King Island

Today we are on King Island which is in the Bass Strait between Melbourne and the north coast of Tasmania. It has about 1,600 people, 100,000 cattle and between 500,000 and 1m wallabies. The sweet little wallabies that we saw hopping around are considered a pest. They have no predators (apart from man) and are thriving on the improved pastures and competing with the cattle for grass.

We were given a great tour, visiting the rugged coastline, remarkably similar to Cornwall and the cause of numerous shipwrecks. In the extra, top right is a naturally occurring limestone cast of a tree trunk made when a forest was covered by a sand dune. Bottom left is a lighthouse made in Birmingham and shipped out in 312 pieces to be assembled off the coast near the little town of Currie in 1879. The other two images are of a centenary quilt in the island’s museum showing farm and wild animals. I haven’t blipped the tasting plate of cheese that we sampled in King Island Dairy ;-)