Zoanthids

Contents 2 Visiting 3 When to visit 3 What’s protected? 3 Why marine reserves are important 4 The Marine Reserve 4 From the air 4 Underwater 5 Unusual water features 6 The Marine Life 6 What lives where? 8 Marine 14 Fish, sharks, rays and eels 15 Seaweeds and seagrasses 16 Biosecurity at Sea 16 Marine pests 18 Biosecurity on Land 18 Root rot 19 Chytrid frog fungus 19 Other plant and pests 20 Aboriginal Heritage 22 European History 26 The Landscape Port Davey Marinemap andReserve notes 29 The Weather This visitors’ guide is accompanied by 30 Threats the Port Davey Marine Reserve map 31 Further Reading and notes which contains information 32 Acknowledgements on zonings, limits, biosecurity, boating, 33 Contacts diving, kayaking, camping and walking.

1 Visiting Port Davey

The Port Davey Marine Several hundred boat-based visitors arrive each year, including yachties, sea kayakers and scuba divers. Commercial and Reserve is located in recreational fishermen sometimes enter the reserve seeking the far south-west of shelter from the weather. A further 5000 or so day visitors the State, within the arrive each year by light plane to participate in harbour cruises. Southwest National Occasional cruise ships also visit, under strict regulation. Park and the Tasmanian 146°24'0"E Wilderness World 43°4'0"S Heritage Area. It is accessible only by boat, light plane or on foot. Svenor Marine Reserve Pt Southwest CA Southwest NP & WHA boundary

Bathurst PORT DAVEY Harbour Soft coral

Cox Bight

South West Cape

SOUTHERN OCEAN 43°38'0"S 2 145°36'0"E When to visit What’s protected? Seastar South-west weather is often The Port Davey Marine wild, wet and unpredictable – Reserve (17 753 hectares / 178 it’s this weather that has played km2) extends inland for more a large part in shaping the than 20 km to the north and landscape. It is not uncommon east, up to the high water mark to experience day after day of all rivers, bays and estuaries. of rain at any time of the year. Within its boundaries, the However, more settled weather reserve protects all marine life is usually experienced during and all habitats, including open summer and autumn, with less ocean, exposed reefs, steep Why marine reserves are rain and less wind – northerlies gorges, bays and inlets, kelp important in summer and westerlies forests, seagrass meadows, and We need marine reserves in autumn. Spring winds are muddy and gravelly sediments. for the same reasons we often strong and gusty, while Declared in 2005, it is presently need national parks on winter brings strong prevailing the only protected area within the land – to conserve westerlies, low temperatures, the Davey Bioregion – one of our plants, and frosts and high rainfall. If you’re ’s eight continental landforms for future lucky, you can strike a week shelf marine bioregions. generations. Port Davey of perfect crisp, calm weather Marine Reserve is part in the middle of winter. Get a of a system of marine long-range forecast and cross reserves the Tasmanian your fingers. If you’re seeking Government is creating to solitude, avoid visiting between ensure that representative mid-January and mid-March. samples of our diverse marine ecosystems are protected from potentially damaging human activities. Their conservation and sustainable use is everyone’s responsibility.

3 The Marine Reserve

From the air Underwater Sea pens This region must surely be The underwater landscape one of the most magnificent is even more surprising. In landscapes on the planet. Bathurst Harbour and Bathurst Gold-green ranges, with bony Channel a very unusual marine quartzite ridges, rise sharply environment has been created from the southern ocean and by a deep layer of dark red- the broad interior waterways of brown, tannin-rich freshwater, Port Davey. which overlies tidal saltwater. Four major rivers and numerous The tannins restrict sunlight creeks cut through gorges penetration to the top few and snake across open plains, metres, limiting the growth of draining their rust-coloured marine plants. In their place live waters into the marine reserve. colourful and delicate marine Small islands dot the surface of invertebrates. In the clearer the dark waters. White quartzite marine waters of Port Davey – sands fringe the shoreline. Mt away from the influence of the Rugby – the highest and most freshwater tannins – a more prominent peak bordering the typical Tasmanian underwater reserve – rises grandly from world exists. Diverse kelp the western shore of Bathurst forests and abundant fish thrive Harbour. On a fine, calm day beneath the surging Southern the marine reserve’s waters Ocean waves. reflect the landscape to endless The marine reserve was perfection. created to protect this extraordinary underwater world.

