches, temperate rainforests, freshwater rivers and lakes, caves, lowland grasslands, and elevated grass and shrublands.

For the most part we’ll be exploring the zones on land, so I’ll expand on them a little further. There are 334 islands of the coast of Tasmania, but only 4 large enough to support significant populations.2 We’ll be visiting Bruny Island, right by Hobart off the southern coast.

The temperate rainforests are found in east and northeast Tasmania, and are home to vast eucalyptus forests, like the one below on Mt. Wellington. As the eastern half of the island is more developed, these forest have been largely destroyed by human activity, particularly Aboriginal burning over the last twelve millennia. In fact, the temperate forests are the biome most altered in Tasmania.5

The rest of the eastern part of Tasmania consists mostly of low, dry grasslands. The western region is more mountainous and contains the largest lakes, including Lake Gordon, Lake King William, Lake St. Clair, the Great Lake, Lake Echo, Lake Burbury, and Lake Mackintosh. The west coast receives the most rainfall (>110 inches annually), and therefore is home to Tasmania’s rainforests. The western half of Tasmania is also where most of the World Heritage Sites are located.

References

Sports in Tasmania

A few weeks ago I wrote about famous Tasmanians, and a significant number were athletes. However, they were cricketers and a world champion axeman, sports I wasn’t too familiar with or expecting. So, I’ve decided to find out more about Tasmanian sports.

Apparently, the most popular sports to watch are cricket and Australian rules football, while the most popular sports to play are Association football for men and swimming for women. Tasmanians also participate in netball, basketball, soccer, Gaelic football, rugby, golf, hockey, car racing, water skiing, water polo, skiing, ice hockey, sailing, tennis, and real tennis. Since I didn’t know there was a fake tennis, I set out to establish the difference, and to learn more about the other sports I didn’t know.

In the Australian Big Bash cricket league, all games are of the Twenty20 format, a shorter version to 20 overs. This typically limits game play to just 3 hours, more in line with modern sports fan expectations and the needs of television. The men’s league has existed since 2011 (when it replaced the previous league), and the women’s league is currently being established for the upcoming season!

Australian rules football seems to be a variant of rugby, with the most significant difference being the layout of the field and that the ball must be punched to pass, rather than the typical rugby throw. Despite Tasmania being the second place to play the game after neighboring rival Victoria, currently no Tasmanian team competes at the highest level.

Gaelic football combines elements of Australian rules football (punch passing and traveling), basketball (dribbling), and soccer (other dribbling) to create a frenetic whirlwind of awesomeness. Seriously if I had known this was a sport growing up I probably wouldn’t have played anything else.

Last but not least, real tennis, also known as court tennis and royal tennis, is the forefather of the game we call tennis. While real tennis, like modern tennis, is played with a racket and ball and has largely similar scoring, it is played indoors in a vast asymmetric room with very specific dimensions, wall angles, and openings at particular intervals.

Sadly, despite the fame of champion Axeman David Foster, axing was not listed as a popular Tasmanian sport.

References

Ecotourism in Tasmania

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as “responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of the local people, and involves interpretation and education.”4 I’ve been lucky enough to take two trips that I would consider ecotourism with my family - one in the Costa Rican rainforest, and one around several of the Galapagos islands. Those experiences were a huge reason why I applied for this seminar, and I’m really excited to see the Tasmanian ecological systems up close and in person. But I have always been curious about whether ecotourism is really beneficial for the naturals places we visit. Or rather, I suppose I don’t doubt the benefits of ecotourism as defined above - that’s clearly great! Rather, I wonder if there are plenty of operations masquerading as ecotourism adventures, who really are damaging the local environment and people.

My Costa Rica and Galapagos trips were interesting in their contrast. The Costa Rica hotel was composed of several large lodges and huts well spaced throughout the jungle, with no more than 100 visitors + staff on site at any time. We walked everywhere, ate simply from large cafeteria style platters, and were completely disconnected from most modern conveniences like hot water or air conditioning. The Galapagos experience was much more commercialized and luxurious - we traveled everywhere on a boat with a hot tub on deck, meals served restaurant style. It generally felt like a cruise, interspersed with daily forays onto the islands with admittedly expert, conscientious guides.

It seems impossible that human exploration of any significant kind could be less impactful than pure conservation. But, I don’t think that is necessarily a fair standard to hold ecotourism too. I think ecotourism can be considered beneficial for the environment if it is better than what would happen to the land, plants and animals if it didn’t exist. This is a much lower bar, since revenues from ecotourism can be used to purchase and protect vast swathes of land that might otherwise be purchased for development, farming, logging, etc.

In this light, I believe Tasmanian ecotourism provides an income stream that allows the country to justify maintaining extensive undeveloped World Heritage sites, and is therefore net positive.7,8,9 Ecotourism accounted for $2.4 billion and 28,000 jobs in Tasmania’s economy - it is the second largest industry and a vital focus for future growth.11

However, just because ecotourism is better than alternatives like logging does not place it above criticism. Construction of nature lodges and the necessary infrastructure is inherently changing the environment in obvious ways, and nature tourism sites are economically incentivized to make their locales more attractive to plants and animals that attract tourists, like primates for example. Ecotourism is a force for good when done correctly, but we should be careful to distinguish between operators that truly care about conservation and protection and those out to make a buck on the latest fad.

