Tasmania’s Maria Island National Park preserves an abundance of natural and colonial history.
It’s one of those sparkling fresh spring mornings when the sun cracks off the water in shards as the passenger ferry pulls out from Triabunna for the crossing to Maria Island. Half an hour later, the parabolic blue sky blends into the turquoise shallows as the boat pulls into Darlington, the port for the island national park, which preserves an extraordinary blend of colonial history, native wildlife, bush walks and bike rides.
Maria Island, or Wukaluwikiwayna as it was known to its traditional owners, the Oyster Bay people of Tasmania’s east coast, sits just 16 kilometres off the coast. It’s connected to the mainland by multiple ferries daily, so it’s possible to explore with a day trip. Visitors who choose to stay longer have the option of camping at one of three grounds, staying in the bunkhouse located in the former penitentiary at Darlington and run by Maria Island National Park, or joining the upmarket Wild Bush Luxury four-day experience hosted by Maria Island Walk with glamping accommodation and all meals included.
They’ll be rewarded with bush walks ranging from easy strolls along the coastline to more challenging hikes to the peaks of Bishop and Clerk and Mount Maria, or the 40km-return trek to Haunted Bay in the far south of the island. Self-sufficient hikers usually opt to make this trek an overnighter by camping at either Frenchs Farm or Encampment Cove, before heading across McRaes Isthmus to the southern part of the island. The island is a great cycling destination and you can bring your own bike, or hire one from a booth at Darlington to make exploring the island even easier.
Bird watchers are in for a treat, with all but one of the state’s 12 endemic birds found on the island. They include the endangered forty-spotted pardalote, green rosellas, wedge-tailed eagles, tiny hooded plovers, sooty and pied oyster catchers, and little and fairy terns on the beaches. Large, mainly terrestrial Cape Barren geese and little native hens also call Maria home.
The question “will I see a wombat?” can be answered with a definitive “yes”, as the island is home to many wisdoms (yes, that’s the collective noun) of them. They emerge from their burrows at dawn and dusk to graze nonchalantly on the grassy slopes. But, in fact, they’re so prolific that you’ll almost become as oblivious to their presence as they appear to be to humans after the initial excitement of seeing them in such numbers wears off. Forester kangaroos, Bennett’s wallabies, possums, pademelons, potoroos and an insurance population of Tassie devils moved to the island in 2012 during the height of the facial tumour disease issues are also island residents. Visitors should be aware that it’s not uncommon to see tiger snakes basking on the beaches and rocky outcrops, while lowland copperheads and white-lipped snakes also call the island home.
Spectacular scenery greets those who take the easy circuit walks to the Fossil Cliffs, which preserve myriad marine fossils, and Painted Cliffs, famed for the swirling rusty patterns in the sandstone overhangs. The Painted Cliffs are accessed from Hopground Beach, so it’s best to arrive two hours either side of low tide. History buffs are also in for a treat as Maria Island preserves several layers of convict and early-settler history. The island was noted in 1642 by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who named it for Maria Van Diemen, the wife of Anthony, the governor of Dutch East Indies, who had commissioned his voyage. In 1802, a French expedition led by Captain Nicolas Baudin explored and charted the island extensively. The English settlement of Van Diemen’s Land a year later was hastened by French interest.
Maria Island’s penal history dates to 1825 when the first convicts were imprisoned on the island. Its proximity to the coast made escape by raft or boat easy and the settlement was abandoned in favour of Port Arthur by 1832. A decade later, it was revived as a low-security probation station for convicts transitioning to freedom. The 14 buildings in the Darlington settlement date from this era and its well-preserved condition has earnt recognition as one of Australia’s 11 World Heritage-listed convict sites. The two-storey Commissariat Store is located close to the jetty, so provisions could easily be unloaded, while behind that are archaeological remains of the hospital, surgeon’s quarters and religious instructor’s quarters.
Other buildings of significance include three silos, remnant from the grand scheme of Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi, who secured a long-term lease of the island in 1884 and set up a cement works to utilise the island’s limestone deposits. His dreams of wine and silk production, fruit growing and the development of a European-style spa resort on the island fizzled and he left shortly before his death in 1924. Maria Island continued as a small-time farming and fishing community until the 1960s, when the first moves towards making it a fauna reserve began. It became a national park in 1971.
Apart from the bike-hire shop, there is no commerce on Maria Island. Visitors need to stock up on provisions and water before they leave the mainland. There’s also a small kiosk on the boat selling snacks and beverages. However, whatever the island lacks in coffee shops and souvenir outlets, it more than makes up for in natural attractions and most first-time visitors vow to stay longer next time. Those in the know don’t get back in their cars at Triabunna without stopping by The Fish Van, just across the road from the ferry wharf. There, you can feast on fish and chips served in the cone, prawns, scallops, oysters or squid, and pick up fresh fish to take back to your accommodation to cook for dinner.