4 Unusual water Low nutrient levels It is highly unusual for an estuary features to have low nutrient levels, Dark, layered water as the waters that drain into When freshwater meets them usually contain sediments saltwater, layering occurs rich in nutrients. In the south- because freshwater is lighter west however, the waters have in weight than dense saltwater. drained through the nutrient- Within the marine reserve, poor, shallow soils of eroded this causes the dark band of quartzites. tannin-rich freshwater to sit The low nutrient levels affect on top of the clear saltwater. the entire food chain, with less This phenomenon is known plankton, less fish and less as stratification. In Bathurst filter-feeding invertebrates, Harbour and , other than at locations with the freshwater layer is at its rapidly flowing currents. deepest – around 4 m – in The marine invertebrates in winter, when rainfall is highest. Bathurst Channel and Bathurst The narrow zone where Harbour exist in – and rely on – freshwater meets saltwater this low nutrient environment. is called the halocline, or salt Any increase in nutrients gradient. Mixing of the halocline can poison the animals and disturbs marine life, as some encourage invasive . species have adapted to live in either fresh or saltwater. Discharging boat sewage and sullage increases nutrient Reducing boat speed helps levels. Boat owners are avoid mixing the fresh and encouraged to discharge saltwater layers. outside the marine reserve.

PORT DAVEY BATHURST HARBOUR

fresh tannin layer

halocline

salty wedge seabed

5 The Marine Life

Port Davey

0 What lives where? dilute tannin layer bull kelp Different species live (mixed with salt) brown and red algae in different places blue-throated according to the amount wrasse

of tannin and nutrients, sponge type of sediments, 5 speed of currents and purple wrasse wave action. abalone hula fish

rock lobster sponge 10

Port Davey is exposed to the Southern Ocean’s currents and waves. Its shoreline includes exposed cliffs, islands, sheltered inlets and sandy beaches. These habitats support a variety of seaweeds, fish and invertebrates, with occasional visits from marine mammals. Further inside the port, in Payne Bay and east of the Breaksea Islands, the marine waters are mixed with tannin freshwater flowing out from Bathurst Channel and the .

6 Neptune’s necklace Bathurst Channel Bathurst Harbour sea lettuce mussels

0 0 tannin layer brown and tannin layer brown algae Neptune’s red algae necklace red algae encrusting Maugean skate corals

soft coral 5 5 lace bryozoan sea cucumber anemone

fan bryozoan encrusting tube worms sponge Bramble coral heart urchins bryozoan brittle star 10 10 biscuit star solitary sea pens ascidian sea urchin colonial ascidian Bathurst Harbour’s shallow waters (5-7 m deep) are strongly influenced 15 by tannins in the freshwater draining from the Old and North rivers, and myriad creeks and rivulets. Heavier finger sponge sea anemone saltwater lays beneath, carried in zoanthids tidally from Port Davey. In the inky stony dark harbour waters, phytoplankton coral cup sponge and marine plants struggle to survive. Few species live 20 on the muddy harbour floor, although Bathurst Channel connects Bathurst Harbour with Port Davey. The heart urchins, sea cucumbers and centre of the 12 km long narrow channel varies in depth from 15 to polychaete worms are common. 40 metres. Tannin freshwater enters from Bathurst Harbour, the Spring Dogfish and skates move about the River and numerous creeks and rivulets, as well as tidal saltwater from seabed. Port Davey. The dark waters restrict growth of seaweeds to the top few metres. Below this, a magnificent display of colourful invertebrates attach themselves to the rocky channel walls and seafloor reefs. 7 The Marine Life

Marine More than 500 species of There are single animals, like marine invertebrates (animals sea urchins and seastars, and invertebrates without backbones) have been colonial animals, which look Bathurst Channel is the recorded, with many still to like one animal, but are in fact jewel of the marine reserve, be described. Some, such as hundreds of tiny animals living anemones and zoanthids, bear together. There is safety and however if you were to travel more resemblance to flowers efficiency in living as a colony. over these dark waters, you than animals. Most do not move, Each animal within a colony has could be forgiven for thinking anchoring themselves firmly to a particular function – some nothing much was going on the seafloor or channel walls, gather food, some strengthen down below. With the aid of where they feed on other the colony and others even a strong torch, highly skilled marine animals, or filter-feed clean the colony! scuba divers illuminate the plankton and nutrients from the Many of the marine dark depths to reveal an swiftly flowing passing current. invertebrates found in Bathurst incredibly beautiful world Channel are usually found of exotic creatures. The in much deeper and often following pages provide inaccessible ocean waters. a sample.

