Author: John Cruse

If you travel with us by reading our posts and are wondering what has happened to our posts in 2023, the answer is, we have been travelling but, for various reasons, not posting.

This will be rectified in due course and we will catchup with posts for our 2023 travels to South Korea, The Outer Hebrides, Northern Ireland and Egypt.

Our travels for 2024 are all planned and we will be posting our first 2024 posts shortly.

After arriving in Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula the evening before, we had a boat trip to look forward to today. The area is a National Park so has many visitors as it offers a variety of coastal activities, such as walks and water sports.

There are several walks, from easy and short to a three days trip around the Peninsula. The water activities included swimming and snorkelling, but as we were only staying for the one day we opted for a cruise on Wineglass Bay.

As one would expect, there is wildlife in the area and we were hoping to see some sea birds, dolphins, seals and whales.

The cruise lasted for just over 4 hours and included lunch and a commentary on the wildlife, the rock formations, the caves and blowholes that exist around that part of the coast. As with any wildlife spotting, one has to be lucky on the day and we did not see too much at close quarters apart from the seals.

That said it was still a nice day and we were lucky to spot some wildlife whilst eating dinner at our accommodation.

The next day we had a 185 mile drive to Cradle Mountain where we had an evening tour planned for spotting the legendary endangered Tasmanian Devils and Eastern Quolls.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

We returned to the Port Arthur Historic Site the next morning to explore the parts of the site we did not get to the previous afternoon.

The Government Gardens at Port Arthur were first developed in 1846/47 by Commander Champ. The gardens today are a reconstruction of the originals which were laid out as a place where visitors and residents and their families could get some fresh air away from the presence of the convicts.

After the site was closed in 1877, the original garden fell into neglect until reconstruction began in 1991. The reconstruction was achieved using photographs, drawings and descriptions from the mid-19th century. The plants used today were varieties present at the Queens Domain in Hobart during the late-19th century including those familiar in England, such as violets and foxgloves, to more exotic plants from Africa, South America and Asia.

The Government Cottage was built to accommodate government officials and other important visitors to Port Arthur. The Cottage was burnt down when a bush fire devastated Port Arthur in 1895 and was not rebuilt but has been preserved. Next to the Cottage is the Church which played an important role in the reform of the convicts. The Church was destroyed by fire in 1884 but has also been conserved so that the work of the convicts who built it can be appreciated.

In addition to the Penitentiary that housed the better behaved prisoners, the site had the Separate Prison. The Separate Prison was opened in 1849, supposedly modelled on Pentonville Prison in London, and was designed to deliver an alternative to corporal punishment. The convicts were locked in their cells 23 hour each day with one hour allowed for exercise. Those who continued to offend were sent to the punishment block within the Separate Prison.

The Separate Prison has been restored which brings the building to life for visitors.

It is reported that the convicts in the Separate Prison had to undertake some form of labour in their individual cells. When they did leave their cells, the convicts had to wear a hood to hide their face. They weren’t allowed to communicate with anyone and were referred to by their number rather than name. The Chapel was interesting as the wooden cubicles held one convict who, due to the construction, could not see the person in front or on either side of them. As they were led into the Chapel hooded, they could not see anyone and were not allowed to make any noise. The corridors of the Separate Prison had mats laid on the floors so that the convicts did not make a noise as they walked around the Prison. This was all part of the sensory deprivation treatment they were subjected to.

The Guard Tower sits above the site and was built by 1836 with flanking walls to secure the military barracks and allowed the military guards to have a good view of what was going on across the site.

After a morning at Port Arthur, we drove the 140 miles to Wineglass Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

As Day 7 dawned we set off to drive the 60 or so miles to Port Arthur which is south of Hobart. We had pre-booked entry tickets for the Port Arthur Historic Site which is a must visit for those interested in the history of Tasmania. The site is large so we had allowed a whole day for our visit, split over an afternoon and the next morning. There are guided tours which are best booked in advance as they are popular.

The Port Arthur penal station was established in 1830 as a timber acquisition area. The convict inmates of the site were deployed to produce sawn logs for use in Government projects. From 1833, the site became a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies.

Presumably, like many other penal establishments of its time, Port Arthur was built on a philosophy of discipline and punishment, religious and moral instruction, classification and separation, training and education. This system broke many men, whereas others left rehabilitated, educated and with skills.

By 1840, in excess of 2,000 convicts, soldiers and civilian staff lived on the site and it was a major industrial settlement. It produced a range of goods including worked stone, bricks, furniture, clothing, boats and ships.

