Australia : Tasmania

With Australia lying empty in a far corner of the Empire, England seemed to have a perfect solution for its 18th-century prison overflow problem. Parliament members happily sent their rabble across the ocean, washed their hands, and went to tea. But lawlessness was still a huge problem in the new prison colony, and penal officials in New South Wales decided to ship the troublemakers away once again. Australia was already at the end of the earth, but Tasmania was at the end of Australia. The British considered assignment to the wild little island, then known as Van Diemen’s Land, to be the worst punishment available, reserved for the most heartless recidivists.

What was thought to be an inhospitable, weather beaten rock was in fact the lushest corner of the continent. Still, the penal settlements established in the gorgeous areas near Hobart and Strahan were brutal indeed. Furthermore, the native Aboriginal populations were decimated by the new colony through the invasion of their lands and even outright genocide. During this century, Tasmanians have tried to forget their state’s ugly history, embracing a conservative, Anglophilic ethos with power and social status monopolized by a small elite. Today, this pervasive conservatism is juxtaposed with a fervent, fascinating strain of radicalism. Tassie has been critical to the emergence of the Australian conservation movement, an early landmark of which was the struggle against the proposed Franklin Dam in Lake Pedder in the early 1980s. The world’s first Green parly has been in part of the state’s governing coalition twice in the past decade. Tasmanian Aboriginals-who had not been completely annihilated, despite what most Australians arc taught-were behind the pre-Mabo nationwide push for Aboriginal sovereignty. Many visitors to Australia don’t make it down under down under, but it is well worth the time and money required to detour through Tassie. A third of the state is preserved as wilderness, protecting the last great temperate rainforest on the globe. Bushwalkers from around the planet come to Tasmania’s mountainous interior to explore the Overland Track, the premier hiking trail in the southern hemisphere. The uninhabited west coast bears the brunt of the Southern Ocean’s fury, but the storms rarely push past the mountains, so the east coast and midlands are quite pleasant year-round. Tiny holiday villages, filled with prosperous fishing fleets and vacationing families, speckle the shore. In the southeast, capital Hobart, Australia’s second-oldest city, is pleasantly mired in its own history. Rolling farmland stretches north from Hobart to Launceston, Tasmania’s second city and northern hub. The Cradle Mountain World Heritage Area and central plateau regions are easily accessible from Launceston, and any point on the island is within a day’s drive. Those on a mission can see much of the island in just a few days, but those who lose themselves in the wilderness and history may never be able to get enough of Tasmania.

TASMANIA HIGHLIGHTS - Hiking the spectacular ridges of the world-famous Overland Track - Sunset framed by granite peaks and still water at Wineglass Bay - Macabre tales of the convict days on a ghost tour at Port Arthur - Picnic in the gardens of Cataract Gorge Reserve in Launceston - Sampling the sweet wares of Hobart’s Cadbury Chocolate Factory - Splashing in a waterhole after hiking the Apsley River gorge - Wallabies and kangaroos on a safari in Mt. William National Park.