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Cities, Towns and Regions
An Introduction to Flinders Island
By Greg Clarke
2 May 2011
On Flinders Island some locals once exchanged an entire lamb for a crayfish. While it’s not a pervasive tale a number of delicious island stories can be read into the trade. One is a tantalising endorsement of the taste of the lamb. Another is a weighty tale about the size of the crayfish found in the island’s waters. In fact, after spending just a few days on the island it is possible to conclude such coveted crays might be almost as common, if a little more testing to muster, as the island’s 80,000 sheep.
Trying to calculate the better value of the exchange is difficult. In any case this may be a little inconsequential. For on occasions bartering islanders would have had a far more complex equation to solve. Some of the crays, like the five to seven kilo whoppers found hereabouts, would be as challenging to fit in the fridge as an entire rendered lamb.
Crayfish, lamb, wallaby, abalone, mutton bird, fish, home-made breads and local wines can be served for every visit. No less satisfying are the deserted roads and beaches, the fishing and diving, the mountains and views.
The island’s enviable countenance is enhanced by the tang which always accompanies a sense of prosperity. The abattoir and Whitemark butcher shop opened just before Christmas (2010) and lamb and beef (and wallaby) are again being not only bred and farmed but also processed on the island. On Flinders some food will not come any less travelled unless you set up a dining table in a paddock on the farm where you have sourced your food.
Spend time on Flinders and you’ll get a taste for its produce but just as importantly, its people. June Klug, owner of the Green Valley Homestead where we stay one night, tells us that there are great characters under every rock on the island. We decide this isn’t completely true. There are probably crayfish under at least half of them.
Thelma Shaik is a wondrous 90 years old. She sells Killiecrankie diamonds from her pocket-size shop near Whitemark’s only pub, the Interstate Hotel. Surprisingly, selling diamonds isn’t Thelma’s main gig. “I’m here to con the visitors into coming back,” she says. It’s surely out of order to cast dispersions on a working nonagenarian but . . . the lady has one easy job.
In case you haven’t yet met Thelma, below are other reasons to visit Flinders Island.
Getting Around
There is a good reason to rent a car from Rowena Nicholls or husband Justin, from Flinders Island Car Rentals. And it has nothing to do with the fact there is no public transport (apart from the school bus) on the island. Rowena, who won the Ministers Young Achiever Award at the 2010 tourism awards, has an impressive knowledge of the island and is happy to share it with her clients.
Child car seats ($5 per day), Eskies and even deck chairs are also available for hire. The cars cost from $70 per day and can be booked and paid for on line. Rowena’s information is free. The website is a beauty. www.ficr.com.au
The fine people from the Flinders Island Cabin Park also offer cars for hire. www.flindersislandcp.com.au
4WD Tours
Lindsay Luddington began her 4WDtours of the island 15 years ago and has personally conducted an audit of all over the island’s 120 beaches (she counted them herself). During our tour Lindsay takes us to No.3 Beach Trousers Point. It is almost more delicious than one of the island’s sweet crayfish.
Lindsay is also fond of sharing the history of the island to those who are interested. “There is much more to the history than people presume. Things were happening here before Tasmania was discovered to be an island. Our history is very integral to the European history [of Australia]. Most people don’t know that.”
Lindsay and husband James moved to the island from the UK some four decades ago. The Coast Road from near the Unavale Vineyard to Lady Barron remains one of her favourite parts of Flinders. “I’m still blown away by it,” she says.
Full day 4WD tours of the island cost $188 per person minimum two people. Morning tea and lunch are included in the price. Half day tours cost $99 per person. www.flindersisland.com.au
Fishing Business
Mike Nichols runs Flinders Island Dive. Mike’s a former school teacher who came to the island, embraced the islanders Can-Do attitude and built himself a beautifully crafted steel boat even though he had never welded so much as a billy-cart before. The boat took him five years to build. When the time came to launch it the local police officer suggested to Mike he would need a permit to move the boat. Mike told him that wouldn’t be necessary as he’d tow the 12metre boat from the paddock to the launch site when no-one was around. Mike chose quiet Christmas Eve to launch and drove into Whitemark’s carols by candlelight celebrations.
Diving instructor Mike is a laid back fella and 4hours in his company is a pleasure, fish or no fish. Still on the morning we spent fishing with him we began trolling at 10.55am. The first pike was on the line at 10.57am. During the charter we watch dolphins off the bow, catch more pike and a salmon and then go skin-diving for abalone and flathead. Later we cooked two abalone for an entree while Mike cooked up the flathead for dinner for his partner and child.
Mike will take out a family of four people to some of the other Furneaux Group islands for up to five hours for $500. He also sells and hires dive gear and takes divers to some of the Furneaux Group’s wrecks.
Contact Mike on 0428 598 529 or flindersdive@activ8.net.au
Orphan Wombats
Kate Mooney gets on so well with one particular family of island locals she has become a mother to many of them. “I raised one and became hooked,” she says.
A friend brought an orphaned wombat to Kate some 14 years ago and she has been rearing orphaned wombats ever since. Kate has been mum to about 100 of them. It’s their independent spirit that appeals to her most. “[But] they’re just endearing,” she says. “They’re as clever as a dog. They are very special.”
