Bass Strait- Deal Island

We headed out from Flinders, Victoria into Bass Strait and a chilly, broody New Years Eve at sea…A front had just gone through and the seas were lumpy, dark and ominous as Tika scooted between the point and Seal Rock at Western Port.

Below; a 40 second snippit of our New Years Eve exit out of Flinders… bouncy, windy and cold!

Above left; the kids settle in for a bumpy, overnight passage. After 6-7 hours the swell settled down but it was still windy and cold, with 17 knots true wind from the south west. Russ had set the code zero but we didn’t use it and fast reached our way to the Kent Group under jib and main.

The remote Kent Group consists of 3 main islands and a bunch of islets and rocks strewn smack bang in the middle of Bass Strait. Deal island (named by Matthew Flinders after commander William Kent) is an imposing, dramatic landfall (above right) Picture a mammoth, granite tooth jutting out of the sea on an otherwise blank horizon.

Between 10,000 and 14,000 years ago these islands linked Australia’s mainland and Tassie…

Murray Pass separates Deal island from Erith and Drover Islands and has long been used as a refuge from fierce gales in Bass Strait. It is also dangerous and can run 2-4 knots through the channel. Powerful wind bullets pummel vessels in the south westerlies and it least 20 ships; schooners, brigs, steamships, carriers and fishing boats lie at the bottom. Unsurprisingly, there are many world-class wreck dives to be had around the Kent group.

We dropped Tika’s anchor in Garden Cove on the north side of Deal and went ashore to stretch our legs and explore Tasmania’s most northern national and marine park…. 

Bennett’s wallabies (also known as red-necked wallabies) have free run of Deal island. They follow a fresh water stream right down onto the beach and were mostly oblivious to us as we beachcombed and rock-hopped around the bay.

Garden Cove; the water was crystal clear- and chilly! I maintained my morning swim of 10 laps around the boat but it took 3 laps to kill the brain freeze…

Delving deeper into the hardy, isolated landscape, we felt like we were walking through one of those sentimental Quantas commercials. The wallabies, lady barron geese, eucalypt and she-oak trees (and it must be said; the march flies!) were nostalgic reminders that we were well and truly back in Oz…

Families of Lady Barron Geese live on the island and frequent the slashed strip of flat that is the air strip. Bulky birds with wing spans of up to 1.9m, the lady barron have dark polkadots sprinkled across light grey plumage, pink legs and the blackest of feet…

The average population of Deal Island most of the year is…..two. Volunteers do 3 month stints when they get to weed, slash, make tea for yachties and maintain the heritage buildings, grave-sites, air strip and conservation efforts.

Below right; tea with the keepers who, with their 7 year old son, were spending their 3 months caretaking beautiful, far-flung Deal.

The granite lighthouse here was completed in 1865 and decommissioned in 1992. It was the highest lighthouse in the Southern Hemisphere and rumor has it that it was ineffective for navigation because much of the time it was hidden behind cloud and not visible! The original lighthouse keeper’s residence is now a museum.

I had heard stories about grazing the Bass Strait islands from our old friend Pete Stackhouse who hails from farming stock on Flinders Island. My favourite tale recounts Pete’s memory as a 15 yr old herding swimming cattle, via a tinny, out to the waiting ships. They would be hoisted up onto the deck, originally by rope, and then later via cages.

It was very cool to see Pete’s family mentioned on the information boards in the museum. Being a National Park, Deal Island is, of course, no longer grazed, but Pete’s dad Brian and his uncle Alf are pretty famous as some of the original farmers in Bass Strait- several ABC articles and documentaries cover Alf’s story and I believe he is still King of Badger Island.

As we walked up the hill towards the caretaker’s residence, we pondered over a chair that sits just off the track with ocean views through a clearing. I assumed it was an artist’s chair (complete with sketch pad or easel rest) however, it turned out to have a less romantic use- it’s the only spot on the entire island where small, weak bursts of internet could be gleaned! We all took turns on the chair but Russ got priority to get a weather forecast down…

We anchored off neighboring Erith island and took a walk along a pristine beach to the shack that the Stackhouse family built. Pete tells me he used to sail from Flinder’s to Erith and stay at the shack. He would visit the lighthouse keeper across the channel on Deal for a shower and a feed…

The hut sits perched just above the beach of the most beautiful bay…

Next post; fishermen, farmers, cray fish, hobie cats and more from the Stackhouse family on Flinder’s Island, Tasmania

This entry was posted in The Sail.