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.