Latest news with #BassStrait
SBS Australia
09-07-2025
- General
- SBS Australia
From horror to healing: a truth-telling journey on a Bass Strait island
From horror to healing: a truth-telling journey on a Bass Strait island Published 9 July 2025, 8:57 am On Flinders Island in Bass Strait sits a little-known place, significant to not only Tasmanian and the nation's history, but global history. It's known as Wybalenna and it's a place of deep sorrow for the Aboriginal community. More recently, the community has been working to make it a more comfortable place to spend time and continue the truth-telling that's been happening since colonisation. This year marking NAIDOC week at the site with a flag raising in what's believed to be a first. A warning to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers that the following story contains images of people who have died.
SBS Australia
09-07-2025
- General
- SBS Australia
The historic Tasmanian site that's both sacred
For Tasmanian Aboriginal people Wybalenna, onFlinders Island in Bass Strait, is a sacred and painful place. 'This was virtually a concentration camp for the old people.' That's Brendan Brown, better known in his community as Buck; his connection to the site is through Manalakina, a warrior and leader of his people. He was made a promise: if he came to Wybalenna willingly and brought his people with him, he'd be able to return to his homelands in north east Tasmania. It was a promise never fulfilled. 'My great grandfather was here, great great grandfather, he was brought here and made promises to and the promises were broken and he shaved his hair off and became a broken man and he died here with a broken heart.' He says Wybalenna can be difficult place to visit. 'There's mixed emotions when you're here, I've had spiritual things happen to me here and I've had the old people come and visit me while I've been here, when you walk around you feel a lot of sadness here too, there's only certain places I'll go on this property, because of that reason.' He was part of a sit-in at the site in the 1990s, which eventually led to the site being handed back to the Aboriginal community. 'I was only a teenager, when we come out over here and we done a sit in here on the property and took the property back, a big mob of us come from Cape Barren and there was a heap of locals here from Flinders, we all sat here and stayed here, occupied the place and took the place back.' The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania has managed the site since the late 1990s. Rebecca Digney was its manager when works began a few years ago to make it easier for the community to spend time at Wybalenna. 'We're really trying to invite people back to this site so we can reconnect with the history here, and particularly reconnect with the Stories of our ancestors.' She explains the significance of the site. 'Wybalenna is a really sacred place for the Tasmanian Aboriginal community. It was the place where our people were exiled to as a result of the Black War, and many of the people who were brought here died here.' While some Aboriginal women were taken by sealers to other Bass Strait Islands, it's estimated as many as 300 Aboriginal people were exiled to Wybalenna. There are 107 confirmed burial sites in the cemetery at Wybalenna, with the locations of many more not known. 47 survived the poor conditions and treatment at the site, to be taken to Oyster Cove in Hobart in 1847. And despite the sadness of the site, it's also a story of survival. 'Wybalenna is definitely a place that conjures up a variety of feelings, its one of great sadness, it can feel quite desolate at times, but also it's a good reminder of what my people have been through and how strong they are. Our cultural practices continue, despite the attempts to Christianise our people here, our people survived against all odds, and we continue as a strong and vibrant community today.' Sarah Wilcox is the now general manager of the Land Council. "Wybalenna is a key historical place in our history, not just in lutruwita Tasmania, not just in Australia, but globally, it was a place that was recognised when the term genocide was penned, referring to the Tasmanian Aboriginal people.' The Land Council has been working with Tasmanian architect Mat Hinds on their plans for the site. 'We were asked by the Land Council to look at ways that we could help the place become more comfortable and that can be very straightforward things like bathing or places to cook or places to be together.' Sarah Wilcox says it'll help the community as they continue to honour the memories of their ancestors. 'Making sure that there's space there for elders to come and visit so having that accessibility and those essential services are really important for their comfort and also for families so our younger generations and future generations understand that place, understand the significance of that place.' The work so far has focused mostly on the Aboriginal community's experience at the site. But improvements are also being made to the visitor experience – with information panels in the chapel being updated by the community. 