8 Sea whips are long, slender filter- Sea fans are fragile filter-feeding feeding colonial animals. Tiny colonial animals, which form fan- tentacles protrude from their like flattened branches. Sea fans Sea pens are one of the most whip-like branches. Basket stars and sea whips are also called iconic and fragile animals in and seahorses often wrap their gorgonians. the reserve. Standing like bodies around tall sea whips, white-robed sentinels on using their height to access food. the seafloor, they are named after their resemblance to antique quill pens. Each sea pen is a colony of hundreds of miniature animals. One loses its tentacles to become the bulbous stalk, while others become the branches and feeding tentacles. Like many other soft-bodied invertebrates, when threatened, sea pens collapse Soft corals live in colonies in Stony corals are similar to and contract into the muddy sheltered parts of the channel. anemones, but they produce sediment. Each polyp has eight feathery a hard skeleton. They may be tentacles. Soft corals do not solitary or colonial, however produce calcium carbonate only solitary species are found skeletons, so are not reef- here. (Colonial stony corals are building, like Great Barrier Reef the reef-building corals found in corals. This soft coral is Bramble tropical waters.) coral.

9 The Marine Life

Sea anemones are flower-like animals (named after the anemone flower) with a circle of stinging tentacles around a central ‘mouth’. After stinging their prey, anemones transfer the paralysed animal into their mouth.

Jewel anemones differ in appearance from sea anemones by possessing a characteristic jewel-like tip on the end of each stinging tentacle. They often grow in dense colonies, forming a large and beautiful pink ‘garden’. 10 Zoanthids are colonial animals Hydroids are small colonial Bryozoans form colonies of that resemble small anemones. animals which live attached many thousands of individuals, These yellow zoanthids form to rocks or plants. The colony each individual less than a vibrant beds on the channel is often feather or fern-like in millimetre long. Some species floor. appearance, with each individual form their stony calcium animal capable of stinging carbonate skeletons into passing plankton prey with its encrusting mats over rocks, microscopic bunch of tentacles. shells and even boat hulls. Other species form into delicate shapes, like this lace bryozoan.

Sponges come in many shapes, Ascidians take many different sizes and colours (except forms. They may be solitary blue!). They usually live in areas or colonial. All filter-feed on with strong currents or wave plankton by siphoning water action where they filter-feed by in one hole and out another. drawing water in through small Surprisingly, ascidians are more pores and passing it out through closely related to fish than larger pores. Sponges are invertebrates, as their larvae capable of pumping hundreds possess simple backbones. of litres of water through their filter-bag bodies each day. 11 The Marine Life

Seastars have five or more arms, with a mouth in the centre of their underside. They feed on sponges, ascidians, algae and bryozoans. Larger seastars prey on molluscs and sea urchins.

Biscuit star

12 Brittle stars feed in a similar Sea urchins’ outer shells Sea cucumbers mooch slowly way to other small seastars, are made up of hundreds along the seafloor, scavenging by moving small particles into of interlocking plates, with for plankton and decaying their mouth with their tube numerous projecting spines. debris by sifting through the feet. If they are attacked they Their mouth is at the bottom sediments with their tentacles. sometimes sacrifice an arm, of the outer shell. They have They are common in Bathurst which will later grow back. five teeth which work together Harbour. Their closest relative is to grind algae off rocks. the sea urchin.

Basket stars have flexible, branched arms, which they use to entwine themselves onto other plants or animals so they can extend their arms to feed on small plankton animals. 13 The Marine Life

Fish, sharks, rays In Bathurst Harbour and Bathurst Channel, the dark, and eels poorly oxygenated, low nutrient In outer Port Davey an unusual waters attract few fish – with mix of fish species occurs. This the most common being eels, sharks and skates. One is due to the incredibly exposed species of cusk eel is unique to reefs and some influence from Port Davey. The endangered the tannins draining from the Maugean skate (also known as Davey River and Bathurst the Port Davey skate) occurs Channel. Fish species usually only in Bathurst Harbour and Pot-bellied seahorse found around the Tasmanian . Both the coast, such as leatherjackets Maugean skate and an unusual and barber perch, are absent. relative of the ice fish that Instead, some species that do also occurs here are related occur here are uncommon to species found in the fjords elsewhere. of New Zealand and South America – land masses to Blue-throated wrasse which Tasmania was once connected. Another species is the white-spotted dogfish, a species common in the region but listed on the IUCN Red List Whitleys skate as threatened because of its globally declining population.

