Saturday 26 September to Sunday 4 October 2026 - Australian Campers and Vans National Meet, Crows Nest, Queensland.

 

The 20th National Gathering of the Australian Campers and Vans (formally the Australian CamperTrailers Group) was held in Crows Nest, Queensland this year, the first time it has been held outside NSW.

The week attracted ??? people in ?? camper trailers, caravans, motorhomes & tents. Not too many Camper Trailers any more.  As the group has got older there has been the gradual transition to hybrids and caravans (and a few motorhomes).

Monday 2 February 2026 - Mullumbimby to Hobart

 A nice early start for our 6am flight from Gold Coast to Melbourne and then on to Hobart.  Bradley dropped us off at the airport in time for us to grab some breakfast before our flight.

We didn't have long to wait in Melbourne.  Time for a coffee and cake before we were back on the plane to Hobart, where we picked up our hire car and headed to Wyndham at Seven Mile Beach.  We had ordered a Corolla Cross but ended up with a Subaru Crosstrek, which turned out just fine.

Wyndham Resort is not far from the airport, so after booking and finding our unit, we went looking for some lunch.  We felt like some sushi, so ended up Glebe Hill Village, where we were also able to do some grocery shopping at Coles at the same time.

Back to Wyndham for a lazy afternoon and evening.

Club Wyndham, Seven Mile Beach, is nicely set up with the units in 'clusters' spread out over quite a large area of bushland.  Lots of birds and wildlife and a nicely appointed unit with an outlook to a pine forest at the back of the resort.

Tuesday 3 February 2026 - Hobart (HOHO Bus and Botanical Gardens)

 After a quick breakfast this morning, we drove the 20km into Hobart with the plan to use the Hop On Hop Off Bus to explore the city.  Our intention was to do just that, Hop On and Hop Off at various spots.  Problem 1,  we hadn't worked out that where we were going to park, (Dunn Street Car Park) was limited three-hour parking.  Oh well, we would just do the HOHO for its entire round and revisit anywhere that said "Must Visit" at a later date.  We are in Hobart for a week, after all.  We like the HOHO buses as they give you an overview of the city you are visiting.  The Hobart HOHO was well done.  Not sure how our driver managed some of the tight roads we travelled. He took us out to Wrest Point Casino to the south, then west to Cascade Brewery and back through the city and north to the Botanical Gardens.  Well worth the trip.

After some lunch, we decided to spend the afternoon at the Botanical Gardens.  Mainly concentrating on  Tasmania's unique range of native flora, the 14-hectare site is a nice spot for a stroll.  It also features a unique Subantarctic Plant House with plants found on the subantarctic islands (Macquarie Island), further south.  The temperature in the 'house' was 6 degrees, which was appreciated as the day was quite hot, something we were not expecting in Hobart.  

Back to Whyndham and dinner tonight at the on-site restaurant.  And quite satisfactory it was.

Wednesday 4 February 2026 - Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

Today's plan is to visit the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary (pronounced “Bon-a-rong”).  We are booked in for the night tour which starts at 5pm.  We thought we would go about lunch time and have a look around before the evening session.

Consequently, a slow beginning to the day.  Club Wyndham is right on Seven Mile Beach, so a walk to the beach was a must.  Being inside Frederick Henry Bay, the beach is very flat and stretches for kilometres (as it says seven miles) to the north and south.  Pretty quiet this morning with only a few people out walking.  We saw more people running along the track behind the dunes than we actually saw on the beach.  It's a great swimming spot for families.  Not too many waves to worry about.

We headed off to Bonorong at lunch time, expecting there to be a cafe where we could sit down and have a leisurely lunch.  No such luck, but they did have a food van, so we shared some Nachos in the little bit of shade we could find - almost had to share it with the Cape Barren Geese.

If we had only gone to Bonorong in the day, we would have been disappointed.  It was hot and consequently most of the critters were doing the sensible thing and were resting up somewhere in the shade where they couldn't be seen.  Birds could be seen in their cages, but apart from that, the obvious attraction for many tourists were the Forester Kangaroos.  As the season is so very dry, with little grass anywhere, they were very keen to be fed by the visitors.

Bonorong was established in 1981, primarily as a rehabilitation-focused centre for native animals, and is still the only such facility in Tasmania dedicated to the treatment and rehabilitation of all native, endemic and migratory species, receiving rescued animals from all over Tasmania.  In the early days, there were quite a few "exhibition" animals (hence the forester kangaroos whose natural environment is north-eastern Tasmania), but these days all animals are rehabilitated and released to the wild, with the only permanent residents being those who would be unable to survive - one of the star performers being a very yellow, albino black cockatoo. 

