Tasmania’s Journal of Discovery

Falling snow at noon today hides Mt Wellington

Much of southern Tasmania is isolated this morning after wintry conditions forced road closures around the state.

The Midlands Highway was closed after three accidents involving double-B trucks.

Hobart’s Southern Outlet also iced up and roads further south were also closed to traffic.

West Coast roads are also closed indefinitely.

The widow of celebrated Tasmanian wilderness photographer Peter Dombrovskis is winding down the family business, signalling the end of his range of cards, diaries and calendars, according to ABC Radio.

Mr Dombrovskis’ photographs of the Tasmanian wilderness helped shape the conservation debate, most notably during the Franklin Dam dispute in the early 1980’s, and especially his iconic photograph, above, the centrepiece of the campaign.

Liz Dombrovskis has been reprinting his photographs since his death in 1996, but says she is closing West Wind Press to spend more time with her grandchildren.

“We’ll over the next year run the cards and posters and books and calenders out of stock,” Mrs Dombrovskis said.

“But photographic prints will still be available,” she said.

[From ABC News]

Dangerous Banks is a large shifting sandbar about 35 kilometres off the tip of north-west Tasmania.

Raging currents, winds and giant swells have kept humans at bay, but on June 27 three surfers finally conquered Dangerous Banks, it was revealed this week.

Australian veteran surfers Ross Clarke-Jones and Tom Carroll and young Hawaiian Ian Walsh were towed on to 10-metre waves as part of their odyssey to surf giant winter swells around Australia for a pay television special Storm Riders, which is expected to be released next summer.

Clarke-Jones, regarded as Australia’s most renowned big-wave rider, said: “It was more than wild, it was complete chaos. I’ve never seen an ocean so angry and confused in all my surfing days.

“We managed to catch a few each but must admit that the ocean beat us to a pulp that day.

“We were lucky to have all made it to shore, to tell you the truth.”

The team gathered in Smithton on Tasmania’s north-west coast, and, guided by local abalone diver Paul Critchlow, put to sea equipped with two powerful powerboats, six power-skis and a helicopter.

[From theage.com.au]

Shell weights of marine snails are getting lighter

Tasmanian scientists are worried a microscopic marine snail species found in the Southern Ocean may soon die out due to climate change:

The scientists say it is field evidence that sea life in the Southern Ocean is being affected by warmer water, and if these snails die out it could have dire consequences on the ocean’s food chain.

They took an expedition deep into the Southern Ocean on board the Aurora Australis in February, and collected a number of microscopic marine snails.

The scientists have found the snails have dropped half their shell weight over the past decade.

Dr Donna Roberts says it is evidence that climate change is affecting sea life in the Southern Ocean.

“Many researchers have been assuming we would see this kind of result for the past 50 years and this is the first time we’ve got a measured response to the changing of the ocean chemistry,” she said.

“It’s interesting to know what’s going to happen to commercial fish that eat them because a change in their diet might mean a change in where they actually are living, so it’s not just we might loose one variety of snail it actually could change the whole eco-system of the southern ocean.

“That’s what we’re most worried about that it could completely upset our commercial fish stocks.”

[From ABC News]

Snow and ice are causing major disruptions on Tasmania’s roads this morning, with authorities forced to shut the main highways between the north and the south and to the west coast.

The Midland Highway is shut south of Oatlands, and the Lyell Highway is closed north of Derwent Bridge.

Snow and ice have created treacherous conditions.

The Midland Highway is closed between Melton Mowbray and Mudwall Road, and the alternative route through Colebrook, shown above in a photograph by Laurie Smythe, is barely passable.

[From ABC News ]

ABC News photograph

Tasmania’s Derwent Valley Concert Band has cleaned up at the World Marching Band Championships.

The band was judged the winner over 14 other outfits in the open event in Germany.

The conductor Layton Hodgetts has told ABC Local Radio the award took everyone by surprise.

“And to cap it all off they decided to give me the gold medal conductor award, so we’re all feeling pretty excited over here tonight, it’s been an amazing outcome,” he said.

What do fungi and stonewash jeans have in common? What has a moss got to do with the Tyrolean iceman? What are the tallest mosses? What is a reindeer moss? How can lichens read pollution?

The answers to these questions and many more will be answered in a remarkable free touring exhibition, Hidden in Plain View: the forgotten flora, staged by the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne which goes on display in Launceston in August.

Dr Teresa Lebel, one of the organisers, says the exhibition is about encouraging people to investigate the influence of the forgotten flora on their daily lives through curiosities, rarities, and everyday items, and gain an understanding of the importance of conserving the ‘often overlooked’ in our world.
[Read more →]

Today is the 25th anniversary of the High Court’s decision to block the Franklin Dam in Tasmania’s south-west Wilderness.

In 1982 Tasmanians elected a Liberal Government for the first time ever. The Premier, Robin Gray, had campaigned on building the Franklin Dam.

After losing the battle to save Lake Pedder from being dammed in the 1970s conservationists launched a highly co-ordinated battle to save the Franklin River, beginning in late 1982.

Over three months about 6,000 protesters blockaded the river and construction roads.

Current Australian Greens leader Bob Brown was among the hundreds sent to jail.

“I came out of jail and the next day found myself a member of Parliament,” said Senator Brown.

One of Tasmania’s Supreme Court judges, Pierre Slicer, also ended up in jail for three weeks.

“And I’m the only judge in Australia that I know of who’s been refused bail by his own Chief Justice,” he said.

In 1983, the then Labor Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, took the Tasmanian Government to the High Court. It decided by just one vote to allow the Federal Government to stop Tasmania building the dam. Later that year, Mr Hawke provided Tasmania with $276 million in compensation.

A fascinating photograph of Hobart’s little-known ‘underworld’. See it full size here.

Say no more.