With transportation to Van Diemen’s Land ceasing in 1853, the site at Port Arthur changed to become an institution for aging, as well as physically and mentally ill, convicts. The site was finally closed in 1877 at which time many of the buildings were dismantled or destroyed. Tourism began to the site almost immediately after closure and continues today.

Port Arthur was recognised as a place of historic interest in 1916 and by the 1920s some of the period buildings had become museums, hotels and shops. In 1971, the National Parks and Wildlife Service took over the management of the site and by the 1980s parts in private ownership were acquired and conserved by the State Government. In 2010, this site and 10 others were included on the World Heritage List as the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property.

Something we were not aware of until we visited the site was the tragic event that unfolded on 28 April 1996 on and around the area of the site. A gunman took the lives of 35 people and wounded 19 others. There is a memorial plaque at the site dedicated to the deceased and injured. It is situated in the memorial garden where the massacre started – within the original tea shop. The massacre resulted in a fundamental change to the gun laws in Australia.

The Port Arthur Historic Site is on the coast and just off the shore in the bay is the Isle of the Dead. The reason for the name is that there is a small cemetery on the island which is the final resting place of 1,000 convicts, military and civilian officers, and women and children. The deceased were buried there between 1833 and 1877 with the convicts being buried in a separate area to the others. Originally the convicts were laid to rest without headstones, whereas the other people buried there did, but this was rectified in 1850 when some of the convicts were given headstones.

It is possible to go on a guided cemetery tour on the Isle of the Dead but places are limited so booking in advance is advisable. Part of the ticket we purchased included a harbour cruise which takes one out into the harbour and around the Isle of the Dead, but if one wants to actually visit the cemetery a separate ticket needs to be booked.

We had not managed to see all parts of the site in one afternoon so we had allowed the next morning to come back and complete our visit. The tickets sold to us covered two consecutive days which was ideal considering the size of the site.

Copyright (other then visitor map): Words and photos John Cruse 2025

After the Blue Mountains we were again following our aborted 2020 itinerary and flying to Tasmania the next day.

Tasmania is an island state separated from the south of the Australian mainland by the Bass Strait. The state capital and largest city is Hobart with, it is estimated, 40% of the population living in the greater Hobart area.

Tasmania has an interesting history from the early aboriginal settlers, who were cut off from the mainland around 10,000 years ago, to the European settlers when the British colonised the island in 1803 and used it as a penal settlement.

Tasmania was first sighted by a European when Abel Tasman landed at today’s Blackman’s Bay in 1642. It was named Van Diemen’s Land after the sponsor of Abel Tasman’s voyage, Anthony van Diemen who was the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. The British retained this name when they established a settlement in 1803 with the name being changed in 1856 to Tasmania to distance itself from its history as a harsh penal colony.

We collected a hire car at Hobart Airport with a view, over the next seven days, to driving to Hobart, Port Arthur, Cradle Mountain and finally Launceston.

Hobart was not a big city so we had arranged a guide to give us a walking tour of the more historic areas.

Sir John Franklin, later to become infamous due to his voyages to find the North West Passage, was the Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen’s Land from 1837 to 1843. He will be remembered, along with is wife, for the efforts to improve and develop the colony by establishing a public school system and founding the Tasmanian Natural History Society.

Also in the park at Franklin Square was a statue of William Lodewyk Crowther who was the Premier of Tasmania from 1878 to 1879. He was apparently a controversial figure as he was suspected of allegedly mutilating the remains of an aboriginal man, named William Lanne in 1869. He was suspected of removing Lanne’s skull and sending it to the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Due to this history, the Hobart City Council voted to remove Crowther’s statue as an act of reconciliation. Prior to this happening, in May 2024 the statue was vandalised when a tool was used to cut through the legs and graffiti was sprayed on the plinth. This seems to be happening in many cities around the world these days where some people want to cancel history rather than learn from it.

Hobart is a mixture of the old and new like many cities and some of the houses in the nearby suburbs are just as interesting as the government buildings.

We then made our way up Kelly’s Steps to the Battery Point area of Hobart that sits above the port. This area has some 19th century houses and although not far from the port is a lot quieter but well worth a visit.

A house, known as Lenna of Hobart, used to be the only one at its location overlooking Battery Point when the foundation stones were laid in 1860. The original house where Lenna (which is a Tasmanian Aboriginal word for ‘house or hut’) stands was built by whaling Captain James Bayley who sold it to his business partner, Alexander McGregor, who had married Bayley’s sister, Harriett. The house has a lookout turret where Alexander McGregor was able to keep a watch for his returning ships.