'It's a really fantastic opportunity that we have here to tell this truth in our words and so all of the interpretation of Wybalenna is being told from a Palawa perspective, so the people who are visiting the site, I mean you feel it when you're there, but then the truth is there, in great detail from our perspective, of what happened to our people, what it means to us, what that place means to us, and so it's a great opportunity for people to learn, to listen, to understand and to absorb that truth.' Accessing grants to do all this work has been difficult ... so they've turned to public fundraising. 'The generosity through those donors and those sponsors we've been able to get over time has been overwhelming for us it's an incredible and humbling experience in a way.' Members of the community gathered at the site on Sunday to mark the start of NAIDOC Week. Land Council Chair, Greg Brown, addressed this year's theme - The Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy 'It speaks to the leadership and strength within our community, past, present, and future. Truth Telling at Wybalenna most certainly acknowledges the true story and legacy for our old people here at Wybalenna, it also shows the strength of our community with our continuing fight to have our stories told and vision for our community with the interpretations and works here at Wybalenna. Our community is very lucky that we have a strong and talented pool of young people as evidenced by the young rangers over here and to continue and improve on the gains that we have achieved in past years.' Jazmin Wheatley from the Junior Ranger program helped organise the event. 'I thought it would be really important and significant to come and do it at Wybalenna and just to honour our people and honour the story that's here and to get together as a community again.' She said it was an emotional day for the community. 'It is a sad place, but at the same time it's important that we're here to take back that sense of pride at this place and honour our people.' Flinders Island Elder, Lillian Wheatley was there too - she was among a group of eight adults and eight children who occupied the homestead in the 1990s. She hopes the site can become a place of unity for her people. 'My dream before I leave is to see my people come together on this country and respect it for what it is and share their story, our old people's story, it's about them and what happened here needs to be told.' Sarah Wilcox said the long history of truth-telling at the site … will continue. 'Truth telling is just part of our family history, it's what we talk about all the time when we're together so we've been doing it for a very long time, now it's about truth understanding and It's about truth acceptance and our people will always fight for a treaty.' Something they've been waiting for - for around 200 years.
News.com.au
29-06-2025
- Sport
- News.com.au
Tasmanian apprentice Jackson Radley set to move to Lindsay Park with the backing of riding great Damien Oliver
Tasmania's latest riding talent is on the verge of qualifying to ride in Victoria full-time and he has riding legend Damien Oliver behind him. Jackson Radley is set to move across Bass Strait to ride for the powerful Lindsay Park stable of Ben, JD and Will Hayes once he completes a requirement to shift his indentures to the mainland. Radley sits second on the Tasmanian jockeys' premiership and had his bags packed to move to Melbourne before being informed he had to wait a little longer for his crack at the Victorian riding ranks. 'I think I've ridden 77 winners and I think I was on 70 winners three or four weeks ago and had everything ready, all my paperwork signed to make the move over,' Radley said. 'My partner and I were ready to move over with everything signed then the Hayes stable rang and said, 'we've got some bad news, you can't come over until you've ridden your 80 winners'. 'They said I could either try my hardest to ride 80 winners, which I don't think was possible in Tassie at the time, because it would take longer than a month, which it has. 'If they're still happy for me to fly in and out, I'll do that, then go over when I can.' Radley could make an immediate impact when he rides full time in Victoria, given he can still claim 1.5kg at the provincials and 3kg in the metropolitan arena. He will also have many lessons learned from hours spent discussing his rides with Hall of Famer Oliver, with whom he speaks often. Radley said he and Oliver had a mutual friend through which the 125-time Group 1 winner offered to help the youngster learn his craft. 'Obviously, when you get an offer of help like that, you'd be mad to turn it down,' Radley said. 'He (Oliver) said, 'you've got to get into a good stable' and that's exactly what he did. 'He rang the Hayes boys and asked if they would be interested in an apprentice from Tassie. 'I was still claiming three in town and they indicated they would be so it just went from there.' Radley rode at Moe without success on June 19 but could post his first Victorian wins from a strong book of seven rides at Monday's Pakenham Synthetic meeting. '(Tasmanian premiership leader) Anthony Darmanin rides a lot of trackwork over there and he knows a lot of the horses so I said to him, 'do you reckon I've got any chances' and he said I could have a big day,' Radley said. Melbourne-based Tasmanian Craig Newitt, who helped Radley when the apprentice regularly found himself in the stewards' room early in his career, said the talented young rider would impress in Victoria. 'He'll make it over here, not a worry in the world,' Newitt said. 'He's going to be a top jockey.'