In addition to the sanctuary, Bonorong also runs a Wildlife Hospital & Rehabilitation Facility, the latest building opening in November last year. The hospital was set up so that you could see into the clinics and operating room, with a self-guided tour set up - ‘The Journey’ allows guests to follow in the footsteps of an injured animal, from its rescue, through the rehabilitative process and on to a successful release.  While we were there, a Fairy Prion, that had crashed onto the deck of a ship was being examined.

Our night visit was when things came alive, starting with the feeding of a baby wombat and then on to the kangaroos (again), the Tasmanian Devils, possums, echidnas and quolls.  The star performer for the night was most likely the blind Echidna who ate out of your hand.

It was a great night.

Thursday 5 February 2026 - Seven Mile Beach

 

Apart from a quick trip to Sorell,  14 kilometres up the road, to do a bit of shopping, today was a rest day at Club Wyndham.

The Sorell drive was interesting as it crosses two quite long causeways over Pitt Water and Orielton Lagoon.  In colonial times, the Richmond Bridge was the primary crossing point of the Coal River on the road from Hobart to Sorell, a long way around.  It had been decided much earlier that if a crossing at Pitt Water could be made, it would considerably reduce the time to reach Sorell and on to Port Arthur. The engineering was difficult, but with a ready supply of convict labour on hand, the causeway was constructed and finally completed in 1872. 

Club Whyndham is a bit of a wildlife haven with Tasmanian Nativehens and the Tasmanian Pademelon Wallaby everywhere.  With plenty of food from the many flowering gums, it was also a popular spot for Musk Lorikeets, a bird we do not get in our part of the world.  Also lots of Superb Fairy-wrens and a few Scarlet Robins and New Holland Honeyeaters.

The resort also has a farm on site, with chooks, sheep, goats, cows and alpacas.  No doubt quite an attraction for families.

Friday 6 February 2026 - MONA

We have set aside today to visit MONA (Museum of Old and New Art).  It wasn't around when we were in Tasmania 18 years ago (only opening in 2011), and over the years, we have heard so much about it.  Consequently, it was a "must see".  MONA houses ancient, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection. Noted for its central themes of sex and death, the museum has been described by Walsh as a "subversive adult Disneyland".  

We chose the ferry as our way of getting there.  MONA was designed to be approached from the water, with visitors landing and climbing a long stair, in the manner of the ancient Greeks ascending to their temples (as they say). 

So it was once again the trip into downtown Hobart, but this time we had done our homework and parked in the Argyle Street Car Park, which did not have a time limit.

The ferry is indeed the way to get to MONA and the 30-minute trip up the Derwent was a pleasant way to start the day. We paid the bit extra to travel in the Posh pit, which was a bit less crowded, a bit more exclusive, and you get free drinks and canapés.  The guava mimosas were "to die for".

There's no doubt that the approach to the museum and the grounds is spectacular.  Its construction - mind-boggling.   

The single-storey MONA building appears at street level to be dominated by its surroundings, but its interior possesses a spiral staircase that leads down to three larger levels of labyrinthine display spaces built into the side of the cliffs around Berriedale peninsula.  Walsh has said that he wanted a building that "could sneak up on visitors rather than broadcast its presence.  It certainly does that!

There are no windows and the atmosphere is intentionally ominous. On entering the museum, visitors descend the "seemingly endless flight of stairs", an experience one critic compared with "going down into Petra".  To see the art, you work back upwards towards the surface.   

As for the art - we were a bit underwhelmed.  Certainly, some of the modern art is very clever and quite stunning.  We could, however, have done without some of the grotesque art which obviously came from Walsh's original collection.  

We had lunch in the grounds overlooking the most extraordinary playground slide we have ever seen.  Now that's modern art.

Back on the ferry at 3 o'clock for the trip back to Hobart and then on to Seven Mile Beach.

Saturday 7 February 2026 - Salamanca Market, Mount Wellington, Cascade Brewery

 

Saturday today, so, of course, we have to visit the Salamanca Market, Tasmania's most visited tourist attraction, attracting over one million visitors a year.  We were here 18 years ago and still use the wattle chopping board we purchased.  We found somewhere for breakfast and purchased a few "odds and ends"  to take home.

