AVOCA

 

1/ Avoca is a historic mining town in central eastern Tasmania. Above is the St Thomas Anglican Church. It is an impressive church built in the Romanesque Revival style in 1842. The architect, James Blackburn, also built the church at Port Arthur.

2/ The current post office at Avoca was formerly a storehouse. It was built in 1850. The sandstone proves that Avoca once had real wealth.

3/ This impressive building at Avoca is Marlborough House. It was built in 1845.

4/ This is the old state school of Avoca. It was built in 1907 and is now the museum and information centre.

5/ The stylish war memorial of Avoca is in a small park near the old state school.

6/ The Union Hotel was built in 1842. There were once many more hotels in Avoca.

7/ This is a view of Avoca from the north. The St Thomas Anglican Church stands out in a way that reminded me of towns in the south of France.

8/ To the South of Avoca is the impressive sight of St Pauls Dome, which is 1028 metres high.

9/ Avoca is in the beautiful Fingal Valley. This photo was taken just east of Avoca. The peak in the distance is Stacks Bluff, which is 1528 metres high. The Bluff is part of the famous Ben Lomond Plateau.

10/ To the south of Avoca the hills were more gentle. Note the green meadows of the adjacent farm.

 

1/ Rossarden is a former tin mining town in central eastern Tasmania. It is on the southern edge of the Ben Lomond Plateau. Between 1926 and 1982 the population grew to over 500, before crashing with the closure of the mine that year. There is now only a small population in Rossarden and there are no extant facilities.

2/ The last remaining building of the old state school has now been restored to be the museum of Rossarden.

3/ This is a hotel of Rossarden, which is now vacant.

4/ Rossarden has a pretty church, which has now been converted into a residence.

5/ The homes of the former miners of Rossarden were built in the style of wooden cottages of the 1930s and thus give the town a historic appearance.

6/ This is a photo of Rossarden taken in the 1960s. It shows a street of mining cottages.

7/ This old 1960s photo shows a large house of Rossarden with Stacks Bluff in the distance. The photo below was taken in 2013 on the same spot. The large house is gone and the tree behind the house is now much larger.

8/ Most of the former homes and buildings of Rossarden have been removed. This vacant block has a great view of Stacks Bluff, which is on the southern edge of the Ben Lomond Plateau.

9/ Just north of Rossarden is a gravel quarry.

10/ Wild Farrow deer can be seen wandering around the near empty streets of Rossarden.

 

1/ Storys Creek is a former mining town north east of Rossarden in central eastern Tasmania. It is at the very base of Stacks Bluff, which is the southern edge of the Ben Lomond Plateau. Stacks Bluff is 1530 metres high. There are no extant facilities at Storys Creek.

2/ This is the old hall of Storys Creek. Most of the former buildings of the old town have been removed. The peak behind it is called "the Knuckle" and is 1300 metres high.

3/ This is another view of the Knuckle looking down the main street of Storys Creek.

4/ This is the only occupied house in Storys Creek. Behind it is the Knuckle.

5/ The old state school of Storys Creek is still extant. Children wrote their names on the brown building to the left, when the school was closed. A difficult climb to the top of Stacks Bluff begins near the school.

6/ Just east of Storys Creek is a vast degraded area, which was once the mine.

 

1/ The Nibelungen Crag is in north eastern Tasmania on the southern face of the Ben Lomond Plateau. It is east of Stacks Bluff and north of the settlement of Storys Creek. This area is a favorite venue for rock climbers. This gallery shows photos made to this area in the summer of 2014. This image shows the Nibelungen Crag, which is also known as the Denison Crag.

2/ Our group followed a trail known only to the club through disturbed forest. They followed a route used by ancient miners to the first objective of Coal Falls. This image shows Coal Falls. This is where Storys Creek plunges down from the Ben Lomond Plateau.

3/ This image looks to the south through an area devastated by ancient mining.

4/ We saw many small streams coming down from the Ben Lomond Plateau. They formed lovely little ponds.

5/ This image looks into one of these ponds. Although the water looks pure, we do not trust any water coming from an area devastated by mining.

6/ This image shows the entrance to an ancient tunnel.

7/ This photo, taken with a flash, looks deep into the ancient tunnel. Note how it has filled up with water. It is dangerous to venture into these tunnels.

8/ We now ascended to the top of the plateau through a cleft near Coal Falls. This involved scrambling over a huge field of scree.

9/ This image shows the cleft where we ascended 200 metres to reach the top of the the plateau.