News.com.au
15-06-2025
- News.com.au
Overlooked Tasmania has message for Australian ‘mainlanders'
I have seen a lot of Australia. In fact, I saw almost the entire coast before the age of 10 thanks to my family doing a year of #vanlife before it was a trending hashtag. But the one state I've neglected is Tasmania. Like many Australians, I chase the sun and warmth on my travels and occasionally the snow to ski. Living in Melbourne, I've never had the desire to go even further south when the weather cools. That was until this year when I finally took the short flight across the Bass Strait to join Tourism Tasmania in celebrating the launch of their off-season. Chief executive of the state authority, Sarah Clark, has a clear message. She wants to convince us mainlanders to embrace the cold and become 'winter people,' urging Aussies not to run away to warmer climates. Tasmanians like to say they don't just survive the winter but thrive in it. Watching chef and co-founder Rodney Dunn stand outside The Agrarian Kitchen at night in a T-shirt as my teeth chattered, and Gunns Plains Caves tour operator Geoff Deer take his jumper off as we rugged up to go underground, or Discovery Resorts Cradle Mountain's general manager Andy Stuart get around in shorts while I donned my snow coat proved as much. After four days, I can confirm two things about Tasmania. Cold? Absolutely. Boring? Anything but. From kayaking and climbing through caves to hunting truffles at the farm that grew the very first in Australia and learning to DJ at a goat farm in a town called Penguin — I was entertained from start to end. (There is an opportunity to win a trip to see for yourself. More details on that further on). Tasmania taught me to get outside, even if it's cold and wet On the morning of our 7.30am kayaking tour on Dove Lake beneath Cradle Mountain I woke up to the sound of rain on the roof of my cabin and the feeling of disappointment. The kayaking would surely be cancelled? Nope. The thought of not going and crawling back into bed had not even crossed the Tasmanians' minds. Floating on the lake on hand-built kayaks made out of 1000-year-old rare King Billy pine, surrounded by the wilderness and no human sound (with the exception of our giggles trying to co-ordinate paddling), the occasional sprinkle of rain dampened our clothes but not the experience. If you ask adventure tour operator Anthony O'Hern; 'You get some of the most spectacular days for it in winter'. 'Sometimes in winter we get better conditions than any other time. Some weather will come through and on the back of that we'll get a high come across and it will be glass on the lake and snow on the mountain. You just get these really calm, crisp days.' Just like the environment they are used in, Mr O'Hern's kayaks are a thing of beauty. King Billy pine trees are endangered, endemic to Tasmania and found along the banks of Dove Lake. Given the trees are now protected, Mr O'Hern had to convince a mill owner in his 90s to sell him the rare timber from a tree cut down in the 1960s to make the special kayaks. WA couple visited Tassie for one week and bought a house After a morning on the lake, our itinerary had us off to a 'G.O.A.T Doof' in a town called Penguin, where there is a giant penguin statue dressed up depending on the occasion. On our visit, it was a top hat and bow tie. Now, when I first read G.O.A.T Doof on the itinerary, I thought the name was solely an acronym for 'Greatest. Of. All. Time.' and had no idea there were literal goats involved. Brad and Lisa Palmer moved from Perth, Western Australia to Penguin 10 years ago after visiting Tasmania for the first time on a holiday. 'We tried to tour the island in a week, which is laughable for anyone who has tried to do it, and we got to Penguin four days in and started house hunting … I think we made an offer while we were flying home. We were here for Christmas that year,' Ms Palmer said. Miniature goats were 'never' the plan but now with 24 of the animals, they are the centrepiece of Hideaway Farmlet, used for land management and as a bonus, a tourism drawcard. 'We were sitting outside having a whiskey and listening to music,' Mr Palmer tells me of the moment the idea for the G.O.A.T Doof came to them last winter. Ms Palmer added: 'As we were getting more intoxicated we thought 'Oh my god, wouldn't it be so great if people could spin vinyl of their choice and we could just do this while hanging out with the goats.'' It helped that Mr Palmer was an experienced DJ, but he was more used to spinning vinyl at warehouse raves than to goats and Airbnb guests. The experience is currently only available to those staying in the property's cottage, but the Palmers hope they will be able to get the right approvals to host small group celebrations soon. A 'GOAT Doofer' is one of 10 'Winternships' Australians can currently apply to win a trip to experience this winter. Another experience is being a 'Devil Sitter' at Cradle Mountain's wildlife sanctuary Devils@Cradle, looking after endangered Tasmanian devils. The successful applicant will win flights, accommodation and car hire or transfers, and will take home a selection of Tasmania's best seasonal produce. (Australian residents 18+ can apply here until June 17.) Truffle hunting on the farm that grew the first in Australia On the topic of farms, did you know the first truffle in Australia was grown in Tasmania and you can visit to go truffle hunting? While it's not finders keepers, you do get a truffle-themed lunch. Tim Terry harvested the first black truffle in 1999 after planting inoculated trees six years earlier. 