TRAVEL TUESDAY 263 - HOBART, TASMANIA

“Perhaps the virtue of coming from a place like Tasmania is that you had the great gift of knowing that you were not the centre of things, yet life was no less where you were.” -  Richard Flanagan

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Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australia’s second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as a “Hobartian”.

The city is located in the state's south-east on the estuary of the Derwent River. The skyline is dominated by Mount Wellington at 1,271 metres high. The city is the financial and administrative heart of Tasmania, also serving as the home port for both Australian and French Antarctic operations. Hobart was named Australia's 6th most sustainable city, by the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2010. For economic and social innovation, Hobart was the 11th placed in Australia in 2009, and listed as an innovation influencer city in the Innovation Cities Global Index scoring equal with Reykjavik, Katowice and Casablanca by 2thinknow.

Hobart supports a huge tourist industry. Visitors come to the city to explore its historic inner suburbs and nationally acclaimed restaurants and cafes, as well as its vibrant music and nightlife culture. Australia’s first legal casino was the 17-storey Wrest Point Hotel Casino in Sandy Bay, opened in 1973. Tourists also come to visit the massive weekly market in Salamanca Place, as well as to use the city as a base from which to explore the rest of Tasmania.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
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TRAVEL TUESDAY #155 - HOBART, TASMANIA

“Perhaps the virtue of coming from a place like Tasmania is that you had the great gift of knowing that you were not the centre of things, yet life was no less where you were.” - Richard Flanagan 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony, Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as a "Hobartian". The city is located in the state's south-east on the estuary of the Derwent River. The skyline is dominated by Mount Wellington at 1,271 metres high.

The city is the financial and administrative heart of Tasmania, also serving as the home port for both Australian and French Antarctic operations. Hobart was named Australia’s sixth most sustainable city, by the Australian Conservation Foundation in 2010. For economic and social innovation, Hobart was the 11th placed in Australia in 2009, and listed as an innovation influencer city in the Innovation Cities Global Index scoring equal with Reykjavik, Katowice and Casablanca by 2thinknow.

Hobart supports a huge tourist industry. Visitors come to the city to explore its historic inner suburbs and nationally acclaimed restaurants and cafes, as well as its vibrant music and nightlife culture. Australia's first legal casino was the 17-storey Wrest Point Hotel Casino in Sandy Bay, opened in 1973. Tourists also come to visit the massive weekly market in Salamanca Place, as well as to use the city as a base from which to explore the rest of Tasmania.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #115 - CRADLE MT, TASMANIA

“I’m able to actually choose places to go which have intrigued me for the last god knows how many years, and Tasmania’s always been one of those places.” - Robert Plant 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Cradle Mountain is a mountain in the Central Highlands region of the Australian state of Tasmania. The mountain is situated in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. At 1,545 metres above sea level, it is the fifth-highest mountain in Tasmania, and is one of the principal tourist sites in the state. The Cradle Mountain is composed of dolerite columns, similar to many of the other mountains in the area. 

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park contains many walking trails, and is where hikes along the well-known Overland Track usually begin. Major features are Cradle Mountain and Barn Bluff in the northern end, Mount Pelion East, Mount Pelion West, Mount Oakleigh and Mount Ossa in the middle and Lake St Clair in the southern end of the park. The park is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is a significant location of Tasmania's endemic species — 40–55% of the park’s documented alpine flora is endemic. Furthermore, 68% of the higher rainforest species recorded in alpine areas in Tasmania are present in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. The park’s alpine vegetation is very diverse and has largely escaped forest fires that have caused neighbouring regions to suffer. Animals present in the park include: pademelons, Bennett’s wallabies, quolls, Tasmanian devils, echidnas, platypuses, wombats, possums, ravens and currawongs.

The park has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) because it provides habitat for 11 of Tasmania’s endemic bird species, as well as for the flame and pink robins and the striated fieldwren. The IBA is important as a representative protected area in north-central Tasmania for those species.

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the  Wordless Wednesday meme.

TRAVEL TUESDAY #77 - LAUNCESTON, TASMANIA

“The hardest thing in life to learn is which bridge to cross and which to burn.” - DavidRussell 

Welcome to the Travel Tuesday meme! Join me every Tuesday and showcase your creativity in photography, painting and drawing, music, poetry, creative writing or a plain old natter about Travel.

There is only one simple rule: Link your own creative work about some aspect of travel and share it with the rest of us. Please use this meme for your creative endeavours only.

Do not use this meme to advertise your products or services as any links or comments by advertisers will be removed immediately.