Bastard trumpeter

White-spotted dogfish

14 Seaweeds and seagrasses In the clearer marine waters of outer Port Davey, the typical variety of brown, green and red seaweeds thrive to depths of 10 m or more. However in the darker waters of Bathurst Harbour and Bathurst Channel, where The golden air-filled beads of Of the three basic colour forms tannins block out light, Neptune’s necklace float on of seaweeds (brown, green and the surface of sheltered rocky red), red seaweeds are able to marine plants are restricted shorelines. survive with the least sunlight, at to the top few metres. the deepest levels. In quiet bays and coves, seagrasses form underwater meadows, providing shelter for breeding fish and invertebrates, and feeding areas for black swans and other waterbirds.

Great swirling masses of firmly anchored bull kelp withstand the surging southern ocean waves in Port Davey. 15 Biosecurity at Sea

Port Davey Marine Marine Pests All boat owners are Reserve is widely One of the greatest threats encouraged to clean regarded as the most to the marine reserve – and anti-foul their boat pristine estuarine and our oceans – is the and dinghy hulls and all introduction of marine pests boating and dive gear system in southern aboard boats. Recent studies before coming to Port , within one found very few marine pests Davey. It is illegal to of the most pristine in the reserve. The following discharge bilge water catchment areas in species present the greatest into the marine reserve threat. as it can contain the world. The region’s marine pests. remoteness and harsh climate help award it this status. There are Please report suspicious however, several finds immediately to the serious threats. Marine Pest Hotline: 0408 380 377 www.dpiw.tas.gov.au

16 New Zealand screwshell European green crab Long-spined sea urchin (Maoricolpus roseus) (Carcinus maenas) (Centrostephanus rodgersii) Threat: Can rapidly spread and Threat: Preys on scallops, Threat: Completely modifies compete for food and space mussels and oysters and other habitats by heavily grazing on with native screwshells and shellfish and crustaceans. Takes kelp beds, totally denuding scallops on sandy seafloors. It over habitat of native crabs and them. Kelp is essential food and has few predators. causes havoc amongst local shelter for many marine animals. Transfers: Ballast waters, fisheries and oyster farms. Transfers: As the ocean’s natural spread. Transfers: Aboard boats and temperature increases, this on fishing gear. species is extending further south from its warmer native waters off the east Australian mainland.

Northern Pacific seastar Wakame / Japanese kelp European clam (Asterias amurensis) (Undaria pinnatifida) (Varicorbula gibba) Threat: Highly invasive Threat: Highly invasive, grows Threat: Spreads rapidly. Can voracious feeder of shellfish rapidly and has the potential to completely alter the seafloor and a variety of other marine exclude native seaweeds. ecology. Competes with native animals. It has few predators. Transfers: Its spores are easily species (including commercial Transfers: Hulls of boats, fishing transported aboard boats, on scallops). gear, ballast water, natural spread. fishing and dive gear, and in Transfers: Aboard boats and natural currents. on fishing gear. 17 Biosecurity on Land

Root rot In the Port Davey region there are some large infestations Stop the rot The greatest threat to of root rot, mainly alongside • Do not step ashore unless Tasmania’s land plants is walking tracks. In these places your boots and camping an introduced plant disease many plant species have died gear are free of dirt and called root rot. The disease with only a few hardy shrubs mud. is caused by a microscopic and grasses remaining. The • Clean your gear BEFORE soil-borne pathogen impact of root rot is most you leave home, or at (Phytophthora cinnamomi), noticeable in spring, with fewer a minimum, scrub your which lives inside a plant’s moorland plants flowering in disease-affected areas. boots and any muddy roots and gradually kills equipment in the salty its host. Root rot is spread shallows before stepping on the muddy boots and on land. camping gear of visitors. • Keep to formed tracks Once root rot infects an area, where possible. Moving it cannot be removed. off tracks into uninfected areas will spread the disease. Microscopic root rot • Use wash-down stations where provided.