'Back in the early 90s my father had an idea where he wanted to grow truffles here in Australia. Everyone said 'it's a terrible idea, it can't be done, it's impossible, you really should just let that idea go' but my dad is not very good at letting things go and thank goodness he isn't,' Anna Terry told a fascinated group of tourists at The Truffle Farm in Deloraine. The visitors, some of whom know Anna from her appearance My Kitchen Rules in 2018, are invited to join the furry four-legged stars of the real life show, Doug, Poppy and Peggy, to sniff and dig out the lucrative fungi. One truffle we watched a tourist dig up was worth a whopping $600 alone. Truffles in Europe, where they are found to grow in the wild, are traditionally hunted using pigs — but the problem is you can't train a pig to not want to eat the truffle themselves. Anna recalled meeting a man who had lost two of his fingers to a pig while truffle hunting. It is incredible to see the three dogs at work on the farm, sniffing out the buried treasure and alerting Anna to their find, in return for a treat. My favourite part, however, may have been watching Chief Truffle Hunter Doug (there's a statue in his honour) pretending he found one when he didn't just to get a treat. Anna believes personality is more important than the dog breed for the job and says she does not have many special training techniques, crediting love as 90 per cent of what makes them successful truffle hunters. Once digging out a truffle we were instructed to always show it off to the dogs and congratulate them. A hidden underground world Speaking of finding hidden treasures, located between Deloraine and Penguin is the Gunns Plains Caves. Hiding beneath a picturesque landscape of rolling hills and farms is an underground world of limestone caves, streams, sparkling crystals, glow-worms and platypus (but those are a rare sight). Geoff Deer and his wife Trish have been running tours at the caves since 2004, but he says the story of their discovery dates back to 1906 when a man named Bill Woodhouse went hunting a possum down a hole because there was a bounty on the animal at the time. Armed with a rope and a candle, Mr Woodhouse lowered himself into the darkness not knowing what was below. It turned out to be a pretty spectacular find. By 1909, the first tours were being run with ladders and wooden platforms. These days there is concrete steps. However, there is still a lot ducking and weaving to be done to navigate the underground world once you descend 54 steps. Perhaps, the best part of the tour was when Mr Deer asked us if we wanted to know what it was like when Mr Woodhouse was there. He switched off his torch and lit a candle, eventually putting out the candle to let us experience the eerie quiet darkness. As any good guide with plenty of dad jokes up his sleeve would, he then pretended to leave. You could say, the Tasmanians won me over.
The Guardian
04-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Labor's no-confidence motion to oust Tasmanian premier Jeremy Rockliff set to succeed
A no-confidence motion in the Tasmanian premier appears likely to succeed on Wednesday. Jeremy Rockliff has been under increasing pressure over his handling of the state's budget, Bass Strait ferry delays, a plan to sell assets and a new stadium. The Labor opposition on Wednesday moved a no-confidence motion in the Liberal premier, after a day earlier threatening to if it could find the numbers. The motion will be debated on Wednesday. The independents Craig Garland and Kristie Johnston and Jacqui Lambie Network MP Andrew Jenner have indicated they will support the motion. The Greens, who have five MPs, voiced their support for the no-confidence motion on Wednesday morning, meaning it has the numbers to pass. 'The deals the premier struck for minority government after the last election have collapsed,' the Labor leader, Dean Winter, told parliament. 'Three independent members of the crossbench have lost confidence in the premier. '(This is) due to his financial mismanagement, his appalling handling of the Spirit of Tasmania project, and his plan to privatise Tasmania's most precious assets.' If a no-confidence motion against Rockliff is successful, convention dictates he resign. In a social media post, Rockliff said a successful no-confidence motion would force Tasmania back to the polls. 'An election just over 12 months since the last one,' he said. 'That's the last thing Tasmania needs. That's the last thing Tasmanians want.' The Liberals, who have been in power since 2014, are governing in minority with just 14 of 35 seats in the lower house. Last week's 2025-26 budget predicted debt would more than double to $10.8bn in four years' time, with deficits each year. The Greens leader, Rosalie Woodruff, said the premier had brought the no-confidence motion on himself. 'Poll after poll have made it abundantly clear that Tasmanians do not, will not, support a new stadium at Macquarie Point in Hobart,' she said. The stadium, which is supported by Labor, is a condition of the Tasmania Devils entering the AFL in 2028.