I’m excited for our trip - it is clearly nature-based and will focus on education, and I’m curious to see how we give back to locals and whether we think our exploration is sustainable after we’ve done it.

References

Famous Tasmanians

We’ve had 5 great weeks studying the plants, animals, and history of Tasmania, but I realized I still don’t really know anything about individual Tasmanians. So I did a bit of googling and came up with some surprising names and fascinating stories.

The current most famous Tasmanian is Mary Donaldson, the Crown Princess of Denmark. Born in Hobart, she met the Prince of Denmark, Frederik, in a pub in Sydney at the 2000 summer olympic games. They exchanged letters and messages online for a year; subsequently Mary moved to Copenhagen at the end of 2001, the couple were engaged in 2003 and married in 2004. They have four children, two boys and two girls. Mary’s political projects and interests include the integration of immigrants and refugees to Danish society, philanthropic and medical support for Uganda and other parts of East Africa, and domestic anti-bullying campaigns based on similar programs implemented in Australia.4

Going further back, Truganini is widely held to be the last full blood Aboriginal Tasmanian. Born on Bruny island just south of Hobart in 1812 to Mangana, the chief of the Bruny Island tribe, Truganini grew up amid growing conflict between aboriginals and the white settlers. As was sadly frequent, in an encounter with loggers Truganini’s fiancée was viciously murdered and Truganini herself was sexually abused multiple times. In 1830 all remaining aboriginals (and there were only 100 by this point) were moved to Flinders Island, where most died of disease. Truganini left a few years later to assist with the relocation of mainland Australian aboriginals. She had a daughter, and then joined an outlaw group of aboriginals, robbing and killing settlers, but was eventually caught and shot in the course of capture. While her male confederates hanged, Truganini was exiled back to Flanders Island, and subsequently to the Hobart area, where she lived until her death in 1876.7

Others include movie star Errol Flynn (near and dear to my heart for Robin Hood), Australian prime minister Joseph Lyons, composer Peter Sculthorpe, cricketers Ricky Ponting, David Boon, and Max Walker, fashion designer Alannah Hill, and 21-time world champion Axeman David Foster. Last but certainly not least is a fascinating man, Deny King, “King of the Wilderness”, who chose to live a life of self-sufficient solitude deep in the wilderness of southwest Tasmania and yet worked closely with scientists and researchers from around the world to help catalogue and preserve many native Tasmanian species and their habitats.

References

Scuba Diving on Tasmania

Something I’d really like to do if we get the chance is to go scuba diving in Tasmania. It has tons of beautiful reefs and deep dive zones, many included in the protected areas of the World Heritage sites. After a brief search I found a few dive shops right in Hobart and one an hour away in Pirate’s Bay, the Eaglehawk Dive Centre. The centre lists seven dive sites, from simple shallow open water dives to a shipwreck and even cave diving. The site has beautiful pictures of the sites and flora and fauna, like these:

Weedy Seadragon

Various corals

Kelp forest

Rays

Fur Seals

It also has some video highlights of the more exciting dives, like Cathedral Cave.

References

Tasmania’s Plan to Reduce Emissions Seems Dubious

The Tasmanian government has announced its intention to completely power the island with renewable energy sources by 2020, despite the Tony Abbott-led Australian government’s plans to the contrary. This is an ambitious goal, but not completely outlandish. By 2008, Tasmania reduced its emissions by 19.9% below 1990 levels.6 However, emissions have been trending upward since 2002, with no clear signs of slowing down. On top of that, on closer inspection it appears that much of the reduction between 1990 and 2002 was due to a significant reduction in logging and changes in international emission accounting methodology.1,3,6

This is troubling. The reductions in logging are necessary and admirable - and Tasmania must continue to defend its world heritage sites against the lobbying of the logging industry and its political proponents. Nevertheless, there does not seem to be much potential for further reduction in logging activity, and there are no signs of reduction in other areas of emission - transportation, manufacturing, power production, etc. A great portion of the reduction Tasmania is reporting is really a phantom reduction - it is no longer required to account for the emissions produced by the mainland power generators that supply a good portion of Tasmania’s electricity.

In short, there is no reasonable sense that Tasmania’s plan is realistic or that Tasmania is on the path to achieve it. The measures laid out in the environmental departments report are “aspirational”, or put more bluntly, do not have any teeth. Without any mechanism to economically or legally encourage or force reductions in emissions, Tasmania’s emission profile is bound to grow. The sentiments are noble and and the intention right, but unless Tasmania puts more action to its rhetoric its emissions will only continue to increase.

References

Hydroelectricity in Tasmania

Australia recently made waves by repealing its carbon tax laws, leading the Wall Street Journal and others to note that it was “the first time a developed nation had made such a U-turn”5 on climate change policy. Tasmania, however, has since reiterated its goal of running the country on 100% renewable energy sources by 2020.6 Currently Tasmania runs on about 64% hydroelectricity, 11% natural gas, 4% wind, <1% landfill burning, and about 20% electricity supplied by the Basslink connection to Australia.

