February 8, 2023
“The company planned to establish a township and its intended interests included sericulture, wine-making, fruit-growing, farming, cement, limestone and marble, fisheries, and sheep and cattle fattening. Darlington, renamed San Diego, by 1888 was a boom town of about 250 people of a dozen nationalities. Buildings had been repaired and others erected, including a hotel and coffee palace. The island (Maria) was dubbed ‘the Ceylon of Australasia, and a Tasmanian Eden’.”
-Callum J Jones
Just off the eastern coast of Tasmania lies Maria (Pronounced here “Mariah”) Island. It is a national preserve and offers a range of hikes. No cars are allowed on the island. you get there by ferry.
Here is a drone flight over Spring Bay
The history here is similar to many places in Australia. It was first used as convict penal colony to ease overcrowding of convicts in Hobart from 1825-1832. Later the island was leased to, and I adore this name, Angelo Guilio Diego Bernacchi. He was an Italian silk merchant who had plans to reshape the island as an agricultural paradise with a planned community he called Darlington.
He would later invite members of parliament and investors to his utopia to a gala hoping to get them to invest in his dream. He put on quite a show with fireworks, brilliant Chinese and Venetian lanterns, and champagne banquets. Many invested but it didn't last and when a financial crisis came in 1890 it was closed. A cement company tried to establish a business there but it too failed with the Great Depression in the 1930’s.
It became a national park in 1971. Some of the old buildings and cement works remain but mostly nature has reclaimed the land. The woods here are dominated by towering eucalyptus trees some reaching 200 feet high.
We took around a 5 mile hike today here. Along the way we saw wombats. These are wonderful animals. Try to imagine an ottoman but with fur and legs that move. They are close relatives of Koloa's and are now endangered due to loss of habitat.
This odd large bird is a Cape Barren Goose. They too have been endangered but their numbers are now improving. The mate for life and are grazing birds often found in fields of other herbivores.
The most common animal we saw were these guys.
At first we thought they were Wallabies. But they are not. They are Pademelons. A Wallaby is generally larger. They were more shy than the Wombats but plentiful. We saw several mothers with young ones (Joeys).
It was a beautiful walk with several windswept vistas to view.
All in all a lovely day.
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