Our local guide was friendly with the hotel owners so we were able to go up to the lookout turret and enjoy the sights over Hobart harbour.

The view from the Lookout over Battery Point has obviously changed dramatically since Alexander McGregor used to look for his ships returning to the harbour in the 19th Century. The Hotel contains a lot of pictures and artefacts that relate to its history and previous ownership so is definitely worth visiting.

Our morning tour finished here so we made our way further down the other side of Battery Point. Battery Point was originally named after the Mulgrave Battery that was established in 1818 as part of Hobart’s costal defences. The Battery was found to be in a poor strategic location and was eventually decommissioned in 1878. The site was given to the Hobart City Council for recreation and the area became a fashionable suburb known for its historic houses and colonial architecture.

The Semaphore Cottage is the oldest building at Battery Point, being built in 1818 as part of the Mulgrave Battery. It was a key part of the Hobart Port signalling system and evolved into Australia’s most extensive semaphore signalling system linking Hobart with Port Arthur and southeastern Tasmania. As one of the oldest surviving buildings in Hobart it represents an example of old Colonial Georgian architecture. We understand that it did open to the public on some days but unfortunately not when we were in Hobart.

Our afternoon visit was to the Cascades Female Factory Historic Site which was a penal colony for women from the early part of the 19th century. The site today is a mixture of buildings and the outlines of where the actual buildings stood.

The factory opened in 1828 with one yard and by 1853 it had five yards operating. The opening of the fifth yard coincided with the last year of transportation. The site for the Female Factory was purchased in 1827 by Governor George Arthur, from Thomas Yardley Lowes the owner of a failed distillery.

The first intake of female prisoners arrived in 1828 and gradually expanded to 700 with the female convicts and their children. At its peak, it was very overcrowded holding 1,200 women and children.

When the first women were sent to the Cascades, the Rules and Regulations for the management of the House of Correction were issued to the Principal Superintendent. The rules outlined the staff required to manage the establishment being a Superintendent, a Matron, an Overseer and Task Mistress for the Crime Class, a Porter, a Clerk and two Constables. They also stipulated how the women were to be divided, in both class and duties. Governor Arthur insisted that the women be placed in three distinct classes that ‘on no account be suffered to communicate with each other’.

The first class was to consist of women recently arrived from England who exhibited good behaviour on the journey (as reported by the surgeon on-board), as well as those returning from service with good characters and those who had successfully seen out their probation in second class. First class alone was considered assignable, and the women were sent to service when the appropriate employment could be obtained.

The second class was to comprise those who had been guilty of minor offences and those who, by their improved conduct, merited removal from the crime class. The crime class was the lowest rung on the ladder, comprising women who had been transported for a second time; those guilty of misconduct on their journey to the colony; those convicted of offences before the Supreme Court; or those who committed offences within the walls of the factory.

The class system regulated both clothing and daily tasks of the women while in the factory. The first class women were employed as cooks, task overseers and hospital attendants. Second class convicts were employed in making clothes for the factory and preparing and mending linen. The crime class was sentenced to the washtub – laundering for the factory, the orphan school and the penitentiary; they also carded and spun wool. All of these tasks were subject to change at the discretion of the Principal Superintendent.

November to March saw unrelenting hours of labour, with the shorter days in winter being the only respite. As the sun did not set until after dinner for a large part of the year, the women were working up to 12 hours a day and even the slightest disobedience to the rules was punishable.

To finish our day, we drove to the top of Mount Wellington that sits above Hobart and is part of the Wellington Park Reserve. The summit of Mount Wellington is 21 kilometres west of Hobart’s Commercial Business District and has some great views over Hobart and the harbour.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

The day we left Australia in 2020, because of the Covid shutdown, we should have been going to the Blue Mountains. The mountains are supposedly named after the blue haze that hangs over them, and our trip involved a whole day’s travel from Sydney which, in our case, started at the Calmsley Hill City Farm with its menagerie of native and farm animals.

As spotting the native marsupials in the wild can be hit or miss, visiting the farm does give tourists the opportunity to see some of the more elusive animals.

The Blue Mountains National Park has many ‘lookouts’ with some fantastic views over the surrounding rock formations, such as the Three Sisters from the Eagle Hawk Lookout.

After the various lookouts, we visited the Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens on Mount Tomah.

The Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens were free to enter and are the highest in the southern hemisphere at 1,000 metres above sea level. The Gardens are located in a UNESCO World Heritage area and feature a cool climate collection of the Botanical Gardens of Sydney.

