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Businesses that do not have a website in 2011 are stuck in the stone age. Having a website is great because sometimes your customers may want to purchase items from you online, especially those who are not able to get into your store. A website is a necessity for nearly all businesses. You receiving that message is our main purpose, and we hope that your business does well with this newly acquired knowledge.

A great SEO tool is SEO Powersuite

A photo taken of Mount Roland from Roland

When we arrived in Sheffield it was obvious why it is called “The Town Of Murals”. There were murals everywhere. Mount Roland was also prominent from the town. We decided to book into the Sheffield Motor Inn, which I thoroughly recommend (nice owners and a clean place). Anyway, I took a few snaps of some murals and will show a few below.

This was the very 1st mural for Sheffield. It shows an Austrian born man, called Gustav Weindorfer, who is known for being responsible for Cradle Mountain and lake St Clair being declared a national park. The mural depicts Gustav in Waldheim Chalet, located near Cradle Mountain, with a variety of wild animals that share his log fire warmth.

This is a partial view of Mount Roland whilst facing the opposite direction from the 1st mural in Sheffield.

I like this photo with Uncle Frank in the foreground of an earlier Sheffield mural. He almost looks the part?

This mural is one of about 6 at the Sheffield Motor Inn and it shows the effects of a bolt of lightning from a thunderstorm striking a tree near people on horses working on Cradle Mountain Road. The frightened horses threw the workers off, eventually killing one of them after he suffered a broken back.

We stayed at the Sheffield Motor Inn. There were several murals there, including the Old Bakery one behind the hire car.

Although I am not all that fond of Chinese food, we went to T’s Chinese restaurant for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised with the T’s Dorper lamb dish that was served to me. It was so tender and spicy. The owner told me that they lived near the border of Russia, so their style of cooking was much different than the Cantonese style that tends to dominate most Australian restaurants.

While we stayed at Sheffield and soon after leaving we visited a few places. The Ashgrove Cheese farm at Elizabeth Town was one of those places. I have tasted some of their cheeses in Queensland, but it was nice to be able to taste more of what they had to offer. Naturally there were plenty of dairy cows in the area.

We went to the Honey Farm at Chudleigh and tasted quite a variety of honey types. They also had an active bee hive that was visible from within their shop and loads and loads of information about bees and honey. I did get a jar of Leatherwood honey, but found out that they actually provide it in my local store afterward. The honey farm was an interesting place and had a museum too, but we had to push on.

Further down the road, just before Deloraine, we visited a Salmon Farm that also had wetlands and a Ginseng Farm. We got to taste a few of their products and for a small fee we were allowed to walk around the premises and feed some of the salmon.

This photo shows Frank feeding some of the Salmon at the Salmon Farm.

Inside the Salmon And Ginseng Farm Shop you can notice the jars of Ginseng. Supposedly, the more human-like they resemble the more powerful they are. We also had a nice salmon sandwich and a coffee at the shop.

I had to add one more photo of Mount Roland. This is probably my favourite and was taken from the side of the road near a place called Paradise.

This photo of Cradle Mountain and Dove Lake was taken soon after being dropped off by the shuttle bus.

Frank and I left Queenstown Thursday morning and drove on the route directly to Tullah, bypassing Rosebery. The scenery was spectacular with the mountains and lakes to our right, but I had to concentrate on driving which prevented me from  taking a decent look. Conversely, just before Cradle Valley there seemed to be many trees that were dead by disease or the like. It was such a contrast.

When we arrived at the Cradle Mountain visitor and information place, we found that there were several walks that we could do.  We also had to  buy a pass to enter Lake St Clair National Park. The fee included a shuttle service, which I was glad we used rather than a car. The roads were narrow and windy, but the shuttle bus drivers had good communication skills. Despite a shuttle bus arriving every 6 minutes, they knew where each other was and stopped to let one another through at key locations.

There were many walks that one could take in the surrounds of Cradle Mountain, including the famous Overlander Track, which takes 6 days to finish. We were constrained by time and Frank’s limited walking ability, so I did a couple of quick walks around Dove Lake. Below are some of the photos I took during the walk.

This Photo shows a boat shed that was built in the 1940s on Dove Lake with Cradle Mountain in the background.

This Photo shows Cradle Mountain and Dove lake from the top of a large rock opposite the Boat shed

An up close photo taken of Cradle Mountain from the large rock

A view of the boat shed from the large rock that I was standing on, shows the small walk I did whilst at Cradle Mountain.

A photo of Cradle Mountain with the large rock that I was previously standing on in the foreground. You can see people on top of the rock.

The next post will be about Sheffield and its surrounds.

Before arriving in Queenstown, I researched the Abt prices via the internet. It seemed that prices ranged between about $107 and $210, depending on what day you traveled, where you departed and whether you chose the premier carriage or the basic carriage. However, the only day that we could attend was on Australia Day, and the website suggested we ring for more details. I was concerned that we were going to miss out on the steam train journey, but as it turned out Australia day was a special event for the Abt train and there were some late cancellations that helped us get aboard. Even better than that, prices were only $25 per head and the train returned to Queenstown, rather than a train trip one way and a bus trip on return.

This was the first Abt Steam Train departing Queenstown. The train that Frank and I went on departed after this one. Notice the rain drops on the car, this is typical for this part of the world.

The first train left just after 7.15am and we left just before 8am. The plan was that we would arrive at Strahan and catch a bus to the Regatta Grounds for a picnic, then return back via train to Queenstown around 4pm. I was later told that this was to commemorate the trip the miners took each Australia day for a picnic.

