Notley Gorge revisited

I had to think twice before revisiting Notley Gorge. It's a small and scenic nature reserve to the north of Launceston. The last time I called in there was in 1999, and I found a dead person there.

I'd turned up quite early in the day, fresh off the car ferry from Melbourne. Ignoring the other car parked there, I'd walked the bush circuit and re-emerged. Something looked rather odd about the other car, so I took a closer look. There was a strange arrangement of vacuum cleaner hose, and it was connecting the exhaust pipe to the window, which was otherwise taped up to stop any fresh air coming in. The doors were locked, the engine still running, and the chap inside was very pale, and very dead. Not a good start to that Tasmanian holiday.


So this was a chance to exorcise that experience, and maybe enjoy the place again. It's a patch of remnant rainforest, with tree ferns and other rainforest species, and a towering eucalypt canopy. One of the trees is a burnt-out one called 'Bradley's Tree', after a bushranger who used to hide there.

So a few dead trees, but most things around me were very much alive this time.