St Paul's Anglican Church, Bruny Island. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones Source: National Features
Adventure Bay, Bruny Island. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones Source: National Features
SLOW-MOVING at the best of times, Bruny Island has been brought to a standstill by fierce winds whistling up the d'Entrecasteaux Channel, gusting at speeds of up to 137km/h.
Power lines have been blown down, cutting electricity supplies, disabling fuel lines, ripping roofs off flimsy cottages and stranding more than 30 passengers and their cars on the ferry from the mainland.
After three unsuccessful attempts to land at Roberts Point, one of which resulted in the Mirambeena ferry crashing into the jetty, it is forced to ride out the storm on churning seas for several hours.
"In 20 years here, I honestly can't remember anything like it," says the woman at the only pub on the island at Alonnah where, at least, an emergency generator safeguards essential supplies of cold beer.
Not far away, waves crash across the narrow road, The Neck, which links Bruny's north and south islands. Everywhere, flying debris makes driving on mainly unsealed, pot-holed roads even more hazardous.
Walking - let alone birdwatching - proves equally challenging as we climb out of the relative shelter provided by the rattling rainforest, up along the clifftop track leading to Cape Queen Elizabeth.
For more than an hour we risk being blown off the side of the hills before being driven back to base by stinging sand whipping across the dunes behind Moorina Bay.
Our island holiday had started in equally dramatic weather. A day after temperatures hit 33C in Sydney, we arrived in torrential rain and a bitter cold that didn't top 6C. Not that we complained.
In fact, the intervening days were all fine: warm, sunny, albeit blowy days of exploration, followed by cool, convivial evenings of nibbles and novels, enjoyed around a blazing firebox. At least that was the theory.
As locals say, extreme, spectacularly unpredictable weather is part of the island's charm, part of the fun of escaping the conveniences and comforts of home for simpler pleasures.
Bruny has history. The island, 20 minutes from the mainland on a fine day, was inhabited by the Nueonne group of the southeastern tribe of Tasmanian Aborigines, including the famous Truganini. A heroic figure who witnessed the virtual extermination of her people, she is regarded as the last full-blooded member of her people.
During the late 18th century, Bruny was also visited by British explorers Tobias Furneaux, James Cook and William Bligh and the Frenchman Antoine Bruni d'Entrecasteaux, after whom the island was named.
Except at Christmas, when holidaymakers increase its 650 population ten-fold, it offers stunning views and walks into unspoilt forest, along empty beaches and up mountains to local landmarks such as Cape Bruny lighthouse.
And it offers excellent chances of seeing all 12 of Tasmania's endemic birds: the native hen, dusky robin, thornbill, scrubtit, scrubwren, yellow wattlebird, black currawong, green rosella, forty-spotted pardalote and the yellow-throated, black-headed and strong-billed honeyeaters.
We hired a small Hyundai which bravely tackled crumbling wooden bridges and the unsealed, pot-holed roads that criss-cross the island.
Only once, when it was confronted by a steep, muddy, rutted forestry road, planted with signs advertising its total unsuitability for two-wheel vehicles, did the mud-covered baby refuse to go any further.
We booked a cottage - Saintys Creek - on Cloudy Bay Rd, precisely 5.46km south of the small settlement of Lunawanna.
"Discover a forest haven away from the madding crowds with only the wind in the trees and an astonishing array of bush creatures to accompany you," suggested its owner Sophie Camell.
Saintys Cottage nestles cosily in tall eucalypt forest and has slate floors, a see-through firebox, a gorgeous kitchen and the calmest, most soothing atmosphere to ease even the most creased brow.
This is a place to rest and recover in nature. You can relax in the fire bath or doze by the fire; paddle up the creek, walk the wild headlands, surf reliable Middle Bay five minutes away, or study the immense array of creatures that inhabit the forests, creeks and sea.
Mornings are heralded by wrens, cuckoos, whistlers and robins. Mad swift parrots career in the canopy and wily 40-spotted pardalotes hide high in the majestic white gums. Falcons and eagles soar overhead and a family of cormorants clack themselves to sleep in the evenings.
All too good to be true? Not really: The outdoor firebath looks a complete non-starter; the firebox proves temperamental, at least for inexperienced lighters; the parrots do not turn up and the advertised shop at Lunawanna has closed.
Otherwise, like the island, Saintys Cottage - named after an 1840s convict-settler James Sainty - delivers everything as promised. It is comfortable and quirky, with its day-bed, Pythonesque electric organ and collection of Tasmania-shaped shells and rocks. Surprisingly, it also picks up ABC TV.
As promised, the wooden cottage is visited by wildlife, including an albino wallaby. And its windows are tapped, front and back, every morning by a hungry, or simply inquisitive, male superb fairy-wren.
Though a couple of nights bring heavy rain, almost enough to fill Saintys Creek, and high winds that shake the tall timber until it seems they must topple, every bright day brings a highlight. A new adventure. A new bird.
One day, we are driven back by gale-force winds and overnight heavy rain that has created a river that separates us from the beautiful beach leading out to East Cloudy Head. Undeterred, we return two days later with towels, take off our shoes and wade barefooted through the river and across a mile-long beach.
Another day, another river prevents us tackling another long walk, part of it along old timber-cutting roads, above Adventure Bay. We find a back way to the track via private land that was once the site of a large caravan park.
To the dismay of his neighbours, local entrepreneur Robert Pennicott, whose high-speed Yellow Boat cruises have brought noise pollution to the wilderness coast, now has plans to build a holiday village on the land.
We are figuratively, and almost literally, blown away on the walk up to Cape Bruny Lighthouse, on the appropriately named Mt Barren. It overlooks a part of the coast littered with shipwrecks.
Retreating from the winds, we drive as far as our little car is prepared to go, along Old Jetty Beach Rd. From there we pick up the Luggaboine Circuit on the Labillardiere Peninsular for a 10km walk.
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Go2
- TASMANIA
- Getting there
Virgin Australia and Jetstar fly to Launceston and Hobart from Sydney.
Qantas flies to Hobart from Sydney and to Launceston from Melbourne, with connections from Sydney.
QantasLink flies into Devonport.
The Spirit of Tasmania travels between Melbourne and Devonport.
Access to Bruny Island is by vehicle ferry.
- Staying there
Saintys Creek Cottage; saintyscreek.com
More: brunyisland.org.au
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