Strahan

With an average annual rainfall of something like three metres, West Tasmania is indeed a wild and wet landscape. Remarkable then that when the Bazflyers visited this sparsely settled area we were welcomed with absolutely beautiful weather. Clear skies, cool mornings and warm days.

Strahan is Tasmania's main settlement 'out west'. Snuggled within the sheltered reaches of Macquarie Harbour it serves as home for a fleet of crayfishing boats and an assortment of businesses supporting the region's tourist industry.

The narrow entrance into Macquarie Harbour from the Great Southern Ocean is known as Hells Gate. At first glance the name would appear an appropriate label for a neck of treachous water but delve just a little into the area's absorbing history and the real meaning of Hells Gate becomes apparent.

Among the first settlers at Macquarie Harbour in 1822 were convicts, many guilty of only minor misdemeanours. Their incarceration at the harshist of all Australia's convict settlements was an inhuman existence almost beyond belief. These men and women suffered the most appalling treatment of humans in the history of Tasmania, with the singular exception of the Aborigines. The terror of this shameful place gave rise to the saying when transported to Macquarie Harbour; of going through Hell's Gate....

Passing the opposite direction through Hells Gate on a good day

 

Sarah Island was the site of Macquarie Harbour's infamous penal colony between 1822 to 1833

 

After two century's only a few ruins remain from Sarah Island's convict past

 

Crayfishing boats at Strahan