Launceston is a city in the north of Tasmania, Australia at the junction of the North Esk and South Esk rivers where they become the Tamar River. Launceston is the second largest city in Tasmania after Hobart. With a population of 86,633, Launceston is the twelfth-largest non-capital city in Australia. It is the only inland city in Tasmania.

Settled by Europeans in March 1806, Launceston is one of Australia’s oldest cities and is home to many historic buildings. Like many Australian places, it was named after a town in the United Kingdom – in this case, Launceston, Cornwall. Launceston has also been home to several firsts such as the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere, the first Australian city to have underground sewers and the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity. The city has a temperate climate with four distinct seasons. Local government is split between the City of Launceston and the Meander Valley and West Tamar Councils.

Built in two complementary sections forty years apart (1863 and 1903), King’s Bridge near Launceston, Tasmania, is a very elegant and gracefully arched, open girder steel bridge which carries Bridge Road/Trevallyn Road across the Tamar River. Built to carry main road traffic north from Launceston to the town on the coasts of Bass Strait, the bridge is now protected from heavy West Tamar traffic by the newer adjoining Paterson Bridge, which was brought into service in the 1960s. King’s Bridge is now reserved for local traffic only. Part of the bridge’s appeal is that it is the perfect terminating element to the renowned Launceston Gorge within the Trevallyn State Reserve. The reserve is bounded by the South Esk River on all but the northern side. In the east is the Trevallyn Lake, formed by the Trevallyn Dam, and in the east is Cataract Gorge. 

This post is part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme. 

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ART SUNDAY - JOHN GLOVER

“Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all ends and purposes and intentions.” - Fernando Pessoa

John Glover (18 February 1767 – 9 December 1849) was an English-born Australian artist during the early colonial period of Australian art. In Australia he has been dubbed “the father of Australian landscape painting”.

Glover was born at Houghton-on-Hill in Leicestershire, England. His parents were farmer William Glover and Ann (née Bright). He showed a talent for drawing at an early age, and in 1794 was practicing as an artist and drawing-master at Lichfield. The Countess of Harrington helped establish his practice as an art instructor, and may have taken lessons from him herself. Removed to London in 1805, became a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and was elected its president in 1807. In the ensuing years he exhibited a large number of pictures at the exhibitions of this society, and also at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. He had one-man shows in London in 1823 and 1824. He was a very successful artist and, although never elected a member of the Academy, his reputation stood very high with the public.

Glover achieved fame as a painter of “Italianate” romantic landscapes of Britain (including The falls of Foyers on Loch Ness, the Lake District and London) and Southern Europe. He became known in both England and France as the “English Claude”. This phrase was making comparison with Glover and the French seventeenth century artist Claude Lorrain, whose works collected by eighteenth century English “grand tourists”, strongly influenced the evolution of the English style, in both painting and the layout of landscape gardens. On 21 October 1825 Glover was one of three passengers on PS Comet II who alighted at Rothesay, thus escaping the disaster which occurred to the paddle-steamer a few hours later when it was hit by SS Ayr and sank in the River Clyde with the loss of 62 lives.

Glover decided to move to Australia, arriving in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) on his 64th birthday in 1831. He brought with him a strong reputation as a landscape painter. From April 1831 until early 1832 he lived in Hobart on a property named “Stanwell Hall”, which can be seen in his work “Hobart Town, taken from the garden where I lived”. In 1832 he acquired one of the largest grants of land in Van Diemen’s Land at the time at Mills Plains, Deddington. He named his new property Patterdale after Blowick Farm, a property near Patterdale, in the Lake District. Glover’s grant was close to Kingston, the home of John Batman (later to co-found Melbourne) and his relationship to his neighbour appears to be fraught. Glover helped build the Chapel at Deddington and is buried within these grounds.

Glover is best known now for his paintings of the Tasmanian landscape. He gave a fresh treatment to the effects of the Australian sunlight on the native bushland by depicting it bright and clear, a definite departure from the darker “English country garden” model. Note this example “Patterdale Farm” (circa 1840). His treatment of the local flora was also new because it was a more accurate depiction of the Australian trees and scrubland. Glover noted the “remarkable peculiarity of the trees” in Australia and observed that “however numerous, they rarely prevent your tracing through them the whole distant country”. “Natives on the Ouse River, Van Diemen’s Land” (1838) is “informed by European notions of an Antipodean Arcadia, with Indigenous people living in a landscape unsullied by European contact.”  However, it stands in marked contrast to the actual situation of the traditional owners of Ouse River country - the Braylwunyer people of the Big River nation - which was one of dispossession and violence at the hands of the colonists. John Glover's last major work was painted on his 79th birthday.

