To me it makes sense that Killiecrankie on the north side of Flinders Island is a special, memorable place. You don’t just name any old locale with such an adorable title. There is a Killiecrankie in Scotland as well so I assume that this remote settlement was named after the Gaelic word that apparently means ‘aspen wood’ (as appose to ‘kill he who is angry’) 
We arrived at dusk and a voice on the vhf invited us to grab one of the local cray boat’s mooring. There is a natural harbour between a rock shelf and an islet with a shallow, weedy bottom- so a mooring was perfect. We rowed to shore and were welcomed by the Stackhouse family who had been given the heads up of our arrival by our Flinder’s-born friend Pete (Stackhouse) On the row in, Russ had a déjà vu experience and suddenly remembered that he had been to Flinders before- Killiecrackie even! He was 16 and on a school dive trip. Memories re-surfaced as we wandered up the beach and were invited to a party at a charming beach cottage the following evening- the same beach cottage that Russ had stayed in all those years ago. It turns out that the same beach shack had been in the Stackhouse family for years…
Above left and below right; the beach shack party overlooking the bay at Killiecrankie- it was swarming with farmers, fishermen and sailors, writers and a set of urban dwellers escaping Melbourne to stay in holiday homes and inherited properties.
Above right and below left; We explored the bays around Killicrankie with Tika-Taka and the Stackhouse’s hobbie cat…
Below middle; Flinders Island is the largest of 52 Isles in The Furneaux Group. We are now at 40 degrees south; officially in the roaring forties…
Above; Allan Stackhouse. There is no shortage of crayfish on Flinder’s Island- these guys eat them like lollies. The Stackhouse teenagers think nothing of demolishing a gigantic cray (each) for morning tea! In fact, with local beef, the freshest seafood, local honey and wines, Flinders has got a pretty hot, grass roots foodie culture going on. We got a personal tour of the island; from Killiecrankie to the Stackhouse family farm and then down to the township of Lady Barron in the south. It is certainly a land of beaches, mountains and plains… We topped up on supplies in town and even tried one of the local butcher’s provincial delicacies; wallaby meat (Jaiya refused to eat it)
The Stackhouse family- Tracy, Allan, Emily, Clark and Mitchel- thanks for showing us your Island guys!
Below right; Jaiya gets to hike on the hobbie cat.
Above left; the local kids were hand plucking green lipped abalone off the rocks and frying them up on the beach…
Above left; capsize!! Above right; the view from the beach cottage
We were treated to light winds, calm seas and a jaw dropping, textural sunset as we waved goodbye to Flinders. By the following morning we had twin code zeros up and were winging our way towards the Tasmanian mainland.
Below; birds! we have seen many bird feeding frenzies on the water. Mostly they encourage us to get a fishing line in, but this one was something else!
Next post; we hit mainland Tassie; stunning Wineglass Bay and the Freycinet National Park!
This entry was posted in The Sail.
