Antarctica/Australia/New Zealand - Macquarie Island

Say Ah? King penguin squawks at an elephant seal, Macquarie Island.

Sent by Vivienne from Christchurch, New Zealand.

Macquarie Island is an oceanic island in the Southern Ocean, lying 1,500 km south-east of Tasmania and approximately halfway between Australia and the Antarctic continent. The island is the exposed crest of the undersea Macquarie Ridge, raised to its present position where the Indo-Australian tectonic plate meets the Pacific plate. It is a site of major geo-conservation significance, being the only place where rocks from the Earth's mantle (6 km below the ocean floor) are being actively exposed above sea level.

It is the only island in the world composed entirely of oceanic crust and rocks from the Earth's mantle deep below the surface.

Macquarie Island probably began as a spreading ridge under the sea with the formation of new oceanic crust somewhere between 11 million and 30 million years ago.

At some stage the spreading halted and the crust began to compress, squeezing rocks upward from deep within the mantle. As the ridge grew it eventually became exposed above the ocean surface about 600,000 years ago. Thus, rocks normally only occurring deep within the Earth's mantle have become exposed on the surface.

Since Macquarie Island emerged, it has mainly been carved by marine processes such as wave action, unlike other subantarctic islands, which have been shaped by glaciers.

These unique exposures include excellent examples of pillow basalts and other extrusive rocks.

The main landscape feature is a central rolling plateau 250-300 m above sea level, bounded on all sides by steep cliffs, from the foot of which extends a coastal platform up to 800 m wide. Glacial drift up to 20 m thick covers much of the plateau and there are several lakes.

Among the most aesthetically appealing sights of the island are the vast congregations of wildlife, particularly penguins, on suitable parts of the coastal terrace, especially during breeding seasons.

During the breeding season on suitable beaches elephant seals also form impressive colonies. Four species of albatross nest on steep and rugged cliffs, both on the main island and on nearby Bishop and Clerk Islands.

The terrestrial area of Macquarie Island is a State Reserve with protection extending to low water mark. The marine values are protected by the Macquarie Island Marine Park declared by the Commonwealth on 28 October 1999. The primary purpose of the marine park is to protect the conservation values of the region from human disturbance. The marine park contains the world's largest marine highly protected zone, covering more than 16 million hectares.

Sealers discovered the island in 1810 and inhabited it periodically throughout the 19th century, exterminating the fur seals and greatly reducing the elephant seal population. In 1870, gangs came to exploit the king and royal penguin populations for oil, eliminating the former. The original elephant seal population of about 100,000 animals was reduced by 70% as a result of these operations. The visitors also brought exotic mammals and caused the extermination of two endemic subspecies of land birds.

There are no permanent human inhabitants on Macquarie Island although the Australian Antarctic Division station is occupied all year round. The only access to the island is by sea and there are no harbors or landing facilities, so ship-traffic in the area is minimal. (Source)

Note :-

Mail from the Ross Dependency is processed by the “Ross Dependency Agency”, located at a post office in Christchurch. Members of the public (mostly philatelists and stamp dealers) are able to post items bearing Ross Dependency stamps at this office.

Mail is canceled with the inscription “Ross Dependency Agency, Christchurch.

Australia - Australian Convict Sites

Tasmanian convict sites among the 11 that together form the Australian Convict Sites World Heritage property.

Sent by Heritage Tasmania, Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment.  Thank you very much.

The transportation of people for forced labour is a system shared by many human societies, at various periods of history and in many civilizations. Most often, it involved slavery or the deportation of people following war. However, in the modern and contemporary eras, convict colonies were used as a place for prisoners to serve their sentences in a distant land, where they were generally used for forced labour.

Penal colonies were initially for the imprisonment of criminals, coupled with forced labour. In Europe they were concentrated in military ports, for example, to provide labour to work on galleys or for hard labour in arsenals, building infrastructure, etc. In times of war, forced-labour prison camps are similar in terms of their organization and objectives.

