Bicheno: mining port to seaside resort

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 28

Bicheno: mining port to seaside resort

Bicheno,. a small fishing village on the east /coast of Tasmania, is a pleasant holiday'resort rather like Kaikoura. Almost midway between Launceston and Hobart (195 km from the capital), Bicheno is situated on Waub’s Harbour, once a point of refuge for sealers and whalers who sheltered there from stormy seas. Bicheno * itself is named after James Ebenezer Bicheno, a former colonial secretary of Van Diemen’s Land. But the name of the harbour is believed to derive from an Aboriginal woman named Waubedebar who, like’so many others, served as the de facto wife and slave of a white sealer. ... One day a storm blew up and her master’s boat smashed on the rocks about a kilometre off-shore. Waubedebar disregarded her own safety and heroically rescued her unconscious husband and his fishing companion. She later died on a boat journey to Bass Strait and was brought to Waub’s Bay for burial. Her fenced and humble grave is visited by hundreds of tourists a year. The town of Bicheno' was founded in 1854 as a coal mining port for coal hauled in horse-drawn trucks along a skm railway from the Denison River mines. Remains of the convict-built bins can still be seen at the Gulch where a fleet of fishing boats shelter in the tiny all-weather port. Commercial fishing has flourished since the turn of the century and Bicheno was a pioneer port for the abalone industry 25 years ago. At the Gulch, also the state’s first commercial oyster

hatchery, supplies spat to Tasmania’s oyster growers... Visitors are always welcome to watch'the unloading and processing of the catch at the Gulch. Bicheno’s permanent population is 500, but in the summer it swells with an influx of holidaymakers who appreciate the fact that the average temperature is higher than in southern Victoria. 750 km to the north, and that there are miles and miles of virgin white beach. ' Bicheno has a holiday estate, a youth hostel, three motels (including one with facilities for disabled guests), a caravan park, holiday flats and a camping ground. The Bicheno Holiday Village (a member of the highly regarded Tas.-Villas chain), with self-contained Swiss-style villas, emphasises family activities by providing a heated pool, canoe lake, games room, tennis court, playground and other attractions such as craybakes and billy tea and damper campfires. Bicheno is renowned as the home of the “craybake.” The crayfish are in fact boiled, not baked, but the result is delicious. A major attraction now under development a few kilometres north of the town, is a wildlife park which will place special emphasis on birdlife. The many avaries will feature 250 bird varieties and a nocturnal house will display members of the owl family. Twenty hectares have been set aside for a native animal park. An education centre, including a theatrette showing wildlife films and a special enclosure for tame animals, is also being established.