Hobart

Tasmania’s animals and Aboriginal population have been isolated from mainland Australia for nearly 10,000 years. The island was sighted by Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642 and was originally named Van Dieman’s Land. Hobart was settled in 1803 as a penal colony by John Bowland who brought 49 people here, including 29 convicts. We did a walking tour of the harbor area of Hobart in the rain. St. David’s park was the original cemetery of the town. Some of the original monuments still remain like that of James Kelly, whose wife and all his children died before him. Or the tombstone of George Kearly who was the first white male born in Tasmania, but he only lived six days. Down the road was the Nortorious corner, with the police stations on one side and the jail and execution plaza on the other. The executioner lived 3 days away from the city, so he would only come to town when there were at least nine hangings to be conducted. We heard the story about Mary who was the first woman hung here. She was sent to Australia because she confessed to her husband’s stealing in England. Convicts were hired out to the local farmers, and Mary became pregnant by the farmer. Her baby was still born, but she was convicted of killing it, and so she was hung.

After our tour we went to the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, a home for injured and orphaned animals. Australia is a land of marsupials, until the introduction of the dingo. There were no mammals on the continent. Marsupials have their young born live and then they are nourished in a pouch. We started by seeing a wombat, the smartest of the marsupials. Full grown this hairy ball of an animal is 1 meter long and weighs about 40 Kg, it can run at about 40 km/hr. They live in burrows and use can use their butts which has 2 in thick cartilage to close up their burrow. For unknown reasons, their scat is actually cubic, so it doesn’t roll.

Mary, wombat, and keeper

Next we saw the Tasmanian devil. Most of the pictures of devils show them snarling, which is a behavior used to defend food from other devils.  They also like to bite each other, even while mating. The animals are timid, can only see 2-3 feet in front of them, and don’t run very fast, but they have a strong sense of smell, so they are scavengers with super strong jaws to bite through bone. They have 30-40 babies which are about the size of a rice grain, but only 2-3 will survive (and the mom may eat the rest). The Devils are threatened today, because of a virus which produces facial tumors, which leads to starvation.  

Tasmanian Devil

We also saw Koala’s, which are the dumbest of the marsupials. This is largely because of their diet of Eucalyptus leaves which has little nutritional value. An animal’s brain consumes about 25% of the calories it eats, so the Koala’s brain is only the size of a walnut. The Koala may be cute, but they spend about 20 hours a day sleeping, waking up every few hours to feed.

We ended our visit by feeding the Kangaroo’s by hand. I learned that Kangaroos can only move forward. The seal of Australia has both a Kangaroo and an Emu (which has the same characteristic) – implying that Australia can only move forward. Then we headed to Richmond, home to the oldest bridge and St. John's, oldest Catholic church in Australia.

On returning to Hobart, Mary and I toured the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery. Here we got to see a stuffed Tasmanian tiger and some film of one of the last living Tiger’s. They were exterminated by the sheep herders, fearful that the tigers would eat their sheep. You can only see Tasmanian tigers on the state license plate. Upstairs was an exhibit about Antarctica, which explained many of the unique aspects of this continent.

Tasmanian Tiger (extinct)