Submitted by Rebekah Houser on the 2016 winter session program in Australia sponsored by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Mathematical Sciences…
This weekend afforded another chance to get out of Melbourne and visit other areas of Australia. I joined a few friends on a trip to Tasmania, where we visited Launceston and Hobart. We had been invited to stay with a family in Launceston, which proved a nice break in our constant activity. It also provided a chance to gain new perspectives on life in Australia on topics ranging from bushfires to convicts and ancestry.
Our weekend started with the closest encounter I’ve had yet with a bushfire (which was actually not very close at all, just so no one thinks I was even remotely in danger). As we began the descent to the Launceston airport, we flew into what I thought was a cloud. In fact, it was smoke from bushfires. I could smell it as soon as we got out of the plane, though the fires themselves were apparently many miles away. The haze looked like a fog and turned the sun into a solid pink disk. Bushfires are fairly common in much of Australia, but when we talked with our hosts later that evening, they told us this smoke was the worst they had ever seen in Launceston. That information would have been disconcerting, but they seemed unworried, so I relaxed and enjoyed our visit.
The family that hosted us also provided a wealth of information on Tasmania, and things to do in Hobart. One especially interesting comment made by our friends regarded the convict history of Tasmania. We mentioned our plans to visit Port Arthur, and one person commented how tracing one’s ancestry from a convict used to be considered embarrassing in Tasmania. However, having a convict in one’s line is now seen as somewhat exciting. The history of the convicts is certainly very much a part of the heritage of areas surrounding Port Arthur. In addition to the penal colony, we visited an old church and the oldest bridge still used in Australia (Richmond Bridge). Both were built by convicts.
The rest of the weekend involved more touring, a chance to feed kangaroos, and a visit to MONA. All the excursions were very interesting, but for me the highlight was sitting at a kitchen table in Launceston, watching the Australian Open and visiting. Hearing of our friends’ experiences and perspectives made Australia seem more relatable, though no less fascinating than before.