Jack & Jude: Brisbane Bay and Birches Inlet
by Jack and Jude 17 Jan 2020 20:01 PST
Brisbane Bay lovely place for a walk © jackandjude.com
For a break, we kayaked an hour to Brisbane Bay, which Stormbreaker Trevor and I surveyed last April so that he can update his harbour chart. It's a darn good anchorage protected from southerlies and southwesterly gales, but open to anything from the north.
While doing that survey, we'd been ashore and found heaps of ropes and even a big fender which we filmed and made public.
Soon after, the head of Tassal's aquaculture came over from Hobart to inspect the area, and agreed it was unacceptable and made some encouraging promises. That's when we decided that we'd promote any good work, but warned we'd not stay quiet if the trash continued.
On a sparkling lovely sunny day, in the Green Machine complete with a packed lunch we had some great exercise to that isolated, empty bay. But our smiles turned sour when scattered amongst the foreshore growth we found strands and filaments of plastic rope, and further in we found coils of ropes accumulated in the few months since the farms had cleaned the bay.
Next day, we kayaked a bit further on to Charcoal Burners Point, where we've been on four other occasions. No big coils were found on the open beach. But numerous runs of rope were wrapped around tea-tree and reeds, and sadly, the ground and moss were littered with the same tiny filaments found at other sites. And, where a luxuriant growth of forest contains many Huon pines close to the shoreline, we found a man-sized buoy dragging a length of big rope, and not far away, another one with its large shackle hanging loose, the pin had come adrift. These big back poly buoys are not the real danger to the shores as they do not break down as do the ropes. However, they pose a navigational threat on the harbour.
Birches Inlet
Being very quiet at Joe's Corner, we went back to work for a few days before a front was due, making it seemed a good excuse for a different venue with a different view. So just before the front struck, we sallied over to the west side of the harbour to enter Birches Inlet, which was once the Gordon River mouth a couple thousand years ago.
The anchorage is tucked around the corner in Hawks Nest. From it, over about a kilometre of button grass and stumpy tea-tree will put you on Birches Beach fronting the harbour and running east to the entrance of the Gordon River. This beach is covered with boles and branches washed out the river. Plenty of Huon Pine amongst them. In fact, the Morrison sawmill has the salvage right to that timber. They make tourist items from the branches, like coasters, and clock mounts, and cutting boards out of the boles.
It seemed a good outing to work the legs, and we could snoop for any fish farm trash. This time I didn't get lost, although I took the wrong GPS, which had flat batteries, but Jude had a pocket filled with red trail tape. Not that we needed them, you can see the harbour when on the rise, but we didn't want a hassle finding the dinghy when tired on the way home.
As if the last folk on the planet, under a mellow blue sky with mountains sharp against it, accompanied by a relaxing lap of minuscule wavelets close to our feet, we were on a treasure hunt.
Although the beach sits dead downwind of the fierce northerlies, we did not find any big coils of rope or any buoys. Instead, we found plenty of smaller stuff. We figure the farms send boats along the shores, but they only take the big items in quick sorties. That's not good enough.
One last note on plastic garbage before moving on to better news. A few days later we went back to Farm Cove to climb the Sorell Plateau in perfect summer weather. Before that we went for a workout in the Green Machine up the last arm, as far inland one can get. We wanted to film black swans in those out of the way pockets of water. Midday, getting peckish we landed on the loneliest pebble beach to picnic and can you believe, like particles of dust carried on a breeze, we found these bits of plastic had floated to this part of the enclosed waterway to litter its shores. It boggles the mind and saddens the soul to know that day after day, year after year, a moneymaking business can litter our world without the taxpayer funded regulatory body lifting a finger to protect the land that their charter states is their number one priority.
C'mon young ones, it'll be your world soon, looks like we have to do it ourselves because the politicians are only short term job holders placating the voters, and industry will do only the minimum necessary to return maximum profits to their shareholders. Geez, we're getting more cynical as the years speed past..
This article has been provided by the courtesy of jackandjude.com