People & Places
Introducing Tasmania
The island state of Tasmania may look like paradise on earth, but it has much more than just fantastic views
Patricia Curmi sets off to Tasmania and finds out what makes the 'Apple Isle' a real Golden Delicious for the canny few who decide to settle here.
"I know we're going round in circles; I recognise that sheep over there!" This comment, offered by my Tasmanian host as she drove me from Launceston airport, was one of the many indications I would come across on my travels around the island state that Tasmania is as quirky as it is beautiful.
The drive from Launceston in the north to the capital city of Hobart on the south coast takes about two hours. It takes two and a half, however, if your driver veers into oncoming traffic every time she tries to read a map at the steering wheel, but any attempt to remove my vocal chords from the pit of my stomach and mention this possible hazard was laughed off by our Tassie with a hoot, "Ah, no worries! What a bunch of sooks!" This sums up the Tasmanian outlook on life quite nicely: roll up your sleeves, smile and get on with it. While 'sooks' (wimps) might whine about the weather, Tassies will walk out in a downpour, laugh at your efforts to keep dry and tell you that if you think this is bad you should have seen the storm of '96.
Anyone who's been to Australia will tell you the Aussies are a friendly bunch, and this is especially true in Tasmania. Where else in the world would you hear of a local girl marrying the Prince of Denmark? Being 240 kilometres away from the mainland on a floating paradise with a population of about 486,000, seems to have infused people there with limitless self-sufficiency, bubbling energy and an amazing ability to make strangers feel completely welcome and at ease. But before you ever fall for the earthy, happy-go-lucky charm of the Tassie people, you're left awestruck by the Tasmanian landscape. It has more in common with New Zealand than any other state in Australia, except maybe its nearest neighbour state, Victoria.
Like New Zealand, Tasmania has the kind of natural diversity on a small scale that means you can go skiing, shopping and beachcombing in the same day, and all without spending much money. Over 40 per cent of the state is officially deemed to be nature reserves and world heritage zones. But it's not just a case of walking along nature trails and looking through chainlink fences at the wildlife; Tasmanian cities and towns are built around the natural features of the area. You never feel a distinct point where nature ends and the city begins. It's a refreshing change to the usual concrete sprawl. Take the mountains, for example. Tasmania is Australia's most mountainous region and you don't have to wander far before you're standing at the foot of one, snow glistening at its peak, tempting you with panoramic views of Tasmania.
A life of city-dwelling and a severe naivety about your own fitness levels may lead you, like me, to assume you can scale the heights of these monoliths but, as you clamber along the designated route, gasping for air while small Tasmanian children skip past you, you may come to realise the Tasmanian love of all things sporty really pays off. The temperate climate means that while summer is rarely excessively hot, winter is always relatively mild. Weather-wise, Tasmania is much like North West Spain, but there are days in the summer where the temperature occasionally creeps up to 38ºC. The state is roughly the size of the Republic of Ireland, which may come as a shock to anyone who looks at it on a map. It is completely dwarfed by the gigantic mainland Australia.
The 68,400 square kilometres of space means that it has a relatively low population density, with a large portion of Tasmanians living in or near the main towns of Hobart and Launceston.
After a period in the 1990s of economic stagnation, the Tasmanian government has put all its efforts into streamlining the economy in order to catch up with the national average of labour force participation. Unemployment currently stands at 5.2 per cent. The establishment of the Spirit of Tasmania ferries and low budget internal airlines like Jetstar and Virgin Blue have played a major part in the state's surge in popularity as a tourist destination. It has also doubled its share of migrants over the last five years, though it still has one of the lowest number of migrants of any Australian state. Just under two hundred Brits arrived in Tasmania last year, compared to the roughly 4,000 who migrated to New South Wales.
When it comes to interstate migration, however, Tasmania is becoming the top choice for Aussies. There are a large number of public servants employed in Tasmania, and the tourism industry, buoyed by a boom in interstate travel, has also been a primary source of job growth. Chefs, medical professions, builders, metal-workers, auto industry specialists and engineers are all on the skills shortage demand list. At its economic roots, Tasmania is a small island community, again mirroring New Zealand in its small business market as a significant sector. High streets in Hobart are full of independent butchers, clothing stores and even in the area of IT, a sizeable amount of smaller companies can be found competing with the multi-national brands. The spill-over effect of the economic upturn has meant property prices have taken off in Tasmania. The Housing and Community Research Unit at the University of Tasmania noted prices rose all over Tasmania by as much as 38 per cent at the end of 2004.
Read other Tasmanian based articles:
From Hobart to Launceston
Hop down to Hobart
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