Farewell to Tassie

I spent my last night in Tasmania catching up with an old friend of mine. He moved down to Tassie about 8 years ago and we sort of fell out of touch. He's a rash all over the computer now as when you google him there are references to him on newspaper websites, and in local radio archives. He's a councillor on the Break O Day council (a position I know he would do with great diligence and care). So if you are one of Reon's constituents what can I say but come election day, vote early and vote often. Reon and his partner Wendy kindly put me up for the night and we talked about the old days. I had prepared myself for a night of drunken debauchery but it just didn't happen. 

Reon and Wendy

Reon and I would often end up at the Bourbon and Beefsteak in Kings Cross, smoking cigars and watching the band. We would stagger out at about 6.00am in the morning, get a greasy maccas breakfast and often purchase a cheap pair of sunnies from the nearest chemist because the morning was way too bright. We'd then fall asleep in the back of a taxi while trying to get home, ah those were the days.Well what can I say but we drank tea, and Reon, my liver thanks you for it. I'm getting old. 


I bade farewell to councillor Reon and Wendy and set off to do my last bit of sight seeing before jumping on the ferry back to the mainland. I hadn't really planned this bit but a friend of a friend insisted that I go as she thought it was so good. The destination in question? The Beaconsfield Gold Mine, yes that Beaconsfield mine. What happened there 6 years ago was both incredibly sad and incredibly brave. Larry Knight lost his life while Brant Webb and Todd Russell survived 14 days trapped in a cage with about 1.5 cubic metres of space in it. 

Beaconsfield Gold Mine

I am not much of a disaster tourist so I didn't really have any intentions of going. I like my disasters to be over 100 years old and all the participants to have died before I go to see it. I put my prejudices aside and went and had a look. It was excellent, not only did it have a wonderful explanation of its most recent infamous event but it also had a social history of the area, the mine's history (its over 100 years old so it kind of qualifies). It had lots of machinery that had all been fully restored, old woodworking and blacksmithing tools still in working order plus all of the accoutrements required to smelt gold. 

Before I left I went back to literally poke my head inside a replica of the cage that Brant and Todd spent their 14 days in (you enter through a piece of mocked up tunnel equivalent in size to one they eventually squeezed out through. I only had my head and shoulders in the space and had to get out because I was getting claustrophobic, god knows how they didn't go crazy in the time they were in there. If you are near Launceston or Devonport it is well worth the look.


Before I jumped aboard the ferry I had one last task to complete, I needed to collect my new glasses. The prescription needed changing and didn't come in until after I departed. The good people at Aaron Henry Optometrist in Muswellbrook sent them to me in Tassie. So I'd like to say thank you to Aaron and the team for going above and beyond. To paraphrase that most overworked of Hymns "I was once was lost, but now am found, twas blind, but now I see". Thanks guys. 


Tassie was great and I would recommend it to anyone, I will most definitely be back. Before I sign off I must share this joke I heard with you. I need to set it up a little by sharing this fact. There is a lot of road kill in Tasmania, mainly pademelons, with the occasional wallaby and Tasmanian Devil.


Question: Why do all Tasmanian rental cars come with glass bottoms?


Answer: So the tourists can see the wildlife.


Comedy Gold !