The John Glover Society was established on Aug 22, 2001 to honour and promote Glover’s memory and his contribution to Australian art. The society commissioned a life-size statue of Glover, unveiled in February 2003 in Evandale, Tasmania. It also runs the annual Glover Prize, which is held in Evandale. John Glover’s work features in many prominent art galleries throughout Australia (and the world). His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and a symposium in Australia. From 2004, The John Glover Society has awarded the Glover Prize for depictions of Tasmanian landscapes. It is the richest art prize in Australia for landscape painting.

The work above is “The Bath of Diana, Van Diemen’s Land”, 1837, 96.5 cm x 134.5 cm, exhibited in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. It presents an idyllic scene in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) of a stretch of calm water beside low grassy hills, rocky outcrops and sinuous eucalypts. Light radiates over the hills, emphasising their forms, and shines on the water to create reflections of the surrounding scene. Blue hills can be glimpsed in the distance. It is a fine day with clouds in the sky. The scene has been enlivened by including small figures of the local Palawa people. One swims in the pool, another is about to follow, and others watch from the bank. On the other side a figure with several dogs stands with legs apart brandishing a spear.

Glover’s works often employ conventional picturesque compositional and decorative devices. However, he was also a sensitive observer and recorder, providing the first convincing and comfortable representations of the Australian landscape, with its bright blue skies and golden light, twisting eucalypts and grey-blue-olive foliage, Aboriginal inhabitants and empty distances. In these remarkable 1830s paintings, Glover was arguably the most important landscape painter working outside Europe.

SCALLOPS IN TASMANIA

“The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.” - Vincent Van Gogh

One of the great advantages of visiting Tasmania is the great variety of fresh foods available and the increasing sophistication of the restaurant scene. Every sort of seasonal fruit and vegetable (particularly those thriving in a cooler climate) are always available, a variety of meats, but also in particular, freshly caught seafood and fish. Tonight we went out to eat at a very good restaurant in Launceston and I had the following dish. Chatting with the chef afterwards, and while complimenting him on his culinary skills, he was kind enough to give us the recipe. I hope I remember it, although I ma pretty sure as it was a fairly simple recipe, which nevertheless tasted delicious.
 
SCALLOPS À LA GRECQUE
Ingredients
16 large scallops in their shells
3 tablespoons of olive oil
1 lemon
1 tablespoon flour
2/3 cup of white wine
1 cup of water (more or less depending on the thickness of the sauce desired)
1/2 teaspoon chopped rosemary
Salt, pepper
1 rhizome of ginger, grated. 

Method
Wash and clean the scallops, removing all the grit and the gut. Drain them and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil until very hot, scald the ginger and immediately the oil heats again put in the scallops, ensuring they are seared all around. Stir in the flour and once it browns slightly, pour in the wine and water, stirring all the while. Add the rosemary and keep heating until the sauce thickens. Serve each scallop in each pre-heated shell (have them in the oven while cooking the scallops).

This post is part of the Food Friday meme,

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POSTCARD FROM TASMANIA

“It is acknowledged even by all the rival colonies that of all the colonies Tasmania is the prettiest… [it] may be said of the small island that, go where you will, the landscape that meets the eye is pleasing, whereas the reverse of this is certainly the rule on the Australian continent. And the climate of Tasmania is by far pleasanter than that of any part of the mainland… Everything in Tasmania is more English than is England herself.” – ‘Australia and New Zealand’; by Anthony Trollope, 1873

I am in Tasmania for work for a few days and it was a delight to arrive here this morning to a delightful Spring day, especially since it was cold, wet and gray in Melbourne. Usually, Tasmania, being to the South of the mainland, has a colder, wetter and much cooler temperate climate than any other Australian place. As well as that, it boasts the southernmost state capital in Australia, Hobart.
 
Tasmania is an island state 240 kilometres in the south of the Australian continent, separated by the Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania, the 26th largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands. The state has a population of 507,626 (as of June 2010), of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart precinct. Tasmania’s area is 68,401 square kilometres, of which the main island covers 62,409 square kilometres. The subantarctic Macquarie Island is also under the administration of the state, as part of the Huon Valley Council local government area.
 
Tasmania is promoted to tourists as the “Natural State”, the “Island of Inspiration” and “A World Apart, Not A World Away”, owing to its large and relatively unspoiled natural environment. Almost 37% of Tasmania lies in reserves, national parks and World Heritage Sites. The island is 364 kilometres long from its northernmost to its southernmost points, and 306 kilometres from west to east.
 
The state capital and largest city is Hobart, which encompasses the local government areas of City of Hobart, City of Glenorchy, and City of Clarence, while the satellite town of Kingston (part of the Municipality of Kingborough) is generally included in the Greater Hobart area.