Tasmania can produce so much hydroelectricity because of it’s steep terrain and high rainfall. Tasmania’s hydroelectricity system is run by Hydro Tasmania, a government-owned corporation.2 Hydro Tasmania operates 30 hydro-electric power generation sites, and the all operate on the same basic principal. Water flowing downhill with gravity turns a turbine attached to a large electromagnet, which spins inside conductive coil, creating electric current.

Anthony Dam and Lake Plimsoli, part of the Tribute station on the Pieman River8

While water is a renewable resource, flowing downhill, reaching the ocean, evaporating, and returning as rainfall, hydro-electric dams often cause significant environmental changes and ecosystem damage. While the Tasmanian government and private industry were initially very gung-ho about harnessing this resource, environmental protests caught the attention of many Tasmanians. This culminated in the controversy, protests, and public referendum surrounding the proposed Franklin dam on the Gordon River. The dam would have significantly impacted areas listed as World Heritage sites, but also reduced Tasmania’s reliance on fossil fuels. In the end the referendum was split and the dam was not constructed.

This story shows how difficult it can be to develop as a nation economically and yet maintain a conscientious preservation of nature and the environment. Even renewable energy sources can be damaging in different ways, and even World Heritage sites can be exploited at the whim of governments.

References

Friday, March 27, 2015

"Top 10 Attractions of Tasmania"

Its quite interesting to see how different organizations do their rankings, and to discover new sights.

Apparently MONA Tops the list. The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart is… Unique to say the lest. It is the most visited single attraction in Tasmania. It has been claimed to “attract visitors who otherwise would never have come to Tasmania.” I’m not sure I believe in the veracity of that last statement!

The rest of the list is actually almost all nature sites. Cradle Mountain, Wineglass Bay, Mt. Wellington, are commonly noted sites that we’ve already talk about. Interestingly, the #5 attraction is a river cruise - an a fascinating idea as Tasmania has many small rivers with almost no development. - should be a rather unique and rather pristine cruise environment. I hope we will be able to travel on a Tasmanian river.

#6 is the Tahune Forest Airwalk. I think this would be a scary experience, on a narrow bridge 150 feet above the ground, looking down at Tasmania’s forests. I also think it would be absolutely thrilling.

Finally, the #2 attraction is Port Arthur - the colonial and prison settlement in Hobart. I think getting a sense of both the human and the ecological history of Tasmania is very important.
Zheng

http://www.tasmaniatopten.com/lists/tasmanian_attractions.php

Population Centers of Tasmania

Tasmania is often considered a rural outpost of Australia. Let’s look at some of the state’s population centers to get a feel of its size.
Hobart is the biggest city although its not that much bigger than a small town. Its population of 240,000 makes up about 1/2 of Tasmania’s population (only 540,000!)
Launceston, in the north, has a population of 100,000.
Devonport has 30,000 people.
As we go further, no small town has over 30,000 people. Tasmania is a HUGE island - one of the biggest islands of the world (ranking #26)- and yet has a minuscule population- less than that of the SF Bay Area. That gives an idea of what we’ll see- less people, more nature!

Launceton, Population Center #2 of Tasmania

Zheng

http://www.tasmaniatopten.com/lists/population_centres.php

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Parrots in Peril

This past month the Tasmania government, despite the disapproval of its own experts, made the decision to continue with logging the habitat of the endangered swift parrot.

Swift parrots, listed as endangered on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, breeds in Tasmania. It migrates north to south eastern Australia from Griffith-Warialda in New South Wales and west to Adelaide in the winter. It is thought that only 1000 pairs remain in the wild. Habitat destruction and loss of old trees with nesting hollows are critical factors in its decline, demonstrating why this logging exhibition will be particularly dangerous for these birds.

The government went so far as to ignore warnings such as "the felling of trees will result in loss of breeding habitat that has been identified as being of very high importance for the species with the further fragmentation of foraging habitat. This cannot contribute to the long-term survival of the species.”

Phill Pullinger, a spokesman for Environment Tasmania, disagrees with the governments decision. He commented:

“Both [federal environment minister] Greg Hunt and [state environment minister] Matthew Groom have powers and responsibilities to protect endangered species – we need an injunction to prevent logging in swift parrot breeding areas,” he told Guardian Australia. This is highly alarming and shatters any confidence in how endangered species are being managed. The advice from scientists is so clear and blunt as to what these activities mean for this animal and yet the decision makers straight out ignore the advice. The swift parrot has had a lot of public profile. If one of the more high profile species is so clearly ignored, it raises questions as to what’s happening to a whole bunch of lesser known species.”

Will the government continue to prioritize commercial ventures over the safety of its friends of flight? Or will it defend the birds that help make its wilderness so beautiful? Hopefully Tasmania will continue to prioritize its natural beauty, as it has been doing for quite some time.

Author: Alicia Menendez