Bryan Stephens

Just over 1 week ago, I left the flood affected Brisbane to go to Tasmania for a 1 week vacation. I enjoyed my time there and will write a few blog posts about it.

I must say that I was looking forward to escaping the hot and humid weather that followed the Brisbane floods to go to the relatively cooler Tasmanian Climate. I did not have any real plans at first, except for staying at my uncle’s (Frank’s) place. The last time I saw Frank and his son Matt in Tasmania was when I worked on Matt’s cray fishing boat in 1985/1986.  That was a great experience, so I had  hoped that my vacation would be half the fun and experience that I had back then.

I arrived at Frank’s place on Saturday afternoon. Frank was not home – he was at the golf club having lunch after finishing his round.  This is the note that he left for me… “Bryan, I should be home about 4.30. There’s beer in the fridge, coffee or tea in the kitchen and TV in the lounge. Make yourself at home. Frank.” So you can read that I was made to feel welcome.

Frank lives in the Orford/Triabunna region of Tasmania, which is on the east coast and just over an hour’s drive from Hobart.  I took some photos of his house and surrounds. There are some good views and you can see them below.

The front of frank's house. The Unit is on the right hand side of the house and that is where I stayed.

This photo was taken from the back of Frank's house and shows the Jetty where he keeps his boat and the other side of Triabunna.

A photo of Maria Island from the backyard of Frank's place.

This photo shows what it looks like looking to the west from Frank's backyard.

This is the kitchen and dining room of Frank's place. You can see some powerful binoculars near the window to make use of the great views.

This photo shows a painting and benchtop in Frank's lounge.

This shows a photo of Frank in his living room looking proud with his Golf Tasmania hall of fame trophy. Frank is a passionate golfer and has life membership at the Orford Golf club.

Every evening some rabbits come out to play outside Frank's place. I managed to take a shot at these two rabbits. I did see up to 6 rabbits at one time in his backyard from the lounge room.

I was lucky enough to catch up with my cousin Matt, his wife Jo and her son Ethan the next day. Matt is a cray fisherman and this is the time of year to catch crayfish. He often goes out for 1 to 2 weeks, so I was lucky to see him on the Sunday. Jo and Matt came over to Frank’s place for a coffee and then we drove to a farm to help drive some alpacas into a truck. When we got there we found that they were already collected and ready to get sheared.

So we went back to our respective homes and Matt prepared for his next fishing trip. Later Frank and I went over to Matt’s place for a lovely chicken roast lunch. The shorn alpacas were in one of his paddocks. They were interesting creatures, particularly when they rubbed their backsides on the grass like a ritual. We did not know whether they were doing it to mark their territory or if they were just itchy after being shorn and at a new location. Anyway, I managed to take a photo of the alpacas and also a reluctant one from Matt and Jo.

4 shorn alpacas in a paddock of Matt and Jo's place.

A photo of Matt and Jo Pedler

On the same day, Frank suggested that we go on a quick tour of Tasmania. One thing that we wanted to do was to go on the Abt train trip between Queenstown and Straun. So we decided to study a possible trip for the next few days, starting Tuesday morning. The trip did eventuate and I shall tell more in the next post.