Orphaned wombats stay with Kate until they are weaned. They come and go as they please from her home all the while (they use the pet door at Kate’s home to enter and leave the house). Eventually the call of the wild, specifically the need for a mate, becomes an urge impossible to resist. One day they walk through the pet door for the last time.
“I always have more than one because they do leave and are less reliant on me as they grow up,” says Kate. Six is the largest number of wombats Kate has reared at one time.
Kate is a wool classer but she also works at Bowmans General Store in Whitemark from Monday to Wednesday. If any visitors to the island would like to meet Kate and her orphans the process couldn’t be simpler: “Just ask at Bowmans [General Store],” she says.
Lots of people call in to the store for a visit. “I justify it to Lois [the owner of the general store] by telling her that if people talk about their visit to the shop as a positive experience they might actually come back and buy something.” Bowmans General Store is in Patrick Street Whitemark: 6359 2008
Kate is also one of the passionate volunteers who works at the wonderful Furneaux Museum at Emita. Her wombats accompany her there also.
The museum, which captures beautifully and at times poignantly the cultural and natural history of Flinders and the Furneaux Group of islands, is at 8 Fowlers Road, Emita: 6359 8434. It is open from 1pm to 5pm daily except Fridays from 26 December until the weekend after Easter. In winter it is open 1pm to 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays and public holidays (the phone is only answered during opening hours). Entry costs $4 for adults. There is no charge for children 10 years old and younger.
Trousers Point
Vistas on Trousers Point is named for the views over Trousers Point beach but the closest neighbours are Mount Strzelecki, Flinders Island's highest peak, and the prolific local wildlife.
Ken Stockton and partner Carolyn Dawe took over this property, which includes eight accommodation suites, in 2008. Ken is a chef and together the couple runs Vistas Cafe during the day. Come evening Ken rustles up the toque blanche for Chappell's Restaurant which traffics intimate fine dining. House specials include a $49 three-course set menu and a $70 six-course degustation menu.
Much of the food comes with local flavour. Organic fruit and vegies are grown on the property. The lamb is from down the road. The seafood comes from the preposterously rich clean and blue waters seen from all the suites.
www.vistasontrouserspoint.com.au
Strzelecki National Park
The national park is a safe containing some of the island’s jewels including fabulous views from Mt Strzelecki. The park also helps safeguard some history of the Aboriginal communities and white settlers, and local flora and fauna. Wombats, potoroos and threatened bird species occur in the park: the swift parrot, forty-spotted pardalote, grey-tailed tattler and the hooded plover are neighbourhood regulars.
There are a number of walks in the park (4216hectares according to the Tasmanian Parks & Wildlife Service). The walk to the Strzelecki Peak takes about five hours return. www.parkstas.gov.au
Unavale Vineyard
Bev and Roger Watson planted the first vines in 1999. They’ve been fine selling wines including riesling, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir and sauvignon blanc since 2004. The whole winemaking process occurs on the island. Unavale is four kilometres from the village of Lady Barron and most of the wines sales occur at the cellar door.
Places to Stay
Rob and Lorraine Holloway’s property, the Partridge Farm, is at Badgers Corner. The Holloways have long been harvesting food from their 30acres. Meats (including venison, home-grown chicken and lamb), vegetables, fruits, olives, almonds, honey, wines and a grappa that is intriguingly smooth and yet powerful enough to launch a space shuttle come from their farm. This is a fantasy world for anyone interested in good food.
Visitors can get a taste of some of the finest produce available on the island when they stay in one of three accommodation cabins. Lorraine serves evening meals and cooks breakfasts to order. The Bungalow costs $140 per couple per night and the tariff includes a continental breakfast.
The Top House sleeps six people. It costs from $150 per couple per night and $30 for each extra person.
www.visitflindersisland.com.au and 6359 3554
Palana Retreat and Green Valley Homestead were two of the places we stayed on the island during our visit in March.
The Palana Retreat (www.palanaretreat.com.au) costs from $165 per couple per night. It has views over the deepest waters of Bass Strait to the Inner Sister Island. Owner of the retreat Daryl Butler and his wife are the only two permanent residents of the Palana village. They live next door to their retreat and are wonderful hosts. As well as their bonhomie the couple also offer guests kayaks and a hire car (guests pay a per kilometre rate rather than a day rate).The Butlers can organise crayfish dinners on request.
The Green Valley Homestead on Butterfactory Road near Whitemark (see www.flindersislandaccommodation.com.au). It costs $150 per night for a couple (children cost $25 per night). Breakfast is included. The large homestead is surrounded by farmland and has views of Mt Strzelecki.
More information
Sharp Airlines fly from Launceston to Whitemark daily. The fare costs from $151 one way. Sharp also flies between Whitemark and Melbourne’s Essendon Airport.
For a comprehensive guide to Tasmania see www.discovertasmania.com
Photos from top:
Strzelecki Peaks, Steve Lovegrove,ID a2a91
Flinders Island, John de la Roche, ID f2c86
Flinders Island - Goose Island, Don Fuchs, ID f2f91
Kayaking, John de la Roche ID f2b270
Farsund Shipwreck, Don Fuchs, ID f2f51
Mt Strezlecki Range, John de la Roche, ID f2f268
For more images see our Image Library