From the market, we headed to Kunanyi/Mount Wellington, a 30-minute drive that takes you from sea level to a height of 1,271 metres.  It's much cooler up here and the vegetation is quite different - a tundra climate, a maritime polar climate or a subpolar oceanic climate, depending on who you listen to.

The cold and the wind certainly shapes the vegetation - low-lying shrubs, cushion plants, and wind-sculpted trees.

And the views over Hobart and beyond are spectacular!

From Kunanyi/Mount Wellington, we headed to Cascade Brewery's gardens for lunch.

The Brewery is the oldest continually operating brewery in Australia, established in 1824, and is unique among Australian breweries and rare among breweries worldwide in that it operates its own maltings, producing malt for its mainstream beers (including Premium Lager and Pale Ale) from locally grown barley. 

We were there for lunch, along with a lot of other people - a very popular spot.  We did find a table in their gardens and enjoyed our meal, followed by a walk along the Cascade Rivulet as far as the Female Factory (where we will return to tomorrow).  We hoped that we might see a platypus, as they are known to be in this area.  No such luck!

Back to Wyndham for dinner in their restaurant once again.

Sunday 8 February 2026 - The Female Factory

 Our last full day in Hobart, and we decided that we would visit the Cascades Female Factory with a look in at the Hobart Regatta on the way.

The Regatta turned out to be a bit of a non-event.  From what we read "The Royal Hobart Regatta is Tasmania's oldest and most prestigious 3-day aquatic event, held annually on the River Derwent in Hobart since 1838. The 188th event is scheduled for February 7–9, 2026, featuring sailing, rowing, swimming, wood chopping, and aerial displays. The event includes a Monday public holiday in Southern Tasmania." we thought it might be worth a visit but guess it's an event for local participation rather than tourists.  We had a bit of a wander, had a quick look at the historical display and the market/sideshows and then headed off to the Female Factory. 

The Cascades Female Factory was purpose-built in 1828 to house Hobart's female convicts, using a site originally planned as a brewery.   The site operated until 1856. It was intended to remove women convicts from the negative influences and temptations of Hobart, and also to protect society from what was seen as their immorality and corrupting influence. The Factory was located, however, in an area of damp swamp land, and with overcrowding, poor sanitation and inadequate food and clothes, there was a high rate of disease and mortality among its inmates.

Now a world heritage listed site, it operates as a museum and tourist attraction managed by the Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority.  It consists of three of the original five yards of the original establishment.  Visitors get to know the largely unknown history of the over 6,000 women and girls that were transported to Van Diemen's Land and the some 2,000 babies that were born within the factory walls.  We chose to do guided tours, the 'Convict Women's Tour' and the 'Strumpets & Dangerous Girls Tour'.  So glad we did.  Both our guides did an excellent job of taking us back to what life was like in this establishment in the early days of the Hobart Penal Colony.  Just horrific.

Well worth the visit.

Monday 9 February 2026 - Hobart to Richmond & Orford

A final walk on the beach this morning before packing up and heading off to our accommodation for the night at Beezneez in Orford, an hour or so up the coast.

As we had plenty of time, we detoured a little to Richmond to have a look at the convict bridge.  It is the oldest stone span bridge in Australia, its foundation stone being laid on 11 December 1823.  Constructed using convict labour, with sandstone quarried from Butchers Hill, hauled to the construction site using hand carts, the bridge was completed in 1825.  In 2005, the bridge was recognised as an outstanding historic place and added to the Australian National Heritage List.  Impressive that it is still in use today.

We arrived in Orford at lunch time and got our first look at Maria Island, tomorrow's destination. 

Lunch at a local cafe and a few groceries (dinner) from the local IGA, it was then off to locate our accommodation for the next two nights. Beezneez, a single room (breakfast provided) downstairs in a private home.  An excellent bed, so what more could you want.

A nice lazy afternoon.

Tuesday 10 February 2026 - Maria Island

Croissants for breakfast and then a drive to Triabunna for coffee, while we waited for our cruise.  We had tossed up between just getting the ferry out to Maria Island and doing our own exploring, or doing the island as a tour.  We ended up with Maria Island Cruises on their Tour 1, a trip out to Ile Des Phoques (Island of the Seals) followed by cruising to the Fossil Cliffs and Painted Cliffs on Maria and then a couple of hours on the Island with Ruby as our guide.  It turned out a good choice.

Our Cruise boat is quite small carrying only about 25 people.  As the day is quite overcast (not too hot) we chose to sit outside and upstairs (about 10 of us).  The three staff on board were very friendly and kept us informed on our 30 minute cruise out to Ile Des Phoques.