When we arrived at the station in Queenstown, we noticed that 3 of the workers dressed up for the occasion and seemed to love playing the part of old time Australian’s. We also later found out that all the workers worked this day without pay, so I appreciate their efforts. The $25 we paid basically covered the cost of the fuel.

Anyway, our luck continued when we were put in a premier carriage with a nice group of people. The premier carriage had better seating and ornate decorations, but by far the best advantage was access to a balcony at the back of the train where I could take photos. The only thing missing was cheese, wine and pastries that normally get served in the premier carriage. We did not have any official commentary, however Graham in his conductor costume gave some information at times along the way.

This is a view of the Premier Carriage on Abt Steam Train. Graham can be seen in the background with his conductor uniform on. The seats are padded in the vertical and horizontal, unlike the normal carriages, and there was more decorations than the standard carriages.

This was another worker that dressed up for the occasion. He seemed to be having fun too

This was a photo taken of the 3rd person to dress up for the trip, on the journey back to Queenstown. She certainly played the part, and for the most part she seemed to have a fun time.

As the train progressed, we reached a section where there was a steep climb. The train used an Abt Rack and Pinion system (cog-rail system) to make the climb. Unfortunately, during the ascent the train engine derailed. It was a very interesting time, as there were no toilets on the train and there was a steep descent on one side and a steep ascent on the other. We were allowed to get out 1 carriage at a time to try to go to the toilet. A girl from our carriage ran a couple of corners to go…must have been tougher for the girls. I did not need to go, so I just went out to take a couple of photos of the train.

This photo shows the cog rail system that is visible in the centre of the track and devised by the Swiss Dr Roman Abt to assist the train handle the steep climbs and descents. Note the amount of work that the workers that built this track would have had to have done to cut a 35km pathway for this train. They did it all with picks and shovels too back in 1896. The motivation was so that they could transport copper from Queenstown to the port of Strahan.

This is where the Abt steam train derailed. I found out later that this was only the 3rd time in over 100 years that this happened, each time with engine number 1. One gentleman in our carriage told us that the last time he was on this train was in 1944 and that the train derailed then too. The photo also shows the balcony at the back where I took some photos. It also shows a poor man who had tripped over a blackberry bush and split his nose on the hard rocks with the fall.

When the people returned to the carriage some noticed that they had leeches on them. One girl had 6 in that 5 to 10 minutes break. The girl worker, who was outside much longer to assist others claimed that she had 9 leeches. Frank had one that attached to his leg and sucked some blood from him. I detected the bloated leech on the floor and some brave people scooped it into a takeaway coffee cup. That provided some entertainment for us, as the leech squeezed itself partly out of the hole at the top of the cup, resembling a monster in a horror film, and then transferred its fatter part (blood transfer) to the part already outside so that it could escape.

Eventually, the other train that left before us arrived in Strahan and the engine returned to help us get going again. Below are some photos I took during the rest of the journey. We arrived at Strahan after 2.30pm, which was almost 3 hours longer than it should have been, but I felt entertained by everything that happened.

A view of King River that runs alongside the train track. You can also see the dense, rugged and spectacular terrain.

Another shot of King River and the variety of vegetation surrounding it.

This photo shows a broken bridge that lays across the brown King River. The King River is brown due to it running through the old mining site near Queenstown.

This is the original Iron Bridge that the Abt Railway uses to cross the King River.

A picture of the train at Strahan railway station from the picnic area.

A photo of the train at Strahan before it departed back to Queenstown. Extra engines were added after this photo and all 9 carriages were taken at once rather than the 2 separate trains we arrived with. We arrived at Queenstown just before 9pm, so it was a long day, but certainly a trip I shall treasure and not forget.

The drive was quite interesting. Of note was the relatively dry eastern side of Tasmania compared to the lush western side. New Norfolk, Hamilton, Ouse and Derwent Bridge were places we drove through on our way. We also went off track to grab a bite to eat at Bronte Park, but we we were glad that we changed our minds and had lunch further on at “The Hungry Wombat Cafe” in Derwent Bridge. They had the best hamburgers that I have tasted for a long time, if not for ever. Frank was impressed too.

After lunch we backtracked a few kms to “The Wall In The Wilderness”. Frank has seen the wall before, but it had progressed a fair deal since his last visit. Essentially, Greg Duncan has carved 3 metre high panels of wood (mostly from the rare Huon Pine) with a chisel. The wall is expected to be 100 metres in length when it is completely finished. Unfortunately, camera’s were not permitted at the wall, but if you want to see a glimpse of a portion of it you can see it at The Wall Official Page.

The last time I traveled to Queenstown was as a kid with my parents in 1978.  I remembered that the drive after passing the Iron Blow was very windy with a steep drop. It was quite a scary drive back then in the back of the car and it was again this time too. I also remember that Queenstown did not have any grass or trees due to the surrounding mines and acid rain. However, Queenstown has changed quite a bit since then. It still has the old mining town feel about it, but there are plenty of trees and green grass there now. Below are some photos of the greener Queenstown.

A view of Mount Lyell taken next to the Abt train station at Queenstown

A photo of the Paragon Theatre in Queenstown with Mount Owen in the background

A view of some bald mountains taken from the road out of Queenstown

One of the main attractions at Queenstown now is the Abt Railway steam train that travels to and from Strahan. We went on that trip during Australia Day, which turned out to be a bonus, but I shall post about that adventure in the next post. It was certainly a day I shall remember.