MUSSELROE BAY

 

1/ Musselroe Bay is hamlet serving a pleasure boat haven and a beautiful beach in the extreme north east of Tasmania. This photo is looking south from near the Great Musselroe Bay hamlet towards Cape Naturaliste.

2/ This is the view looking north from near the hamlet. The beach was being pounded that day by violent surf from the mighty Tasman Sea.

3/ This is the large lagoon on the western side of the hamlet.

4/ To the south west of the lagoon is the towering heights of Mt Cameron.

5/ To the west of the hamlet is the massive wind farm at Little Musselroe Bay.

6/ This photo shows a rainbow above a group of homes near Great Musselroe Bay hamlet.

7/ The area just south of Musselroe Bay is rich dairy country. Here you can see an idyllic pastoral view backed by two rainbows.

8/ Mt Cameron is 551 metres high and dominates the landscape south of Musselroe Bay.

9/ Mt William is just south of Great Musselroe Bay. If you climb the 221 metres to its peak, then you get a great view of the Musselroe Bay area. This view is looking east across the plains of the Mt William National Park.

10/ The Mt William National Park supports a large population of kangaroos, wallabies, wombats and birds. I was lucky to be able to approach quite close to this resting Bennetts Wallaby.

11/ The national park is also home to wedge tail eagles. This one looked at me with the air of a predator looking at a possible meal.

 

1/ Stumpys Bay is a beach just south of Great Musselroe Bay in the Mt William National Park. There are picnic tables and toilets, but nothing else at the camping area. Unfortunately, the beach is unsafe for swimming in due to strong under toeing currents.

2/ This is the beautiful beach at Stumpys Bay. This view is looking north towards Cape Naturaliste.

3/ This photo shows a large bird colony nesting on rocks just off the beach. The white on the rocks indicates that this is a major roosting area.

4/ This shows the violent waves that pound the shore of Stumpys Bay and make it unsafe for swimming.

5/ This is the view looking south towards the Eddystone Lighthouse. It is 15 kilometres beyond the point seen here.

6/ This is a lagoon just off the beach. These lagoons are important feeding places for water birds.

 

1/ Little Musselroe Bay is North East of Musselroe Bay. It is the site of a massive wind farm with 57 turbines that was opened in 2013.

2/ The wind turbines are about 50 metres high and make for magnificent pieces of sculpture.

3/ The massive wind turbines now dominated the old grazing landscape.

4/ A troika of turbines sits on this small hill. They would make magnificent photos at dawn or sunset.

5/ This photo shows two turbines located near the dunes.

6/ This complex of turbines is located to the North West.

7/ This is the station that controls the complex.

8/ To the west of Little Musselroe Bay is a sea of dunes.

 

1/ Cape Portland is west of Little Musselroe Bay in north eastern Tasmania. It is an area of pristine beaches and rocky shores. It also now home to the largest wind farm in Tasmania. This gallery shows photos taken on a beach walk in 2015.

2/ North eastern Tasmania has many empty, pristine beaches. These are favorites with local Tasmanians. In summer these beaches are quite warm. This photo shows our group walking towards the wind farm at Little Musselroe Bay.

3/ The beaches at Cape Portland were interspersed between rock platforms. In them you can see the red rocks common to eastern Tasmania.

4/ This view looks towards Lanoma Point. In the distance on the left is Swan Island. The colors that you see here, really are the beautiful colours of eastern Tasmania.

5/ This view shows the long, beautiful beach near Lanoma Point.

6/ This is the remnants of a large building that was built in the late 19th Century. In Tasmania you regularly come across the remains of long forgotten settlements.

7/ I guessed that this was an orientation marker, which was once used by local fishermen.

8/ This image looks south east towards the large, wind farm at Little Musselroe Bay. The complex has several dozen wind turbines.

9/ This image shows the wind turbines towering over the bush. I find them to be both artistically impressive, as well as being very useful.

10/ Walking into a wind farm is truly walking amongst giants. The turbines give out a continuous loud humming noise, but this has no effect on grazing animals.

11/ Every wind turbine is regularly inspected by the maintenance workers.

12/ The distant humans in this image should give you a good idea as to the size of these massive turbines. I estimate that they are about 70 metres tall.

13/ The walk ended with an excursion up the Little Musselroe River at Lyme Regis. The river was cool and refreshing to walk in.

14/ The wind turbines are so tall that the reflect back the last orange, yellow light of the sunset.