One Man’s Vision

That we are here at all is primarily the result of the vision, dedication and hard work of one man, Gustav Weindorfer. An immigrant from Austria, he came to Australia from his alpine homeland and settled initially in Victoria. There he met the woman who was to become his wife briefly. A native Tasmanian, they returned home to the Sheffield area but fell in love with the high country to the south-west. Cradle Valley was to become their home.

In a life all too compressed, within a few years they had explored the area, climbed the mountains and settled on a location above Ronny’s Creek. There they built a chalet and started the process of advocacy to have the area preserved for the people for all time. Conservation was not a given and there had been pastoral, logging and mining interest in the area prior. Gustav’s theory was that build a chalet and people will come, then the government would have to build a road.

Kate, Gustav’s wife, was 11 years his senior. She was no shrinking violet. An accomplished naturalist and geologist in her own right, she wrote and presented on the natural history of the area as part of their promotion. She became the first European woman to climb Cradle Mountain, in a long skirt no less! However, within a few years of their marriage she was dead. And in a long series of unrelated incidents, so too were all of Gustav’s relatives. From being a summer pursuit, Gustav moved into his chalet, Waldheim, full time. A world war and his Austrian Heritage found him unjustly feared as a recluse, but over time the chalet business would grow.

The battle was worth it. By 1922, after about 10 years, the National Park was declared. The road was completed as a depression-era work scheme. By 1932, Gustav himself was also dead, aged in his 50s. The chalet fell into disrepair, and so began a struggle to have the site preserved. Eventually. the remains were demolished and a replica built on the same site, to the same plans and photos, and with the same locally sourced materials as used originally. No longer accommodating tourists, it is now setup as a museum for the history of the park.

Today was to be low key, and it was. Then followed a visit to the national park centre and a stroll through a couple of local short walks, lunch then a swim in Pencil Pine Falls. The locals wrote us off as Queenslanders having no chance of immersion, but a majority of us managed it. It may have been 32 today, but nobody told the water that. Still, a swim in Tasmania was on the must-do list.

So too was Tasmanian Devils. Critically endangered by a poorly understood contagious cancer, infected populations are almost always eliminated, and often at an age prior to weaning babies, so the dieout rate is terrifying. However, a few captive breeding programs and isolated populations are being created and maintained so there is at least an insurance policy should they die out in the wild before a cure is found. The display also featured quolls, which are threatened by habitat destruction, but are locally ok. However, a breakout of cats or foxes could eliminate them too.

So that brought us to the end of the Cradle Mountain experience. Dinner tonight was a lamb roast to exploit the ovens in the camp kitchen. That was made a little more awkward by the 5:15 tassie devil show. However, the cooking in two parts separated by 3 hours in the car in a wrapped camp oven didn’t seem to do any harm.

Tomorrow we retrace our steps somewhat, Cradle Mountain being at the end of the road. Time to explore the wilds of the North West.