Deloraine – Hobart

Walked around Deloraine, down to the lovely park lined water. Full of large trees, manicured lawns and lots of doggy poo bags! Tassie sure likes to clean up after its dogs. They had built a lovely suspension bridge over the river since we were last here, and there was an old mill on the water, a guy mentioned the owner was about to put the old water wheel back in. Property seems well priced in and around this area.

We then drove down the back road to Hobart. Through the lovely World Heritage Area and a Lake (Dam) with only about 20kms of unsealed roads, but they were good stone road base type road with little dust. Along the edges of the lake lines there are hundreds of little holiday huts. Moving along we passed through Bothwell. Home of a lovely looking goats cheese (we couldn’t find the outlet shop).

CLEANUP.ORG.AU
Sunday 1st March is Clean Up Australia Day – 24,000 volunteers helped clean up Australia’s roads, parks and rivers. Please help by volunteering in your local area this year. We are going to volunteer here in Tassie somewhere.

Another thing you can do, especially if you can’t volunteer, is to write to your local member to get a deposit scheme happening on bottles and cans in your state. Apparently 85% of SA’s bottles and cans are recycled since they re-introduced the deposit. I know the drink companies are very much against this, as it adds to the initial cost of a can of drink, but it is all refundable. They also said that one recycled can takes as much energy to make as 7 new cans. Well worth it!

We arrived at lunch time to the biannual 2009 Wooden Boat Show in Hobart. Found a great spot in the harbour just 50m from the entrance of the show. There were loads of boats. Some could be hardly called wooden – with a wooden toe rail only to its name, but it was really busy. Live music, loads of groups displaying wares from old steam engines, Torres Strait Islander boating transport display, lots of hardware and of course, wood displays of priceless scraps of timber available for repairs and restoration works.

in view is about a quarter of what was on display around the harbour

There was live music, seafood galore, and a fabulous selection of Herreschoff’s for us to look at. There was also a magnificent 1898 Steam Boat. Such luxury like I’ve never seen; including a crystal chandelier; 1790s original coffee urn, that had been hardwired to the steam engine to heat the water for the urn so it can still be used as an urn. All the crockery, cutlery, and linen had the boats name and crest stamped on it.

check out the shine on all the brass - its like nothing i've ever seen

The engine was a work of art. All the stainless steel was shining, the brass all polished to perfection and all on display for a measly gold coin donation. The one berth had a studded red velour V berth and ensuite bathroom with marble shower base, original bakelite toilet seat with brass attachments and brass pump for the flush. The basin was a brass pull down variety like ones I’ve seen on the Titanic that sank. Magnificent! The owner said they were going to invite Princess Mary was going to be invited aboard on her next visit.

The owner also even hand steamed every part of a curved round seat that formed the rear of the boat. All 8 speakers on board were all concealed. All mod-cons including TV screen, computer, alarm system, fridge etc were all hidden and out of the way. It was a work of art and a labour of love.

There were also lovely hand made kayaks, dinghies, model boats and more all made of wood. Just lovely!