10/ This image shows our group towards the end of their climb to the Ben Lomond Plateau above.

11/ This image looks up at the ragged rocks on the edge of the plateau.

12/ Here we see one of our trekkers above the Nibelungen Crag. Note how high this area is above the surrounding lands below.

13/ This image looks south from the Nibelungen Crag. In the distance you can see the fertile Fingal Valley.

14/ This image looks south east along the cliff line. The first promontory is the Nibelungen Crag, the next cutting that you see is the mined area and Coal Falls, the next promontory is Storys Bluff and the last promontory is Sphinx Bluff.

15/ This image looks south from the Nibelungen Crag. To the right is Tranquil Tarn and in the distance is the old mining settlement of Storys Creek. The slither of green on the horizon is the Fingal Valley.

16/ This image looks down into Tranquil Tarn. It was about 200 metres below us.

17/ This image looks south east from Stacks Bluff. In the centre is the Nibelungen Crag and Tranquil Tarn and in the distance on the right is Storys Bluff. Note how these cliffs are dominated by vast fields of scree at their base.

18/ This image looks north west along the cliff line towards Stacks Bluff. It is easy to appreciate why this area is a favorite with rock climbers.

19/ This image looks west towards the summit of Stacks Bluff. It is 1528 metres high and is the primary landmark of the Fingal Valley below. From Stacks Bluff you can look to the north at the Asgard and Heimdall crags and, as well, see the whole of the Fingal Valley.

20/ At top of the cliff line is the vast Ben Lomond Plateau. This is a vast area of tundra that is snow covered in winter.

21/ Our group then exited Stacks Bluff on the more defined Stacks Bluff Trail that leads back to the Storys Creek settlement. This was one of our last views of Stacks Bluff.

22/ These next 4 photos were taken on a separate trip in 2016. Our aim was to find an easy approach to the crags west of Stacks Bluff. We turned west from B42 Storeys Creek Road onto a gravel road called Gipps Creek Road. From here we ventured onto logging trails to approach the crags. These trails are very confusing, so I would not recommend doing this to non locals. This image shows the Asgard Crag to the right and the Heimdall Crag to the left.

23/ This image was taken from an area devastated by loggers. We were within one kilometre of the Heimdall Crag. The Heimdall Crag is a rock wall with a huge scree field before it.

24/ This image looks east back towards Stacks Bluff. It too is an imposing sight. On the extreme left is the Wilmot Crag. If these logging trails were upgraded into a first class road and lookouts were cleared of trees to see the crags, then this would make a very interesting tour route.

25/ This image was taken on the return journey. It looks back east towards Stacks Bluff across a beautiful field of yellow canola.

 

1/ Royal George is a former mining town in central eastern Tasmania. It is in sight of the massive peak of St Pauls Dome, which is 1028 metres high.

2/ This is the main street of Royal George. There are no extant facilities in Royal George.

3/ This is a view of the church of Royal George. Beyond it is St Pauls Dome.

4/ This is the hall of Royal George.

5/ This photo shows the meadow country east of Royal George. The hill in the centre is Montgomery Hill. The road that passes through Royal George continues as a gravel road through to the East Coast.

 

1/ Hardings Falls are in central eastern Tasmania east of Royal George. The falls are small, but they include a large rock platform and lovely ponds for swimming in. This view shows the middle pond.

2/ This is a telephoto view of the large middle pond of Hardings Falls. The pond is about 100 metres below the camera. Hardings Falls is a favorite with picnic makers, who love to swim in the clear waters of these ponds.

3/ This is a telephoto view of the higher pond. This pond is about 150 metres away from my camera down an 80 metre high gorge. The various falls are between the higher, middle and lower ponds.

4/ This photo was taken down on the rock platform. The ponds are at the base of an amphitheater of cliffs. Beyond the people is the higher pond.

5/ This is a telephoto view of the highest cascade.

6/ This long format photo shows all three of the higher cascades.

7/ This photo shows one of the falls. It has a drop of about 8 metres and empties into the middle pond.

8/ This view looks down into the middle pond. The water drops down a 50 metre waterfall on the extreme right into the final, lower pond.

9/ This is another view of the middle pond. The water had a deep feeling of purity about it.

10/ This view looks from the middle pond down to the lower pond. The water flows down these rocks to form the largest of the cascades.

11/ This is another view of the middle pond. The lower pond is beyond the people in the distance. It was difficult to reach the far end of the middle pond.

12/ This view looks at the water flow falling into the lower pond.

13/ This view looks at the flow of water from the middle pond to the lower pond.