18 Chytrid frog fungus Other plant and Buttongrass moorland (pronounced ‘kit-rid’) animal pests This part of the south-west is To prevent the introduction presently free of this disease, of foreign plants, animals which is rapidly spreading and organisms to Port throughout many parts of Davey, visitors from overseas the world. The fungus infects or interstate must comply the skin of frogs destroying with Commonwealth and its structure and function, State quarantine laws. often leading to death. Some Foodstuffs, plants and plant mainland frog species have parts, cut flowers, and already become extinct, while anything carrying soil are many others are at risk. prohibited. Do not go ashore Once established, chytrid with any of these items. fungus is extremely difficult (For further information, to eradicate. phone Quarantine Services The fungus is spread by infected Tasmania, refer contacts list.) frogs and tadpoles, and by people spreading infected water and mud. To stop the spread to Port Davey, follow the same advice as for preventing root rot.

Tasmanian tree frog

19 Aboriginal Heritage

The Port Davey area They hunted wombats and It is not so well known however, was the homeland wallabies, and collected food that buttongrass moorlands, plants. Women dived for which dominate much of south- of the NINUNEE shellfish and crayfish, and the west Tasmania, were extended Aboriginal people. men took to the sea in bark over thousands of years by Nearby at Cox Bight canoes to hunt for seals and Aboriginal farming. A regime seabirds on offshore islands. of regular burning provided lived another group, the Catamarans were built to cross continual fresh regrowth to NEEDWUNNEE. Both harbours and rivers. Ochre attract grazing wildlife providing groups lived in ‘villages’ was dug from quarries and opportunities for easy hunting. used to adorn their hair and Without fire, the landscape alongside freshwater skin. The NEEDWUNNEE and progresses from moorland and built dome-shaped NINUNEE people journeyed to forest, and eventually huts from bark hundreds of kilometres along to rainforest. Buttongrass and teatree. the coast to meet with other moorland is therefore groups for trade and ritual. considered a cultural landscape Despite more than 35 000 of heritage significance. years of Aboriginal presence Today’s Tasmanian Aborigines on this landscape, there is take an active role in the little to be seen today of their management of this landscape existence. The most obvious and maintain some of the traces are the vast areas of shell cultural traditions of their middens lining the coastline ancestors. – the gathering places of the people, where shells and stone Text approved by Tony Brown tools were left after sharing a Dome-shaped hut, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery meal around a campfire.

20 Aboriginal Dreaming While exploring this region Dreaming stories give meaning you may come across to life for Tasmanian Aborigines. Aboriginal middens and Woreddy, from the Bruny Island other artefacts. Please do tribe, told this story to Frances not diminish their value by Cotton, an early East Coast disturbing or removing them. settler. To do so is to remove a Parlevar was the first page from the history of this Aboriginal. To make him, country, and is illegal. Moihernee took some earth up to the sky and fashioned a man who had a tail like a kangaroo and legs without Woreddy, teller of the creation knee joints. This meant that story. Parlevar could not lie down Artist: Thomas Bock, Tasmanian and had to sleep standing. Museum and Art Gallery Dromerdeener, the great star spirit, saw this and decided There he fought with many evil to help Parlevar. He cut off spirits who lived in the ground his tail, cured the wound by at Toogee Low – the land near rubbing grease on it, and made Port Davey. Moihernee’s wife knee joints for Parlevar. When followed him and went to live Parlevar sat down for the first in the sea. Their many children time he said, ‘Nyerae’ – it is came down from the sky in good. the rain. When Moihernee died Parlevar stayed in the sky for he went to Krib-biggerer – the a very long time. Eventually he land near Cox Bight. There he came to the land by walking was turned into a large rock down Laway Teeney – the that stands majestically on a sky road or Milky Way. Later point of land near the sea. Moihernee and Dromerdeener quarrelled. Moihernee was forced to leave the sky and came to live on the land near Louisa Bay in south-west Tasmania.

