Maria Island - Tasmania

We caught the ferry across to Maria Island today. It’s a National Park and world heritage site with convict history, unique geology and lots of animals. Is about 20k long but has no permanent residents except for park rangers on duty and visitors camping.

The main blip shows some wombats, rock pools and gumnuts, all fascinating.

The extras show some of the historical buildings in Darlington ( the convict settlement) and our new ebikes and where we had our picnic lunch. There are no shops on the island.

Aboriginal people lived here for over 40,000 years. Europeans explorers arrived in late 1700s and took over the land. The island had permanent settlers ( vineyards, sheep, fishing) for a few generations but the businesses failed and it was declared a National Park in 1972.

The captain of the ferry said it was the best day they had had for months.