The island is a pretty rugged granite island only about 8 ha in size.  These days it is an obvious sanctuary for the Australian Fur Seals and the many sea birds that live here.  It wasn't always the case.  The fur seals were almost hunted to extinction in the early 1800s and only began to return to the island after commercial sealing ceased in the late 1800s to early 1900s.  For many years it was just a haul-out (where seals hang out but do not breed) but became a colony again in the last 20 years with the return of breeding females.

So many seals .....

In addition to the seals, so many commorants and so many gannets plus a few sea eagles and albatross (out to sea).

In addition to the seals, the other attraction on Ile Des Phoques are the sea caves.  The caves are famous for their 'kaleidoscope of colours' created by light, water, and algae, earning them the nickname "Rainbow Caves".  Being a small boat, we were able to 'cruise' right into the caves.  Amazing. 

As we were about to leave the island, we were visited by a pod of Bottle Nosed Dolphin.  It never ceases to surprise how dolphins relate to humans, or at least their boat by surfing along side.  This went on for ages.....

Thirty minutes later, we were at Maria Island's Fossil Cliffs.   The cliffs are composed of rock strata packed with fossils from the Permian period (approx. 300 million years ago), considered one of Australia's best paleontological sites.  The fossils include Eurydesma clams, bryozoans (sea fans), brachiopods, and crinoids (sea lilies).  So good to see it from the ocean as it appears you wouldn't be able see a great deal from the shore, a 4.5km walk from where the boats berth at Darlington.  We even had a sea eagle keeping an eye on us.

Next stop was past Darlington and the Painted Cliffs to a quiet bay for our lunch - a very nice chicken salad.  Back to the Painted Cliffs.  While these can be reached from land you certainly get an idea of their expanse from the sea.  Formed around 20 million years ago, the patterns in the rock result from iron-rich groundwater staining the sandstone with intricate red, orange, and yellow patterns.

Arriving at Darlington, it was over to Ruby to take us back into the history of the Darlington settlement.

• Aboriginal History: Long before Europeans, the Tyreddeme people (part of the Oyster Bay tribe) lived here for thousands of years, referring to the island as wukaluwikiwayna.
• First Convict Era (1825–1832): Darlington was established as a penal colony for convicts who had re-offended. It was abandoned in 1832 when the more secure Port Arthur opened.
• Second Convict Era (1842–1850): The site reopened as a Probation Station, a unique Tasmanian experiment focused on reform through labour and religious instruction.
• The Bernacchi Era (1880s–1930): Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi attempted to transform Darlington into an industrial hub for silk, wine, and cement. He even renamed the town San Diego.
• National Park (1972–Present): Today, Darlington is managed by the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service and is famous for its "ark" of wildlife like wombats and Tasmanian devils.

The jetty area displays the remnants of the Bernacchi era, with the remains of his cement factory evident - silos and cement works.  The abundance of limestone on the island made it an ideal spot for a cement factory.  Fortunately for the island,  the 1890s financial crisis saw the venture fail as did a second attempt to revive the factory in the 1920s.  There's quite a lot on the history of the island in the convict-built Commissariat Store near the jetty.

It's amazing how many of the convict-built buildings have survived at Darlington:

• Commissariat Store (1825): The oldest building on the island, originally used for office space and provision storage.
• The Penitentiary (1830): One of the few structures from the first convict period, it now provides basic bunkhouse accommodation for visitors.
• Officers' Quarters (1842): A row of terraced houses built to accommodate assistant superintendents.
• Mess Hall: A versatile building where hundreds of convicts ate, which also served as a schoolroom and chapel.
• Other Structures: The site also contains a chapel/dayroom, a bread store, a bakehouse, and the remains of solitary punishment cells. 

The buildings are primarily in the Old Colonial Georgian style, characterised by simple, functional designs with whitewashed brick walls and minimal decoration. 

We spent some time exploring the site, both the convict-built buildings and the Coffee Palace, built by Bernacchi in 1888.  While the "old" buildings were fascinating, the highlight of our trip to Maria would have to be the sighting of a mother Wombat and her bub just near the Penitentiary.  Very cute, particularly the way the little one was not letting mum out of his/her sight. 

From the penitentiary, we wandered up the hill to the site of Bernacchi's Grand Hotel, also built in 1888, before heading back to the boat for our trip back to Tribunna.  The hotel would have been pretty fancy for the day, accommodating up to 30 guests with drawing, billiards, dining, and sitting rooms.  All in ruins today.

It really was an excellent day out.