A Gordon River cruise on Tasmania's west coast
Exploring Sarah Island’s dramatic penal history
The sky is an ominous grey and a misty rain falls as we plunge toward Tasmania's Sarah Island. It’s fitting weather to explore a former penal settlement that was once called hell on earth – even worse, if possible, than Port Arthur.
Tiny Sarah Island is located in remote Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania’s wild west coast. Just eight hectares, it was a grim place that operated between 1822 and 1833 – 11 cruel and miserable years for the wretched convicts who called it home.
200 years on, visitors can walk around what’s left of the settlement and only imagine the horrors its residents experienced. How did they ever survive? Even with our warm fleece jackets, the wind is biting.
Like a gruesome episode of Survivor
Sarah Island housed the “worst of the worst” convicts who had reoffended or escaped from other settlements. Surrounded by mountains, forests and treacherous tides, and lashed with rain and howling winds, the site was believed to be escape-proof (although 180 convicts were desperate enough to try it).
To reach the island, we cross a narrow channel of water called Hells Gates. From the comfort of a powerful modern-day vessel, Spirit of the Wild, we watch the surging water and wonder how any of those early boats ever made it through intact.
Stepping off the boat to explore the haunting ruins of the settlement, we get a sense of the island’s past. For the convicts, it must have been like a gruesome episode of Survivor. The conditions were so bad that one convict murdered a fellow inmate just so he could be executed and put out of his misery.
Another, Alexander Pearce, absconded twice from the island, cannibalising his fellow escapees along the way. In just one year, 9100 floggings were meted out. Another punishment favourite was solitary confinement, which involved locking convicts into a room barely bigger than a grave.
The dire conditions weren’t just inflicted on the convicts. In 1833, 16 Indigenous people also died while on Sarah Island. It explains the atmosphere of sadness that permeates the island, now a living memorial to all the souls who were so horrifically taken.
An idyllic journey along the Gordon River
By way of contrast, the other part of our cruise up the Gordon River is idyllic. This UNESCO Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area is an ancient, other-worldly place, where the banks are thickly covered with cold-climate rainforest and the river itself is the colour of tea, a result of tannin leaching from the vegetation.
The trees are reflected in a mirror-like surface and you feel as if you’re travelling through a beautiful forest tunnel. The magnificent experience makes your heart sing and is also remarkably quiet as the Spirit of the Wild has hybrid propulsion engines with electric motors.
The largest conservation battle Australia has ever seen
In recent history, the Gordon River is known for the largest conservation battle Australia has ever seen – a nationwide protest against the proposed Gordon-below-Franklin Dam.
In the early 1980s, the newly-elected Hawke government was against the dam, as well as tens of thousands of protestors, forcing the Tasmanian government to stop the proposal. It’s why the Gordon River has survived as the pristine wilderness it is today, but unfortunately not everything has remained untouched.
Giant Huon pines no longer dominate its shore as most of them were cut down for ship building.
Tragically, some of the trees could have been over 3000 years old. As ‘living fossils’, Huon pines are now protected and a highlight of our day on the water is a stop at Heritage Landing, where we stroll through the temperate rainforest to get up close to one of these special trees.
Back in the lovely village of Strahan
Back in the lovely village of Strahan, where Gordon River Cruises is based, we’ve booked an overnight stay before continuing our road trip. Exploring the town, we purchase a surprisingly light, but very tough, Huon pine bread board as a souvenir of our visit.
Though the felling of Huon pines today can result in steep fines and jail terms, our board is made of legally-salvaged dead trees and branches that are still found in the forest and along the riverbanks.
Using the bread board back home will be the perfect daily reminder of the grandeur of the Gordon River’s forests and the importance of protecting them for future generations.
