TO HELL AND BACK

Hellfire Bluff is at the southern end of Cape Bernier, the northern end of which is Whaler's Lookout. It's a very easy walk along the coast, but is mostly on private property so you need to get permission first.

The tide was well out and the sand just damp enough to squeak nicely underfoot. 

Approaching the top of Hellfire Bluff

view from the top

lunch on top of the Bluff

Back at the foot of Hellfire Bluff we crossed a narrow neck of land to visit the Blowhole

Waiting for the blowhole to perform . . . 

and thar she blows!

From the seaward side

they wait impatiently for me to finish taking photographs and rejoin the group

Cape Bernier from the blowhole

Back along the beach we discovered thousands of tiny jellyfish washing up on the tide. At least, I think they were jellyfish - any marine biologists out there know better?

The sort of photograph you can't resist taking

Sheep had been down to the beach in the morning, perhaps grazing on kelp and the sand was covered with their hoofprints.

And the last couple of hundred metres back to the cars

I believe Hellfire Bluff was named after a ship, but cannot find any confirmation - does anybody know?

Platform Peak - a pleasant afternoon's stroll

This is a view of Platform Peak; there isn't anything particularly exciting about the peak itself, but there is a most impressive cairn on top of it.

Between 1833 and 1836 James Sprent, Assistant Surveyor, set up about fifty survey points across southern Tasmania. They were approximately fifty kilometres apart, and were marked with various poles, tree trunks and stone cairns. Some of his stone cairns are still standing; I am told this is one of them. Sprent's surveys were so detailed and accurate that they fit today's measurements with no need for adjustment, but his years in the bush impaired his health.  In 1858 he was made Surveyor General, but was forced to retire later that year and died a few years later.

lunch beside the cairn

views from the top

I can see Mt Wellington from here!

we know where we are

Update: thank you fellow HWC members Robert and Rupert

• Robert Wyatt The cairn is probably a Hardy cairn erected about 1885/6. The carving is by club member Tom Murdoch (Now over 90 years of age!) and it originally had a list of members that were with him on his trip.

  12 January at 15:28 · Unlike · 2
• Elizabeth Barsham Thank you - I wasn't sure whether it was an original Sprent cairn, but it's a very nice one. Do you know where any of the originals are?

  13 January at 22:16 · Like
• Rupert Manners We took the remains away to try and redo. The half which has the names on was not quite readable

  Yesterday at 15:53 · Like
• Robert Wyatt There are several Sprent cairns about, some in reasonable condition; La Perouse, Adamsons Peak, Rufus and there is one on Mt Hean that has been rebuilt by Surveyor Generals staff

There is a good article about early Tasmanian surveyors and their markers here: 

http://www.wildcaretas.org.au/news_details?news_id=194

On the trail of the Whalers

Every place-name has a story behind it. It may be a nostalgic transplant from the Old Country; it may commemorate somebody who seemed important at the time, or it might refer to the place itself, its distance from somewhere else, the opinion of the person who named it, or a singular feature.

The history of European activity in Tasmania is brief by world standards, and there are relics from some of the earliest days dotted around the state in all sorts of unlikely places. However, you do often need expert advice to confirm whether an overgrown pile of rocks constitutes significant remains or merely a failed garden feature.

Nobody gets a prize for guessing why Whalers' Lookout is so named, nor for guessing that it is a prominent feature. And I was lucky enough to have Barry Ford with me when I walked out there. Barry has been walking and camping in the area for more than half a century and is generous in sharing his knowledge.

The walk is across private property, so the landowner's permission is required before you start. 

first glimpse of Cape Bernier (distance, centre)

High Yellow Bluff on the Forestier Peninsula is in the background

and a nice view of Maria Island

That's where we're going -
Whaler's Lookout is the closest bit of Cape Bernier

Boot Bay

Boot Bay

Police officers were once stationed here to guard the East Coast against smugglers. There isn't much to see now, but there are plenty of sheltered little bays where it would be easy for nefarious persons to bring ashore things they shouldn't.

Wild flowers

Wild flowers are glorious at this time of year. Yellow pea-flower, flag lilies, and this white flower whose name I don't know. I just paint stuff; I don't have to know what it's called.

Ruins

Once upon a time there were several Youth Hostels along this coast, situated a comfortable day's walk apart. This one burned down in a bushfire in the late 1950s. The next one along was at Bream Creek; I don't know whether it's still there, but I shouldn't think it is.

The Whalers

Long before it became unfashionable this was the location of one of several whaling stations. Whales were so plentiful along the Tasmanian coast that crews rowed out from the shore to hunt them, and there were other on-shore stations at Adventure Bay and Trumpeter Bay on Bruny Island as well as several up the East Coast. It only took a few years to cut numbers so drastically that the stations closed down and the whalers had to put out to sea again.

This trench was a slide where whales were dragged ashore for processing.
 It was originally brick-lined; there are still a few old bricks lying about (below).

Some overgrown piles of rocks scattered through the bush
 are all that is left of the station buildings.

Fishermen and others often come ashore here, and somebody had left not long before we arrived; the ashes from their camp fire were still warm. They'd left this little arrangement on a stump by the fire.

Mercury Passage and Whaler's Lookout from near the site of the Youth Hostel

I don't know how the chap on the lookout communicated with his mates at the whaling station; he may have shouted very loudly, or perhaps he just ran back down as fast as he could go. At any rate, I imagine there was much rushing to the boats when the signal was given that whales had been spotted.

There is just as much excitement today about whales  in the Mercury Passage, but nobody is going to hunt them now.

Whaler's Lookout

Between the whaling station and the lookout is the entrance to Cockle Bay Lagoon, which must have caused some inconvenience at times. We were fortunate the tide was well out, so we could cross easily, but this is not always the case and on previous visits I have had to walk right around the lagoon and tackle the hill from the other end. 

We much prefer to make a circuit, up one side of Whaler's Lookout and down the other.

going up

"Up" from this direction is an abrupt gravelly ascent through a lot of inhospitably prickly wattle to the top of the lookout. But the view from the top is well worth the trouble. We spent a little time there, picking off leeches and eating our lunch.

 The view. Barry says the remains of a World War II observation post can still be seen on top of Cape Bernier, should you be energetic enough to scramble up there to look. I'm told it's pretty rough going, so I'll just take his word for it.

After lunch we went down the other side.

and down again

Whaler's Lookout from the inland side

We circumnavigated the lagoon, then revisited all these places on our way home.

Maria Island and Cockle Bay Lagoon

With many thanks to Barry Ford for answering all my questions.