The Gardens have some examples of the critically endangered Wollemi Pine that is endemic to Australia and is believed to be one of the oldest and rarest trees in the world estimated to be able to live between 500 to 1,000 years. The tree was thought to be extinct until it was discovered in 1994 by a bush walker in the Wollemi National Park, just outside of Sydney.

The blue haze was not very evident during our trip to the Blue Mountains but it was a very interesting day with some great views and the chance to get up close and personal with some marsupials.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

Just across the other side of Darling Harbour from our accommodation was the Australian National Maritime Museum. The Museum illustrates the earliest water craft such as canoes and the story of voyaging by Australia’s first peoples through to more modern vessels that are moored in the harbour outside of the Museum.

The Maritime Museum also covers the histories of the explorers who found and charted Australia such as the British Naval Officers Lieutenant Matthew Flinders and Lieutenant James Cook. It also covered the methods of how they navigated when calculating latitude (distance north and south) at sea which was relatively easy, but longitude (distance east and west) was much harder. This issue was so important that the British Government established a Board of Longitude in 1714 which offered large cash prizes for “such persons as shall discover the longitude”.

The longitude problem was widely recognised as an issue of keeping accurate time at sea. As the earth rotates through 15 degrees of longitude every hour, time comparison could be made with the time at a reference point. Greenwich in England was chosen as the reference location, but in the 1700s what clock could work accurately on a rolling sea? Clockmakers set to work and eventually John Harrison, who over his lifetime built five versions of marine chronometers (labelled H1 to H5), effectively won the Board of Longitude competition with the H4 version, a smaller sea watch. Lieutenant Cook used a copy of H4 on his second and third voyages to chart the southern Pacific Ocean and was full of praise for the watch.

There was a very interesting paper displayed in the Museum that set out Lieutenant Cook’s “secret instructions”.

In 1768, Lieutenant James Cook, who never actually got promoted to the rank of Captain although he is often call Captain Cook, commanded HMS Endeavour on a voyage to the Pacific. His mission was to go to Tahiti and observe the transit of Venus. The British Admiralty also issued Cook with a second set of instructions which were to locate, chart and, if possible, claim possession of the southern continent that they believed was somewhere in the southern Pacific Ocean.

For this second part of his mission he did chart New Zealand and the east coast of Australia and, at the very end of Cook’s voyage along the east coast of Australia at Possession Island, he did claim possession of the continent for Britain despite his orders requiring the consent of any inhabitants, which presumably was not forthcoming.

After spending most of the day in the Maritime Museum, we returned to the other side of Darling Harbour to catch our boat for the Sydney Harbour evening dinner cruise.

The boat leaves Darling Harbour and goes under the Sydney Harbour bridge, past the Opera House, and makes a circuit over the next two to three hours so that, before and after dinner, one can enjoy the iconic views of Sydney.

The evening harbour cruise is definitely worth going on as it gives one a different perspective of the harbour, particularly after dark.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

As Day 2 dawned we decided to revisit some of the major attractions of the city visited in 2020, including the Harbour Bridge, the Opera House and Botanical Gardens.

We made the 25 minute walk from Darling Harbour into the Rocks area and to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. When we were in Sydney the last time we had scaled the Sydney Harbour Bridge, taking the 3.5 hour tour, which I had enjoyed enormously although Sue said it was the worst thing she had ever endured.

We had booked tickets in 2020 to visit the Pylon Lookout and Museum, which is part of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and, as we had to leave before making the visit due to COVID, they honoured our 2020 tickets. We had e-mailed them prior to our visit to check the situation and they were happy to welcome us back.

The Pylon has various boards with information about the history of how the Bridge was built and combined with the views, is definitely worth a visit.

We then walked around the harbour, past the cruise ship and the ferry terminal to the Opera House.

We had visited the Opera House in 2020 so we just had a walk around the building, and then headed to the Royal Botanical Gardens which has an entrance very close to the Opera House.

As the weather was so good, many people were in the Gardens enjoying a walk or just sitting and chilling out.

The Lion Gate Lodge pictured above with its paved courtyard surrounded by magnificent gardens can be hired for weddings and events and one can see why it would be very popular.

Upon exiting Lyon Gate you find yourself in Mrs Macquaries Road. Mrs Macquarie was the wife of Lachlan Macquarie. He was Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. She was a Scot, born in 1778, and was involved in the establishment of the colony. She was said to have taken a particular interest in the welfare of women convicts and indigenous people. At the end of her husband’s term as Governor, she returned to Scotland to live at the Macquarie Estate on the Isle of Mull.

