Walks

For those who need to expend some energy before or after their meal, there are several pleasant walks around the farm or through the forest nearby.

The distillery, operating during the season is only a couple of hundred easy metres from the café, past berry fruits, hops and a variety of other cool climate horticultural crops.

Two easy walks through the forest – 20 minutes and 50 minutes – for the more energetic, take in beautiful views of the Channel and Mt Wellington, grassland and open woodland. There is something for the observant walker all year round -  in Spring ad Summer, a changing palette of wildflowers, Autumn and Winter the fungi begin to appear,  and there are dozens of bird species to be seen at any time of year.

For the adventurous walker and those with particular interests in natural history, we can arrange longer walks around the property, taking in other parts of the diverse landscape.

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All tracks begin from the deck - follow the gravel path around the front of the deck, through the gate and turn to your left. The coloured tracks begin at the start of the hop walk. Look for the painted stakes and please don't walk on the vegetable beds.

Red Track - Horticulture Cool Climate Style
Hops, blackcurrants, raspberries andapples once typical of the small mixed farms common in many parts of Tasmania are still grown here. Nowadays such produce is likely to come from large-scale operations.

Apples and pears were famously Tasmanian products for fifty years from the early 1900s, but a close relative, the Quince was less common. The Quince is now favoured for its delicious flavour and rich colour and is used in specialist
products such as Quince Paste and Jelly.

In the garden in front of the Distillery, Globe artichokes look like (and are related to) thistles; Rhubarb seedlings flourish - every one slightly different and we'll be selecting the best and brightest for future use. There's Garlic (standard and Elephant) and other occasional crops plus a berry fruit propagation block.

The plan for this area is to include other edible possibilities - we're thinking of
horseradish and herbs - suggestions are welcome. Visit the distillery - essential oils are grown in several parts of Tasmania - feel free to look around, in season we'll be processing some herbs for oil.

The Forest Walks ( Blue + Yellow ). Don't turn down the hop walk but go straight ahead through the Quinces and Granny Smiths and through the
yellow gate. Now head straight up the hill to the 'T' junction.

Blue Track - Peppers and Proteas (30 min)
Turn right at the junction and follow a trackpartly formed by logging teams, dragging timber to the edge of the Channel in the 1920's and 30's. Lovely views greet you as you leave the forest.

All around is 'wet schlerophyll' forest - plants with shiny tough, water-conserving leaves - the canopy is 'stringy bark' a beautiful timber tree sold as Tasmanian Oak.

Below the dam you can see a collection of native peppers, gathered from hundreds
of sites around Tasmania and a trial planting of Leucadendrons and Leucospermums - natives of South Africa, but thriving without irrigation on acid sandy soil.

Turn right at the bottom of the hill and head past the van, through the blue gate
and back to the Café. Listen for frogs at the dam - it's full of them.

Yellow Track - Forest Walk (50 min)
Turn left at the junction and the rock type soon changes as does the forest. Tough stemmed 'stringy barks' (Eucalyptus obliqua) give way to White Peppermint (Eucalyptus pulchella) - smooth bark and fine, open foliage. The shrubby
understorey also changes to tussocky grassland. The shrubby daisy (Ozothamnus costatifructum) is common here but only found in this area and in a small population on the Freycinet Peninsula.

Stop awhile on top of the hill and you can look east over Bruny Island towards Tasman Peninsula. More than 200 years ago Bruny d'Entrecasteaux sailed up the Channel and spotted smoke from fires along the shore, he continued on to the Derwent River which you can see in the distance.

Now the path winds back through stringy bark, banksias and wattles. Possums, bandicoots and pademelons are common here, and their tracks crisscross the path. Trees burnt in the 1967 Black Tuesday fires are home for possums and Huntsman spiders.

Timber from this hillside built houses in Hobart in the early 1900s, and part of the path you're following was used to drag logs out and down towards the waterfront. Fish bone fern (Gleichenia dicarpa) lines the track as you approach the gully (much of this died in the dry summer of 2003-04) and you can sense the climate becoming cooler and damper.

Out of the gully and you're back to the farm and in sight of dessert and coffee!

Last updated 11 August, 2006