Aboriginal shell midden Louisa Bay 21 European History

Whalers, sealers and Bay whaling Fishing and mining piners (timber-cutters) Bay whaling stations were Since the 1900s, the area has first visited the homelands located at Bramble Cove and only seen three long-term Turnbull Island. In 1859, when resident families – the Claytons, of the south-west the steamship City of Kings and Willsons. Cray Aboriginal tribes in the visited Port Davey, seven fisherman Clyde Clayton fished early 1800s. Within 30 whaling vessels were sheltering in Port Davey from the 1930s in the bay with 200 crew from and married the only woman years the Aboriginal around the world. in the district – Winsome King population in the south- (daughter of Charles King). Their Pining west had declined from first house was built at Bond The pining industry supported Bay, where they lived until the around 200-300 to about two villages near the mouth 1960s, when they relocated to 60, with many believed to of the Davey River – Piners the more sheltered Claytons have died from influenza Point and Settlement Point Corner. Clyde and Winsome and other European – and another settlement at retired to Franklin in 1976. The Spring River. Port Davey was a historic Claytons Corner house diseases. busy thoroughfare as loads of and garden is now maintained Huon pine were cut from the by the Parks and Wildlife Whale bones, Port Davey 1898 Davey, Spring and Old rivers, Service, with assistance from Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery and transported to Hobart. the Friends of Claytons For a short while, Port Davey volunteer group. even supported a shipbuilding industry. However by 1890, with both whales and Huon pine scarce, Port Davey was abandoned, save for a few prospectors and track-cutters.

22

King family home on the bank of Moth Creek, Melaleuca, 1949

Charlie King was one of the These days the only remaining first hardy miners to work the permanent residents are the quartzite gravels seeking tin Willsons, who arrived in 1974. ore, first at Cox Bight in the Peter and Barbara and their late 1800s, then at Melaleuca two sons had come to live in by1935. Charlie, with his Tasmania from Zambia, where daughter Winsome and son they were British expatriates. Deny, stayed on after other Peter – a mining engineer by miners withdrew. Deny, his wife profession – spent time cray Margaret and their daughters fishing around the South Coast Mary and Janet, later took over where he met the Claytons, the mine. Their incredible and who were looking to sell their largely self-sufficient life in this mining lease. It was Winsome remote corner of the world who offered the lease to Peter, has become legendary. As well after noticing he was the only as being a miner, Deny was a fisherman she’d seen with a great artist and naturalist. He prospecting dish on board! kept meticulous records of the weather and wildlife, including the migratory orange-bellied Win, Deny and Charlie parrot, now endangered. Deny’s King, 1940s wildlife discoveries played a large part in the proclamation of the , and later the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage King family home, today Area. He also constructed two walkers’ huts and the landing strip for light aircraft. Deny continued on at Melaleuca until his death in 1991. The King family home remains on the banks of Moth Creek and is regularly visited by family members. The Deny King Bird Hide, from which volunteers record the movements of the orange-bellied parrot, is one of Charlie and Deny King tin Deny’s many enduring legacies. mining, late 1940s

23 European History

While Peter built the house and set up the mine operations, Barbara (a teacher at Kingston Primary School) and her school-aged boys stayed in Hobart, visiting Peter in the school holidays. Barbara joined Peter permanently in 1980. After more than 30 years, the Willsons continue to enjoy the beauty and the challenges of life in the south-west. Their recent retirement has brought an end to the era of tin mining at Melaleuca. The Willsons still live in their family home at Melaleuca, just south of the airstrip. Both the Willsons and the Kings maintain residential leases over their properties. Please respect their privacy.

Deny’s boatshed, Moth Creek 24 A Jewish homeland? It is a tragic story that began with a young man’s vision of a better future for Jewish refugees of Nazi Europe. In 1942, 31 year old Critchley Parker came to Port Davey believing he had found the perfect new Jewish homeland. Charlie King rowed Maid of Erin Critchley 14 km to the foot of Archives Office of Tasmania Mt MacKenzie. With 10 days of food supply, Critchley set off on Shipwrecks his explorations. He was to light Thirty shipwrecks have been a signal fire if he needed help recorded to date between or collection by Charlie. No Cox Bight and Low Rocky fire was ever seen. Some three “ …. To die in the service of Point. Eight of these occurred months later, local fishermen so noble a cause is to me a within the marine reserve, Clyde Clayton and Syd Dale great satisfaction and if, as I with no loss of life. Five stumbled upon his body. hope, the settlement brings dragged their anchors in Critchley’s diary entries reveal happiness to many refugees, heavy weather. Be warned! the tragedy. Wild, wet weather and in so doing serves the had forced him to turn back, but state of Tasmania, I die he was unable to successfully happy…” light a signal fire – his matches all spent and sodden. He survived 54 days, during which time an extensive search was conducted to no avail. Despite his certain slow and lonely death, Critchley’s grand vision endured to the end. Critchley’s headstone, organised by his mother, is built from the ancient quartzite rocks of his promised land. A short track leads to his grave, just inland from the shores of Parker Bay.

