Growing up in Tasmania

I wrote a poem which mentioned a childhood morning at my grandparents' home, The Orchard House, in Spreyton, Tasmania. People in other parts of the world are often fascinated by the mention of my birthplace, particularly Americans. Apparently there is a funny US TV show about a Tasmanian Devil. (Although I haven't seen it, it sounds as if it bears about as much relation to the real thing as Wile E. Coyote does to actual coyotes.) Anyway, one of the American readers of my poetry bog has just asked: ''Tasmania? Literally? I never knew anyone from Tasmania! Do tell...'  My reply went on so long that I moved it over here:


Ha ha, yes literally. Last time I was in America, I found that many people thought it was a fictional place! It's an island at the south-east tip of Australia, and in its own right constitutes one State of Australia (sometimes called the Island State). The climate is temperate, with cold winters. I grew up in the city of Launceston in the north, where the North Esk and South Esk join to form the river Tamar. 


My grandparents owned orchards in what was then the tiny hamlet of Spreyton, now a suburb of the city of Devonport on the north-west coast, which was then a small town. Tasmania used to be known as the Apple Isle, and my grandparents grew mostly apples — including varieties one never sees any more — as well as a number of other fruits. It was a magickal place to spend a childhood, and nowhere more magickal than my grandparents' property. The island still has unspoiled areas of great scenic beauty — though, like everywhere, there is now a constant battle between environmentalists and developers.


I left when I was 15 for family reasons. It broke my heart — but I ended up spending my late teens in the city of Melbourne, living with a wonderful aunt and attending the University of Melbourne on mainland Australia, and in hindsight I think that was better. Tasmania was too insular and conformist to have given me the adolescence I needed.


I won't live in Tasmania again — far too cold for me these days, and even then — but it's always the deep home in the heart. One reason I like the small town where I live now is that, although very different in climate and sensibilities, in some ways it reminds me strongly of the Launceston of my youth. I still think of myself as 'Taswegian' — an in joke: what we call ourselves and each other, rather than the correct 'Tasmanian'. The place itself is affectionately called 'Tassie' (pronounced 'Tazzie') even by those who have never lived there.


Tasmanians refer to the rest of Australia as 'the mainland' and privately believe it is all much inferior to our small State, which is separated from the rest by a wild stretch of water called Bass Strait. Mainlanders, on the other hand, sneer at Tasmanians for having two heads, a reference to our supposed inbreeding — but it's all good-humoured really. However we don't find it amusing when cartographers (so often!) leave Tasmania right off the map.


The island has a distinctive shape, which leads audiences at Australian strip shows to exhort the performers: 'Show us yer map of Tasmania!'


Just for the record, I am not fond of Tasmanian Devils. While I hope they are not rendered extinct by the dreadful disease they are subject to at present, I have never been able to warm to them; in fact I consider them detestable little creatures.

The Environment and Me

I haven't received an email from the organiser of Blog Action Day who said in his blog hours ago that he was about to send them out to all registered blog owners. Does this mean I am not registered? Did he think I didn't write "real" blogs? (He said they would all be checked to see.)

Never mind, I'm doing it anyway. In fact I have now posted blogs on the topic of the environment at all my MySpace blogs and my other Blogspot (see links at right). And have been involved also in an amazing interview Andrew has posted on his Blogspot and linked to from his MySpace. I even made a connection to my latest post on Writer's Resource Center. Oh I do love jumping on bandwagons! When I believe in the Cause, that is.

I've posted poems, I've discoursed on the importance of cooperating with Nature, i.e. the nature spirits, and given instructions, I've reminisced about specific experiences on that score in both Texas and Australia, I've collaborated on the aforesaid interview which deals with both science and philosophy ... and now it's much later in the day and I just want to have a spontaneous rant.

I grew up in Tasmania. It was so freezing in winter that as a child I once fainted from the cold. It was so parochial that I've never stopped being glad I got away in my teens, albeit not by choice. Last time I was there, already nine and a half years ago, many places seemed so seedy and economically depressed, I was glad all over again that fate ensured I didn't end up stuck there forever. (Even though Merbein, near Mildura, was in many ways worse ... but that's another story, and after two years there I escaped to Melbourne and never looked back.)

And yet, Tasmania in my younger childhood was a beautiful place to grow up. Its natural wonders nourished me in so many ways! Friends who visit nowadays tell me it's still beautiful. I can only say, "You ain't seen nuthin'." We used to have a lot more forests. Now, as you drive along the roads, they appear to be running through forests; but penetrate only six trees in and you're confronted with barren wastes where all the trees have been logged, nothing left but bare earth and some timber debris. People still exclaim over the beauty of the Cataract Gorge at Launceston, my home town. I can't see it myself – that shallow trickle over the rocks, which has pertained for decades now, was once a frothing torrent, a mini-Niagara. Now THAT was spectacular! And then much of the water was diverted for hydro-electricity. The same old arguments were used – jobs, money, economic stability. Hmmm, not so you'd notice. Over the years, the lsland always seems to sink back into depression. The very ground looks tired.

I remember when I was little how the water near Burnie was highly coloured as if painted in reds and ochres, bright but bilious tints, as toxic chemicals were pumped out into it. And I can still hear my parents approving ignorantly of the reafforestation program the Government began when I was young, planting acres of pine saplings instead of replacing the slaughtered indigenous trees. It all started way back then. Protestors and activists, often behaving heroically, saved the Franklin but not Lake Pedder.

And now "They" want to build a pulp mill on the River Tamar! That's the river where I learned to swim. Surprisingly for an island-dweller, I'm no good in surf. I grew up on the banks of the Tamar, some way from the sea. Do I really have to contemplate those waters, those beaches, those shores polluted by a mill, the wild life habitat changing, endangered species dying out?

A media release from the Wilderness Society on 13 September speaks of the huge appetite the mill will have for forests all over Tasmania, millions of tonnes, "according to maps and tables buried deep within Gunns’ Integrated Impact Statement ". In a media release on 14th October, they are saying, "Very conservative estimates of the carbon emissions generated by the logging needed to feed the mill indicate over 10 million tonnes of CO2 would be emitted each year. This is equivalent to 2% of Australia’s emissions or an additional 2.3 million cars on the road each year. Once more studies are completed and more understanding is gained about the amount of carbon stored in Tasmania’s forests, net emissions are expected to be found to be 2–3 times higher than this." I'm angry. This is not progress!

There's no going home again – but what if home could go forwards? We really don't have to put up with being dictated to by the greedy and short-sighted. The election's been called; let's boot this mob out while we've got the chance. The Opposition is little better on this particular issue; let's make our views known vociferously. Tasmania used to be a Paradise. Can it be one again? I believe so. Not the old one but a new, regenerated one.

We need to start now!