Where – Queens Domain Hobart including Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens
What – 5.36km round trip from Royal Hobart Hospital
In 10 words – Bulokes, birds, bright leaves, city bush, buildings, big trees
Okay, so I am breaking the rules this week.
But it has been a week of breaking things – including one ankle and one wrist – which finds me in Hobart and spending much of the day in hospital or organising things around a patient.
Great place to end up on a mercy mission but still not a holiday.
A few days ago Noah fell off Doctor’s Rocks (see pictures) and I have come to get all his car (at the northwest end of the state), then travel to Hobart (south-east end) and support him while in hospital and then get us all home.
I had planned to come in May for a holiday so this is like a preview visit which has been made much more enjoyable by the kindness of Noah’s workmates, my old friend Max, cousin Kane and the wonderful staff at Royal Hobart Hospital.
Today I find myself with a short window – the operation is over and Noah is feeling a bit better, the car is booked on the ferry tomorrow night and I can’t visit the hospital till 2pm – so I have a few hours for a walk.
At the suggestion of veteran bush walker and conservationist Franz – a patient in the next bed who has been entertaining Noah with his amazing stories – I am heading to see the Royal Tasmania Botanical Gardens.
From Ward 9 East we got a view of roughly where they sit a couple of km away on a hilly spot Queens Domain.
I head towards the river and find myself in what I later discover is the University Rose Garden in front of Domain House a former school built about 150 years ago. From house steps I can see the Royal Hobart Hospital so I call Noah and start waving. He actually spots me from more than half a km away which is pretty cool.
I have a backpack for my water and a bum bag for the phones/cameras. Later that day my nephew explains the sad equation – bum bag + two phones = drug dealer – Today’s customers will be very disappointed.
Indeed no customers or even other walkers here today on this still, sunny autumn day. That sun has a real kick – something to do with Tassie being closer to the hole in the ozone layer. Good reminder about correct disposal of old fridges I say.
I have no clue where I am going but there are little bush tracks all over the place and subtle but detailed signs pointing me to several landmarks including the gardens.
I am loving walking through natural, peaceful bush within yelling distance of the main road into Hobart.
At one point something moves in the grass. Not a hop or a slither – something else. I am wondering if it might be a quoll or bandicoot, which are said to live in Hobart bush. It seems pretty amazing when we think how both species have been devastated by foxes, cats and people in Victoria.
The path is quite hilly and at times you get some excellent views to the river and the hairy denim mountains rolling down to its banks.
I have not come across any ancient eucalypts or trees with scars but this place was settled more than 200 years and with all these hills, farmland would have likely been cleared to grow food and run livestock.
Town and river names are also very British and I am not noticing as many indigenous names as we have in northwest Victoria.
(A bit of research post walk did uncover some dual Aboriginal names including Nipaluna – Hobart; Trowunna – Tasmania and – timtumili minanya – Derwent River)
I also found out that before Europeans arrived the Mouheneener people camped along the Derwent to access food including shellfish and in all there 21 Aboriginal sites recorded across the Queen’s Domain area.
I am pleased to see some bulokes and a healthy stand of kangaroo grass as I wander through the bush.
I head through a war memorial drive and then past a patch of bush that was planted to commemorate the visit of a US war ship in the 1970s.
Things get greener and leafier and more ordered as I approach the great iron gates of historic Royal Tasmania Botanical gardens.
Formerly a farm. the gardens began in 1818 and have been a popular recreational site since the late 1820s. They were also important for botanical research and providing trees and shrubs for many parks.
The first thing I am struck by are the monster trees.
Our Morton Bay figs dwarf the aptly named Wellingtonia – Big Tree which soars more than 30m skyward. (And it still has growing to do.) Next door it equally tall Agathis Robustus or the Queensland Kauri.
I wander past some infant Huon pines – tough, long living and useful for all sorts of things and then around another corner I am catapulted into full blown autumn.
Big-leafed oaks light up the whole section of garden. Earlier this week the conservationist in me felt uncomfortable with how often deciduous trees popped up during my cross Tassie sprint – but today I am in awe of the bold colours, giant leaves and grandeur of these trees.
The Iphone gets a workout and I even hug one of the giant trunks. (This is because a water diviner once told me it is a great way to get energised and, after days of walking up and down hills I need some energy).
I head back across the sloping lawns and paths and eat lunch beside the big artificially heated wall that was built in 1829 to protect plants from the frost. Truth is they did fine without the heat and it was turned off a few years later but wall is still here nearly 200 years later.
I then head to world’s only Subantarctic Plant House which has island plants displayed in a freezing cold building. These mosses and other plants were all collected during trips to Macquarie Island.
Finally it is a quick look at the stone Conservatory which is a mass of colour and wonderful smells.
Time is ticking so I head back to the gate and return to the CBD. Somehow I manage to find a whole new bush track but link up with the trail back towards the hospital. I see quite a few birds on the way back including a one legged magpie and some parrots.
Later that day we are watching from the ninth floor and see four policemen searching near a tree where I was walking only hours earlier. Hope no one called in a report of that middle-aged woman with two phones and a bum bag.
Nothing to see here – except the pictures that go with this story.
In five short km I have heaps but not even remotely scratched the surface on this amazing, incredibly friendly, welcoming and beautiful state and I can’t wait to come back for some real adventure.
Thanks Trowunna.
52 weeks 52 walks 