25 The Landscape

Many people mistake The harbour has since been old!) called conglomerates are the Port Davey gathering a deepening layer made up of pebbly fragments of of ooze, some from the those earlier quartzites. landscape, with its surrounding plains, but mostly As well as the thin white lines steep-sided valleys and from tiny sea animals, like of walking tracks, quartzites and convoluted shoreline, bryozoans. Bathurst Channel, conglomerates appear as snow- connecting Bathurst Harbour for a glacial fjord. It is like patches on the surrounding with Port Davey, is a drowned mountains and white cliffs along in fact a drowned valley river. Swiftly flowing tidal parts of the shoreline. currents continually sweep the or ria. At its centre is The soils that blanket much channel floor, exposing resistant Bathurst Harbour, which of south-west Tasmania are rock. was once a large plain organosols. Loosely referred As you walk across this that flooded as the sea to as peat, the thin organosols magnificent landscape, you’ll form from undecomposed plant level rose about 7000 often notice crunchy white material that slowly accumulates years ago with late gravels underfoot. These began under extremely wet, humid as sand and mud laid down in and cool conditions. melting of the last shallow seas up to a billion years ice age. ago – long before Tasmania looked anything remotely like it Quartzite

Little tern does today. Over time, the sand and mud was gradually buried, metamorphosed by heat and pressure into quartzites and schists, then uplifted, folded and partially eroded away. Younger rocks (only half a billion years

26 Wombat

The organosols support the buttongrass moorlands and heathlands, which are so typical of the south-west. The moorlands have developed over thousands of years, assisted by regular burning by the Aboriginal people. The shores around the marine reserve are often lined with tea-tree, banksia and eucalypts. In more sheltered areas where mud slowly accumulates, marshes and marsupial lawns occur – the latter evolved from constant grazing. In the steeper, darker, wetter gullies of the many

Eastern pygmy possum rivers draining into the estuary, a variety of wet forest species grow, such as dogwood, myrtle, sassafras and Huon pine. Wildlife in the landscape surrounding the marine reserve includes wombats, wallabies, a variety of small nocturnal marsupials, burrowing crayfish, and a delightful and colourful chorus of daytime birds, Tau emerald and frogs. 27 The Landscape

Buttongrass Buttongrass moorland – of which buttongrass is the dominant plant – is a unique and complex ecosystem recognised as having World Heritage value. Buttongrass seeds are enjoyed by a variety of small mammals, insects and birds, including firetail finches, southern emu-wrens, ground parrots and orange-bellied parrots.

Burrowing crayfish Mud chimneys across the moorland mark the entrance to burrowing crayfish homes. These animals play a critical role in oxygenating Orange-bellied parrot the moorland with their These beautifully coloured parrots are on the brink of extinction, extensive burrow system. with less than 200 birds remaining. They breed only in south-west They feed on plant roots Tasmania and forage in the buttongrass moorlands. During winter, found growing inside their they migrate to south-east mainland Australia. You can see them at water-filled burrows. It is the Deny King bird hide in Melaleuca between mid-October and extremely unusual to find the end of March. crayfish living in such highly acidic water.

28 The Weather

Wild weather warning Weather watching South-west Tasmania’s , off South weather is often extreme and West Cape, is the nearest unpredictable. Exposed waters weather recording station and severe weather are a highly to the marine reserve. The dangerous combination. Port strongest gust ever recorded Davey is the only truly sheltered from here was 94 knots (174 anchorage between Macquarie km/h) on 21 September 2006. Harbour on the west coast and Since January 2000, Maatsuyker’s Recherche Bay on the south- 3 hourly weather reports east coast, a distance of around provide the following statistics: 150 nautical miles (280 km) of 27% were at least worthy of a coastline. The region frequently strong wind warning (>= 26 knots) experiences very high rainfall 13% rated a gale warning (>=34 and very strong winds from knots) the west. Even in the shelter 1.6% justified a storm force wind of Bathurst Harbour, storm- warning (>=48 knots) force winds are experienced 9 records rated a hurricane force several times a year. The region wind warning (>=64 knots) receives a massive average annual rainfall of more than two metres (2213 mm).

