Southport,
in the 1800s, was, at one time, was the second largest town
in Van Diemen's Land and was even proposed as the capital
of the colony. It's early history was that of an international
shipping port as it shipped vast quantities of timber to
Europe.
It was a very
busy "mill town" and convict station and base
for whalers and sealers and was first explored by Admiral
Bruni D'Entrecasteaux who named Mussel Bay (Baie des Moules).
At one time
when there were a number of substantial wharves and jetties
dotted around the bay. Today, life is a little quieter and
certainly more pleasant with tourism and fishing being the
chiefly undertaken activities.
Most popular of these are visits to Adamson's Falls, the
Mystery Creek Caves and the Hastings Caves and a swim in
the thermal springs where the water temperature is a very
pleasant 28 degrees - Celsius not fahrenheit of course!
Often linked with Southport
is Ida Bay, a small bay
on the Southport Estuary 113 kilometres south of Hobart.
Ida Bay was allegedly named after Ida Chesterman (nee Driscoll)
and was known alternatively in the early years as Wheelbarrow
Bay.
It is best known these days as the historic home of the
Ida Bay Railway, constructed in 1922, and the last working
example of the Southern Tasmanian Tramway and a magnet for
transport buffs.
There were hundreds of miles of narrow gauge bush tramways
built in Tasmania but this is the only original one still
in existence. The tramline is a 2 feet (60 cms) gauge line
and was originally designed to carry limestone to the sea
port known as “The Deep Hole” which is almost
opposite Southport.
There are relics of the limestone carrying days in the form
of wagons and machinery.
Several of the passenger carriages are built on bogie flat
wagons built in the 1890s. These are some of the earliest
bogie wagons in Australia.
The Ida Bay railway runs two Malcolm Moore diesel locomotives
that were built around 1940. It is the southern-most railway
in Australia and is 6.8 kilometres in length.
From Lune River, the little train travels through light
bush to the shores of Ida Bay. The line passes through the
site of the original town of Ida Bay and past the wharf
and graveyard that is all that remains of a once thriving
area.
Soon after
reaching the shores of the Lune River estuary, and for a
mile or so, the scenic views across the waterways are superb.
The train then goes past the bush site of Jagers sawmill
and jetty and then through bush that lines either side of
the track.
The line terminates
at Deep Hole Bay, a large white swimming beach which is
accessible only by the rail.
The beach is
nearly a mile long and is very secluded. From
Deep Hole there are marked bush walking tracks to King George
III monument on Southport Bluff.
The George
III was a convict ship which sank in 1835 with a huge loss
of life. It is said that
the guards on the ship, fearful that the convicts would
panic if the ship went down, shot indiscriminately into
the ship's hold. This
is supported by the peculiar death toll which saw 81 convicts
lose their lives while only 13 passengers and crew were
drowned.
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