Tasmania

 Tasmania is an island south of Australia with nature bestowing its best in bounties,

Coves, bays, slashing white waves, brooks, tall beech trees, temperate forests, green meadows, undulating hills, matchbox cottages, turquoise skies, green seas, blue rivulets, grazing sheep of white black grey colors, vows bent to grasses, rare horses,.

Most views are like still landscape paintings.

It's a land for creativity for painters poets photographers saints and good souls to meditate mesmerize and, romantics to murmur sweet nothings to others, it's a garden of Eden on earth.

Tasmania is just not what I thought it would be.

We thought it was just a cold, dreary island south of Australia that was sparsely populated with rural villages and old roads and nothing much to see.

How wrong we were.

Though we did not go to all parts we landed in southern Tasmania in Hobart its capital and largest most populated city.

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Flew to Tasmania an island 240 km south of Australia seperated by the Bass strait .It's the 26th largest island in the world.It's known for its lake's coastal mountainous landscapes.

It has hydroelectric powers and many natural resources.

Many areas are uninhabited with large eco preserves as national parks.

It has an Aboriginal name LUTRUWITA and it was also called VAN DAMIEN'S LAND

Its the least populated state in Australia

It takes an hour and a half by flight.

A ferry from Melbourne can also be taken where even vehicles are transported.

We flew in JetStar a low-cost branch of Qantas Airways.

Our flight was from Sydney and Shyam drove us in his car 250 km to reach the airport.

There is a huge long-term open-air parking around 3 km from Sydney airport and once we park our cars shuttle buses will take us to the airport terminal.

It's 90 Australian dollars for 5 days which is reasonable here.

Tasmania is a part of Australia and one of its states.

Once upon a time it was part of Australia but got separated 12000 years back by the Bass Strait.

Aborigines lived her 47000 years back but they have been reduced in numbers now just like most animals here getting extinct.

Most Australian and Tasmanian animals are unique like the kangaroo, Emu, Koala bear, Platypus, in Australia, and the Tasmanian devil in Tasmania.

Even the flora here is unique.

Tasmanian blue gum amongst rare flowers, leatherwood amongst plants

Crocoite amongst minerals.

The Tasmanian devil a marsupial carnivorous mammal is going extinct mainly by a disease.

Tasmania like many cities like Sydney or Melbourne in Australia was initially a penal settlement first started in 1803.

Its original inhabitants died in droves in black wars between 1825 to 1831 and many succumbed to infections unknown to them brought by sellers.

This genocide has been criticized.

In 1835 sending prisoners to Tasmania was stopped it became part of Australia in 1903 ..

It's originally named after Dutch explorer Abel Tasman who sighted the island in 1642 under the sponsorship of Van Damien the Dutch east indies Governor.

After a century the French and later British came.

Tasmania was also called Tassie by locals and Dervon.

Its capital is Hobart city in the south of the island.

We checked into Bay resorts Air BnB.

The cottage is comfortable with a sitting room kitchenette with a hot plate microwave and rest,

Upstairs there are two bedrooms.

We have booked for today and tomorrow through Agoda booking.com .

Though colder than Canberra Tasmania is not uncomfortably cold if we had good winter wear.

We had dinner in a Chinese joint close by and it was not bad though it cost twice or more it would in Cochin.

Tomorrow Shyam plan is to rent a car and go around Hobart and by day after go to other parts of Tasmania.

Hobart itself has been said to be rated as very picturesque with Victorian Houses and buildings preserved instead of a multi-storeyed city landscape

We were impressed by Hobarts layout airport roads its bridge over river Swerty its port areas and its history as a penal settlement.

It's overshadowed by Wellington mountains 1250 meters towering over it with tall Beech trees pine trees and grassy knolls.

Its top was dewy, cold, and windy, with great lookouts and hiking paths and a city laid below it.

Our son had rented a car to drive us to Tasmania, so we left Hobart up east and north reached several lovely coves bays national forests, and reached Bechino beach resort a windswept picture postcard idyllic resort with blowhole stones and eye-capturing picture opportunities.

Still, we had to leave it too to travel westwards to Brunei town.

As one went to the western side it's rainier as it's under the rain shadow of mountain chains.

This place too was beautiful with lovely cottages and houses.

We drove in slashing rain and pale sunshine competing with each other.

Stopping in a nature resort to see Tasmanian devils and other fauna we reached Launceston by late afternoon and checked into a quaint English cottage look-alike hotel apartment.

The road trip from Burnie to Launceston was mind-blowing.

On both sides, one could see feeding cattle occasional horses European cottages coastlines forests, and knolls.

in the evening we went to dockside and walked a lot though cold and windy

In Old Hobart Model town Richmond a suburb of Hobart.

Australia and Tasmania were all penal settlements once.

England in the 17th and 18 the centuries was becoming crowded, crime was increasing and jails were full.

It was found places like Australia had a lot of land and initially, convicts were dumped with guards and slowly they established small areas of residence but in process decimating the innocent native aborigines whose land it was for last 50000 years

Once it was realized the country had a temperate climate luxuriant nature large mineral wealth and resources migration increased

Order was formed and slowly cities grew.

Australia was formed in 1903 as a constitutional monarchy.

But it was in 1805 that penal settlements took off mostly and between 1820 to 1840 massacres of natives happened.

This was stopped by 1865 or so.

Today the few aborigines are treated with care and pride as full-fledged Australians with special benefits.

Australia never shirked to tell the world in the early days of its history it did injustice to its Aboriginal population.

This is unlike India where caste injustice alone is addressed by reverse discrimination and twisted tales while community persecutions are converted into freedom fights by blatant dishonesty ..

Today evil bigots like the Tipu sultan are feted as freedom fighters in India and genocides like the Moplah rebellion upgraded as freedom fights.

All this history is depicted in this Hobart model town with miniature made-to-scale versions of exact buildings from archives, life-like dolls of people and animals and lifestyles, and Bonzai versions of trees and forests.

The tickets were 20 Aus dollars each around 1000 Rs but i feel its worth it as making those models needed painstaking research work and maintenance.

Its also a method by which our cities and places too can remember its past.

, the Launceston a very fashionable city

We would fly from Launceston to Sydney the next day