Macquarie Harbour

Macquarie Harbour, NASA World Wind satellite image

Macquarie Harbour is a bay on the west coast of the Australian state of Tasmania. The southeastern part of the bay is available as part of the Tasmanian wilderness on the list of UNESCO World Heritage of Humanity.

Geography

She has a northwest-southeast extension of about 32 km and is about 5 km wide. The King River and the Gordon River to flow into the bay. The narrow opening of Macquarie Harbour to the Indian Ocean is named because of its dangerous tidal currents Hells Gates. In some cases, this name is also attributed to the convicts who had to pass through on the way to Sarah Iceland this point.

History

The first European settlement in Macquarie Harbour was the penal colony on Macquarie Harbour, Sarah Iceland. The island was used for accommodation rebellious prisoners from other camps in Australia such as Port Arthur. To this end, they seemed particularly suitable because of their extreme isolation and harsh climate. In his novel Life imprisonment ( For the Term of his Natural Life ) Mark Clarke ( 1846-1881 ) describes, among other things, the conditions on Sarah Iceland. Another novel Sarah Iceland, which describes the penal colony, there are by the author Richard Flanagan entitled Goulds Book of Fish ( Gould 's Book of Fish ). Later the port of Strahan served mainly the transport of raw materials from the nearby mining settlements such as Queenstown. Today Strahan is a base for tourism in the region.