A new form of penitentiary combined with a colonial project appeared in the early 17th century in European countries, involving the permanent transportation of prisoners to new territories. Under the Transportation Act of 1718, England organized just such a system for its criminals in its North American colonies. France did the same after closing its galleys in 1748. Being condemned to a convict colony is in theory a severe prison sentence, for a serious crime. In reality, however, because of the colonies’ need for labour, all sorts of crimes, often relatively minor, led to transportation for more or less lengthy terms. The expression of certain opinions or membership of a banned political group were also punishable in this way.

In 1775 England stopped transporting its criminals to America, because of the upheaval that eventually led to these colonies gaining their independence. Australia became the replacement destination starting in 1778 with the gradual organization of many convict colonies. Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) was the first place where convicts were landed.

Transportation to Australia reached its maximum between 1787 and 1868, with 166,000 prisoners sent to its many convict stations. Australia was at the time a vast area, inhabited only by Aboriginal peoples, who were rapidly forced away from the most sheltered and most fertile coastal areas. From the point of view of the colonists, everything had to be built, starting with ports, houses, roads, colonial farms, etc. The convicts were often from the lower classes; women accounted for 16% of the total, and there were also quite a few children, who could be punished with transportation from the age of nine.

The Australian convict system took different forms in order to meet its many objectives. It evolved out of a great debate in Europe at the turn of the 19th century about how to punish crime and the social role to be given to the transportation of prisoners. The discussion included on the one hand the notion of punishment and on the other the desire to discourage crime through the idea of rehabilitation of personal behaviour by means of work and discipline. Transportation of a labour force to serve colonial development, especially in the more distant lands, was seen as a useful and effective response to these various social issues in England, as well in other European countries such as France and Russia.

In the Australian case, the convict system was in practice also designed to make the prisoners fully fledged colonists once they had served out their sentences. The considerable distance between Europe and Australia meant that that the convicts almost always remained after their release.

The Australian convict system included a variety of prison systems, ranging from outdoor to indoor work, from probationary transportation to simple imprisonment; it included convict stations for women or children (Cascades Female Factory and Point Puer). In some convict stations, the prisoners lived alongside free settlers (Brickendon and Woolmers Estates). Living conditions were naturally very strict, but they were variable in terms of their harshness, depending on the site and function.

Overseeing and transporting the convicts also required the presence of a sizeable prison administration, the organization of a specialized fleet, the presence of numerous guards, etc.

The most harsh stations, for those prisoners considered to be the most dangerous, included a prison, hard and often dangerous labour, corporal punishment, such as lashes or deprivation, and solitary confinement. Most sites had a prison and a solitary confinement area; but others were punishment stations, such as Norfolk Island, Port Arthur, and the Tasman Peninsula Coal Mines. These stations were renowned throughout the entire British Empire for their harshness, in order to maintain the fear of transportation among the population and so reduce crime in Great Britain and its colonies.

The convict gang system was used for public works, especially for roads and port facilities. They were generally very strict and the work was hard. Examples include Old Great North Road, Hyde Park Barracks, Port Arthur, Coal Mines, Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area, and Fremantle Prison.

There were also labour convict stations for those prisoners considered to pose less of a threat, where the convicts were made available for private projects, often farming. The entrepreneurs used them at their own risk. Examples include Brickendon and Woolmers Estates and Old Government House. Female labour was more of a manufacturing nature, such as Cascades Female Factory, a textile mill. These were, of course, still prisons with a system of punishment and rewards. Some convict stations used women as servants - for example, on farms and Old Government House.

Those convicts who behaved themselves could earn a lighter sentence, gradually leading to their early release. In the very vivid minds of the social reformists of prisoners, the aim was to establish a probationary path that would gradually lead to social rehabilitation through labour and, finally, to the status of fully fledged colonial settler.