When leaving the Botanical Gardens and walking up Mrs Macquarie Road, you come to the Art Gallery of New South Wales where the road becomes the aptly named ‘Art Gallery Road’. Further along this road is the imposing St Mary’s Catholic Cathedral.

The current St Mary’s, we understand, evolved from the fire in 1865 that destroyed the first St Mary’s. Architect William Wardell was commissioned by Archbishop John Polding to build what is Australia’s largest Cathedral building, built in the English Gothic Revival style and constructed of honey-coloured sandstone.

After our look around the Cathedral, we made our way back to Darling Harbour and the route took us through Hyde Park that sits adjacent to St Mary’s Cathedral. At one end of Hyde Park is the ANZAC Memorial and at the other end is the Archibald Memorial Fountain which was on our walking route to Darling Harbour.

The Art Deco Fountain was built following a bequest in the will of J F Archibald to commemorate the association of Australia and France in the First World War. The French sculptor was Francois-Leon Sicard and the memorial’s bronze figures were cast in France with the dedication of the memorial taking place in 1932. The statues include the mythological figures of Apollo, Diana, Pan and Theseus as well as some animals.

After much walking, we went for dinner in Darling Harbour.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

For those who follow our travels, you will remember that we were last in Australia in 2020 when COVID struck and we had to cut short our travels and return home as Australia was shutting down.

Therefore, a return visit was always intended which would allow us to finish our aborted trip – we didn’t get to Tasmania and Melbourne – and to add some additional venues such as travelling on The Ghan visiting Alice Springs and Darwin.

We flew to Sydney via Singapore and this time stayed in Darling Harbour rather than ‘The Rocks’ area of Sydney. Darling Harbour is not far from the Rocks and is an equally good place to stay as it is in walking distance to the main attractions such as the Sydney Opera House. It is also where some of the Sydney Harbour cruises leave from. There are many restaurants around the harbour and is a popular area for locals as well as tourists. On the other side of the harbour from our accommodation was the Australian National Maritime Museum which is worth a visit if you have an afternoon to spare.

The March weather that greeted us in Australia was fantastic and for our first visit we went to Ballast Point Park which is situated in the Balmain area of Sydney. As this is a residential area, it is not on many tourists schedules so is quiet but gives some great views towards Sydney Harbour. The reason we went to the Park was the history of this area.

The park area has an industrial history and has been used from the late 18th century. It had been used as a hunting and fishing ground by the European Settlers and was also used as a source of ballast for ships returning unladen to Europe, which gave it its name.

In 1800, the point was part of a grant of land to Dr William Balmain by the then Governor John Hunter. The area of the Point changed hands many times after that until in 1852, merchant Thomas Perkins purchased the five acre site and built the only house thought to be on the site, called Menevia. The land and house was then passed on many times and by 1928 the house had fallen into disrepair and the site was bought by Texaco who demolished the house to make way for a fuel depot. This continued until the 1990s, after which the site became derelict. In 2002 the site was taken into public ownership by the NSW Government as there was apparently significant public support for public ownership rather than the site being developed for housing. The site then became the recreation space it is today.

In addition to the planting, there are some architecture installations that hark back to the industrial usage of the Park which added a different dimension to the Park.

The Park was designed by Sydney firms, McGregor Coxall Landscape Architecture and Urban Design Studio and was opened in July 2009. The project included the demolition and decontamination of the derelict industrial site with the construction of steel stairways, recycled building rubble walls, artworks and an Australian native garden.

As our first day ended it was nice to be back in Sydney, particularly with the beautiful weather. Bring on our second day.

Copyright: Words and photos John Cruse 2025

For our last day before heading home, we had our tour of Dumfries House to look forward to.

Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the House but it was spectacular. The gift shop at Dumfries House does sell a book that charts its history and occupants and includes many pictures of the priceless artefacts. If you go to Dumfries House, a guided tour of the interior and its contents is a must. It does get busy so pre-booking is recommended.

After our house tour we looked around the extensive gardens.

The Queen Elizabeth Walled Garden is definitely worth visiting. Prior to its opening in 2014, the garden was transformed from a derelict dumping site to a magnificently restored garden with a mixture of terraces, greenhouses, formal areas and a one and a half acre Education Garden. July was a good time to see the gardens as the displays were stunning.

After exploring the extensive grounds we returned to the Lodge for the last evening meal of our Outer Hebridean holiday. Tomorrow, we again drive south, but this time for home.

Words and photos: Copyright John Cruse 2025