photographer GRACE HEATHCOTE
In January 1802, longboats from the French ships Géographe and Naturaliste rowed north up the coast from their mooring in Recherche Bay. Their sailors were searching for drinking water, birds to eat and potential ports.
After crossing to the north bank of the Huon River, they landed on a stretch of sandy beach between Huon Island and what is now known as Cygnet.
In his diaries, French naturalist François Péron describes this beach as “extremely calm, its surface covered with innumerable legions of black swans which sailed about with great elegance and majesty”. At the western end was a rocky hill from which a “rivulet of soft water” could be seen running through an extensive thicket behind the beach.
These descriptions have led some to believe the landing took place at Randalls Bay, nestled at the mouth of the Huon River.
Péron and his compatriots were greeted on the beach by the indigenous inhabitants, including two young men who appeared on top of that rocky hill before one quickly descended to examine the longboats with interest. The two parties enjoyed a meal of fresh abalone and shared impromptu gifts: a bag made of rushes for the visitors, and for a teenage girl named Oura Oura a red-tailed black cockatoo feather collected in faraway Western Australia.
Today, visitors to Randalls Bay are more likely to explore the waters on a bodyboard than a longboat. However, the footsteps of those young indigenous men can be retraced up the rocky hill via Péron’s memoirs. A bench seat now sits at the top of the cliff, overlooking the bay and the vessels that have sought shelter there over the centuries.
When the apple and timber industries formed the backbone of the Huon economy, these products were loaded onto boats for transport to Hobart via a tramway and jetty at the base of this cliff. The outlines of this infrastructure can still be seen today. And while the sails of Péron’s tall ship have long disappeared, others occasionally return, usually in the form of the Tasmanian queens Windeward Bound or Lady Nelson.
From this vantage point, the rivulet and the thicket that Péron mentioned can also be seen below. The swampiness of the thicket means that it has remained largely unchanged since the French visited. In 2016, local landholder Paul Thomas purchased the land and donated it to the Friends Of Randalls Bay coastcare group to add to their Quarry Reserve.
Thomas grew up in the area. His parents, Max and Bev, ran sheep and in 1967 they bought the Echo Sugarloaf hill, which dominates the north-eastern side of the bay. Much of the hill had been burnt in bushfires of that year and Thomas remembers it being less vegetated than today. It was used as a dry sheep run, and Paul Thomas and his siblings would walk the hill banging tin cans to get the sheep moving. However, as it revegetated Max and Bev recognised the natural values of Echo Sugarloaf hill and in 2003 they made it available to the public reserve system. It has subsequently become a State Reserve managed by the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service.
Along with the Randalls Bay Conservation Area (Mickey's Beach) and the Quarry Reserve (now with its swampy thicket), this forms a valuable nature corridor in an area that supports the habitat of several endangered species, including the forty-spotted pardalote and the critically endangered swift parrot. The dry sclerophyll woodlands are dominated by blue gum, white gum, blackwood, sheoaks and coastal peppermint. A range of endemic orchids and nationally threatened mammals like the eastern-barred bandicoot, the Tasmanian devil and the eastern quoll find refuge within the ground vegetation.
A new walk, developed by the Friends of Randalls Bay Coastcare group and the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service, opened in 2018 to showcase the beauty and conservation values of the reserve. The Echo Sugarloaf Nature Track has become one of Tasmania’s most popular short walks, not least due to the panoramic views of Southwest National Park, the Huon River, D’Entrecasteaux Channel and Cygnet township from the summit.
Anyone atop this hill would have witnessed Péron and his men sail away 200 years ago. None of them could have imagined the momentous and tragic changes that would soon take place in this small bay. It is important that we recognise and preserve the remaining natural and cultural heritage of this corner of paradise.
Grace Heathcote is a Tasmanian writer. With a background in ecology and conservation, she has worked throughout Australia but has a soft spot for all things Tasmanian. Her writing has been published nationally, including in The Guardian, and her academic publications can be found in peer-reviewed journals such as Conservation Biology and Wildlife Research.
