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Another slow start to the day. It's great being in holiday mode.
The only thing planned for the day is a tour of "Woolnorth" which is the North Western tip of Tasmania. I didn't know much about what actually occurs there other than the air monitoring station, and someone told me there was a wind farm there.
I'd rung to book a tour yesterday and the lady - Laura told me a bit more about the tour. So it's a 2 hour tour, starting at 11:30am and is approximately 1 hour drive from Stanley.
I set off at 10:00am as I hate arriving to places late. In reality, it took about 50 mins, but that was ok. I arrived at the meeting point which was a little weird, as it's effectively an entrance to the windfarm area. There was already one other couple already there, and they were also staying at the Stanley Caravan Park. So we had a good old chat about lots of things, and his son was a pilot in the Air Force; small world!
Around 11:30am Laura and her husband (Mark I think) arrived in a little minivan, and off we went on little adventure.
Without going into too much detail, basically Woolnorth was a sheep station from the 1820s to the 1970s, and is on a parcel of land approx. 1000 acres of Queens grant. The land is completely unsuitable for sheep due to the high rainfall. It currently is the largest dairy in Australia, however it is comprised of 13 subleased dairies.
The windfarm is located on the eastern side of the property, close to sea. There are approx. 60 turbines in total that produce 140MW of electricity from both the two farms. Each turbine sits on a 60m tower with 15m blades. Apparently this generates enough electricity to power everything to Devonport.
We then toured the old sheep shearing area. There were still some old buildings from 1820s, and we could the see the "Director's residence" in the distance. Apparently it's very ornate. So we got a lot of history information about the sheep station, and toured to main shearing shed. As sheep were no longer on the property, the shed is used for group lunches and family gatherings (the dairy families).
Next was tour out past the air monitoring station. This is point of the cleanest air in the world, and is used as a baseline for all other air monitoring. There are two other similar stations in the world, one in Greenland and the other in Hawaii. Air is sampled when the prevailing winds are right, i.e. the roaring forties! The air of approximate volume of a basketball stadium is cooled and compressed into a vessel about the size of a 9kg gas bottle. This is then stored at the CSIRO facility in Werribee Victoria. The tour does not cover entry to the station, just past it.
We then visited the area of the doughboys which are two rock formations just off the shoreline. There is a lot of tragedy associated in this area with settlers abducting 16 local aboriginal girls and the retaliation of stealing sheep. There was also a massacre of aboriginal men at Cape Grim.
I found the complete tour fascinating. The history of the area is immense and diverse.
On the return trip back to Stanley, I deviated to the road that leads to Robbins Island. At low tide, the crossing can be made on foot, or by permitted vehicles. There is a lot of quicksand, so I is not recommended for the public - plus it's private land.
I then toured a bit of Stanley, driving past the old wire station and Highfield Estate (which was closed when I arrived). I took some obligatory photos of "The Nut", and that was end of the day. I again cooked in the camp kitchen and watched a bit of TV before calling it a night.
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