The creation of convict stations in Australia, at the heart of the programme of creating colonies, had particularly negative effects on the Aboriginal peoples. This led to social unrest, forced migration, and the loss of fertile land, as well as devastating epidemics because of their lack of immunity. Conflict and resistance were frequent occurrences as settlers and convicts arrived, often resulting in death.

The penal settlements continued for quite a long time after the transportation system was abolished, up until the eve of World War II, driven by their own dynamic of prisoner management and similar practices, though applied on a far lesser scale, such as exile.

The last of the sites to remain in active use was Fremantle Prison, which closed in the early 1990s.

Today, most of these sites are entirely or in part places of remembrance, museums, or parks. (Source)

Australia - Tasmanian Wilderness

Alpine Meadows, Waterfall Valley, Tasmanian Wilderness.

Sent by Roderick, a WiP partner from NSW, Australia.

Covering an area of over 1 million hectares, the Tasmanian Wilderness constitutes one of the last expanses of temperate rainforest in the world. It comprises a contiguous network of reserved lands that extends over much of south-western Tasmania including several coastal islands.

In contrast to the mainland, the island of Tasmania is a rugged region with fold structures in the western half and fault structures in the east, both of which are represented in the property. The fold structure province in the south-west is an extremely rugged and densely vegetated region with north-south oriented mountain ranges and valley systems. Changing climates have also influenced landscape development, highlighted most recently by late Cainozoic and Pleistocene glacial and periglacial events. Glacial erosion has contributed to spectacular landform features including horns, arêtes, cirques, U-shaped valleys and rock basins (tarns). The coastline has been subjected to a number of sea-level changes during the glaciations and now provides a classic example of a drowned landscape, as shown by the discordant coastline in the south. Special landforms associated with the development of karst have formed through the solution of carbonate rocks such as (Precambrian) dolomite and (Ordovician) limestone. Features include cave systems, natural arches, clints and grikes, dolines, karren, pinnacles and blind valleys.

The vegetation has as much in common with cool, temperate regions of South America and New Zealand as with the rest of Australia. In addition to climatic and edaphic factors, the vegetation has developed in response to fire. Aboriginal occupation over the last 30,000 years has constituted a major source of fire; more recently, much fire can be attributed to the interests of fishermen, logging concerns and prospectors. The fauna is of world importance because it includes an unusually high proportion of endemic species and relict groups of ancient lineage. Owing to the diverse topography, geology, soils and vegetation in association with harsh and variable climatic conditions combining to create a wide array of animal habitats, the fauna is correspondingly diverse.

The insularity of Tasmania, and of the Tasmanian Wilderness in particular, has contributed to its uniqueness and has helped to protect it from the impact of exotic species which has seriously affected the mainland fauna. Tasmania was cut off from mainland Australia by the flooding of Bass Strait at least 8000 years ago, thereby isolating the aboriginal inhabitants. The Tasmanian Aborigines were, until the advent of the European explorer Abel Tasman, the longest isolated human group in world history, surviving some 500 generations without outside influence.

Surveys and excavations of inland river valleys have located 37 cave sites, all considered to have been occupied between 30,000 and 11,500 years ago on the basis of the finds. Recent discoveries of rock art at three cave sites have shown that this painting had a ceremonial significance; hand stencils predominated. Stone artefact scatters and quarries and rock shelters in the Tasmanian highlands indicate a distinctive adaptation to this subalpine environment in the later Holocene. The south coast contains a range of shell middens; evidence available so far suggests changing patterns of shellfish exploitation over several thousand years until the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century. (Source)

Australia - Dove Lake

Dove Lake in Tasmania, Australia.

Sent by Vita, a Swap-Bot partner from Townsville in Australia.

Australia - Tasmania

This one sent by Jill of Australia shows various spots in Tasmania; Bridestowe Lavender Estate in Nabowla, Russel Falls at Mt Field National Park, and Church at Port Arthur.