Isle with a European touch

Press, 4 February 1987, Page 32

Isle with a European touch

“Why?” friends ask. “Why go to Tasmania?” These are friends uninitiated into, the unique experience of a craybake or the mirrored images of huon pine on a mighty but slow-moving river.

These friends, cheerfully ignorant, regard Tasmania as being “a bit like New Zealand.” Possibly they wouldn’t see it that way amongst the ruins of Port Arthur or canoeing the land of a thousand lakes.

Certainly there’s top trout to be had in Tasmania, just as at home. And the green fields of the Midlands are mildly reminiscent of the

Waikato or of the Canterbury Plains, in. their lushness and healthy stock. Without submerging beneath a sea of clinches, there is also some similarity in the friendliness of Tasmanians and New Zealanders and their willingness to help out with directions or other advice. But, really, “Tassie” and New Zealand have a thousand . more differences than similarities.

Probably the most evident difference is Tasmania’s sense of “living history,” its taste of a European past ... and, when you think of it, the island state’s European present.

Looking from the geographic perspective, that land of lakes could be Finland. Cradle Mountain and its attendant peaks, could be transported from the Swiss Alps. The lavender fields of the northeast fragrantly remind of the meadows of old England. Old England seems, tangibly alive in areas like Salamanca Place, dockside Hobart’s full-of-char-acter reborn warehouses. Walk along in the late afternoon and let your imagination flow — it seems just like an English port town may have been in those early days when so much of the globe was

coloured with. the British imperial pink ... full of commerce and — in the pubs — frivolity. These sandstone warehouses, built between 1835 and 1860, nowadays house restaurants, galleries, craft shops ... and a watering hole or two! On Saturday mornings the tree-shaded boulevard comes to colourful action with a European-style community market, with the harbour’s maritime bustle as a backdrop. Just up the steep lanes from Salamqnca Place and you’re into Battery I Point where whalers’ homes co-exist happily with antique shops, res-

taurants and stately mansions.

These are reminders that many of the early settlers were either people of some status or former convicts determined to make the most of an unsought opportunity for a glorious new life in the colonies. Outside the cities, grand country mansions — such as Entally House at Rutherglen near Launceston —- were constructed by settlers determined not to forget the good life of country estates in the old country. British-style pubs flourished, with some still welcoming patrons today.