29 Threats

Human activities Slow and easy Scrub your soles present the greatest Travelling at speed through dark Root rot is a microscopic plant shallow waters is dangerous for disease spread on the muddy threat to the Port Davey you and your boat. Speed also boots and camping gear of Marine Reserve. Here’s erodes creek banks, disturbs visitors. Once root rot infects an how you can help breeding birds, and mixes up area, it cannot be removed. the fresh and saltwater layer, Scrub muddy boots and protect this beautiful disturbing marine invertebrates. and fragile environment. equipment in the salty shallows Keep your speed low and before stepping ashore. Keep Clean your bottom comply with speed limits. to formed tracks where Introduced marine pests Hold your waste possible. present the greatest threat Sewage and grey water pollutes Lighten your load to the Port Davey Marine Port Davey’s pristine waters Human-induced climate change Reserve. Translocation of pests and increases nutrients levels, is affecting marine environments by boats is the largest source disturbing marine life. Bilge waters worldwide. Any change to the of introduced marine species in sometimes contain marine pests. amount of freshwater run-off or Australia. Avoid discharging sewage and warming of the ocean’s waters Before visiting Port Davey, grey water into the reserve. will have significant impacts on clean your boat hull and all Bilge water must never be the marine ecosystem at Port fishing and dive gear. discharged within the reserve. Davey. As the water warms, the distribution of species changes. Watch your drag Some cold-water loving species Fragile marine invertebrates shift further south, while can be killed by one drag of an other more adaptable species, anchor or an accidental fin kick including marine pests, could from a diver. extend their range. Please do not anchor in Bathurst Reduce your global footprint. Channel. Divers must be highly 30 skilled. Further Reading Marine life Australian Marine Life – The Plants and Animals of Temperate Waters (Graham J Edgar, 2000) Between Tasmanian Tide Lines – A Field Guide (Tasmanian Marine Naturalists Assoc Inc, 2000) Aboriginal Heritage The (Lyndall Ryan, 1996) The Tasmanian Aborigines (Brian Plomley, 1993) Fate of a free people (Henry Reynolds, 2004) Keeping Culture, Aboriginal Tasmania (edited by Amanda Jane Reynolds, 2006) European History King of the Wilderness – The life of Deny King (Christobel Mattingley, 2001) Trampled Wilderness: The History of South-West Tasmania (Ralph Gowlland, 2006) Explorers of Western Tasmania (C J Binks, 1989) The South-West Book, A Tasmanian Wilderness (Australian Conservation Foundation, 1983) Shipwrecks of Tasmania’s Wild West Coast (Graeme Broxam, 1993) The Landscape South-West Tasmania, A Natural History and Visitor’s Guide (Ken Collins, 1990) 31 Funding for this booklet was Acknowledgements Illustrations: Marine cross-sections: provided by the Australian This booklet was compiled by Janet Fenton Government (WHA), the Fiona Rice. Special thanks to Department of Primary the following for advice and Design and layout: Industries and Water, and assistance: Steering Committee Design Unit, DPIW the Department of (Michael Driessen, Peter Environment, Parks, Heritage Printed on Monza Satin recycled Grant, Michael Garner, Richard paper derived from sustainable and the Arts. Koch, Sarah Caporn and Anni forests, elemental chlorine free McCuaig); Neville Barrett; pulp and certified environmental Graham Edgar; Karen Gowlett- management systems. Holmes; Jeremy Firth (author of Tasmanian Anchorage Guide); Albert Thompson; Janet Fenton; Barbara Willson; Steve and Coralie Sallans; Jason Bradbury; Tony Brown; Jenni Burdon. © Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Photos: Service 2008 marine: © Karen Gowlett- Holmes, Graham Edgar, Neville Barrett, © Fred Bavendam; scenic: Luuk Veltkamp, Fiona Rice, Ted Mead; kayaks: Roaring 40s Ocean Kayaking; wild weather: Phillip Reid; wildlife: Michael Driessen, PWS interps; geology: Jason Bradbury; marine pests: © CSIRO, DPIW; King family: Janet Fenton. 32