THE CAMERON REGIONAL RESERVE

photographers CRAIG SEARLE and RAY van ENGEN

There are two Mt Camerons in Tasmania, both named after Lieutenant Colonel Charles Cameron, Commandant of Port Dalrymple from 1823 to 1825. Mt Cameron West is near Marrawah in the north-west of the state. The other, originally known as Mt Cameron East but nowadays just Mt Cameron, dominates the skyline in the far north-east where it is the centrepiece of the Cameron Regional Reserve and, while it may not have the jaw-dropping scenery of the Walls of Jerusalem or the worldwide fame of Cradle Mountain, this reserve has much to recommend it.

It is a very special place with much to see and is well worth a visit.

With bushwalking trails to various high points and places of interest, bizarre and evocative rock formations, and mining relics, this 20,000-hectare regional reserve is a perfect place for those who want to visit the Tasmanian bush while avoiding the crowds that routinely flock to the previously mentioned icons.

The Mt Cameron mountain range is basically a granite outcrop and the rock formations all over the range are extraordinary. Ranging from Cube Rock at the eastern end, which is visible from many kilometres away, to the Church Spire, which George Augustus Robinson described in 1830 on one of his journeys through the north-east, there are various other formations that appear all over the mountain.

The Maze, the Armchair, Turtle Rock, the Sheep’s Head, Whale Rock and Penguin Rock appear almost out of nowhere along the various trails.

Visitors will regularly come across old, hand-built water races, dry stone walls and other relics of the European and Chinese tin mining days that started in the 1870s, including some old miner’s huts. The two largest mines were the Monarch on the northern slopes and the Endurance in the south, and their legacy is abundant.  Dams, tailings dumps and old machinery can be found in many places and the severe erosion sometimes evident is testament to the lack of environmental concerns in that era.

Botanists love Mt Cameron. Although it might seem to be a run of the mill dry sclerophyll forest, there are many native orchids, several rare and endangered plants and some patches of remnant rainforest with tree ferns and myrtle that have escaped the regular bushfires for decades.

But the Cameron Regional Reserve has something else that makes it a very special place. Sitting quietly on the northern slopes of the mountain, where it has been for almost 50 years, is Scottsdale High School’s Field Study Centre. This outdoor education facility was built in 1975, the brainchild of teacher Jeff Jennings, and is now the only publicly owned outdoor education centre of its type left in Tasmania.

The Field Study Centre hosts schools from around the state for school camps that range from three to eight days. It is a wonderful base for bushwalking and field naturalist clubs who often stay for a weekend so that they can explore the area. Emergency service organisations and the University of Tasmania also use the centre to run training courses. High-profile sporting clubs occasionally visit, and the walls of the centre boast pictures of the Essendon and North Melbourne football clubs and the Tasmanian Sheffield Shield cricket team.

With an extensive high and low ropes course, access to rock climbing, abseiling and kayaking sites, and bushwalking trails to various parts of the reserve, as well as being close to the world famous Derby mountain bike trails, the field study centre offers a variety of outdoor experiences from the gentle to the extreme.

Most visiting students climb Mt Cameron as part of their stay, and this activity is a good example of the power and value of outdoor education. At 551 metres, it is not a high mountain, but it is a solid climb with some exposure and rock scrambling towards the summit. I worked as the resident teacher at Mt Cameron for a decade and in that time guided several thousand students to this peak. For many it was their first mountain.

When viewed from below, the summit looks a long way away and quite a daunting challenge. The feeling of achievement when students complete the climb can be life-changing and something they always remember. While we were all sitting around the trig point savouring the views and the sense of accomplishment, I often took the opportunity to deliver a brief history lesson. At times like this students are very receptive and what many might find boring in the classroom comes alive as you explain that they are sitting in the same place that George Robinson, Truganini, Woorrady and other indigenous members of Robinson’s party also sat on December 4, 1830.

At the extreme end of the outdoor education experiences delivered at the field study centre sit the famous Scottsdale High School survival camps. Grade 10 students are dropped into the bush, blindfolded, with minimal equipment and have to survive for several days. The scenario is a simulated plane crash where students have to search for useful items, locate a small stock of food, build their own shelters and navigate to a pick-up point. To make things a little more difficult, the group is told they are in “enemy” territory and must keep off all roads and tracks, so the only option is to make their way through untracked bush.

Several teachers accompany each group for safety and will occasionally throw in some more challenges such as getting the group to build a stretcher and carry a patient or getting the whole group across a body of water with only a single rubber raft.

Such is the reputation of these camps that many schools and indeed the Essendon Football Club have visited Mt Cameron just to participate in these character-building exercises.

So the next time you are planning a visit into the Tasmanian bush, particularly if you want to escape the crowds and expand your horizons a little, visit the Cameron Regional Reserve. You will not be disappointed.

Craig Searle is an eighth-generation Tasmanian who proudly hails from convict stock. A teacher for 31 years, he retired in 2011, having spent the last part of his career as an outdoor education specialist. He has a passion for wilderness, remote places and lighthouses and has spent two winters on Maatsuyker Island. He lives in Scottsdale with Debbie, his wife and partner in a lifetime of adventures.