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Lady
Barron
| Badger Corner Wildlife Sanctuary
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Lady
Barron
There
is a good sealed 25km long road between Whitemark and Lady Barron,
the sheltered port on Adelaide Bay in Franklin Sound. Franklin Sound's
waters are dangerous – a confusion of rocks and islands, channels
and shoals, seas that can "cut up rough" very quickly and often
with little warning. There may be a two-to-five knot tidal flow
but on a calm and sunny day it would be hard to imagine a lovelier
and more peaceful scene.
Lady
Barron has a modern concrete wharf which can accommodate eight trawlers
at once. Draught limit at high tide is 6.1 metres. A roll-on roll-off
facility makes for easy cargo handling. The fish processing works
and Abalone Hatchery of Furneaux Aquaculture is beside the wharf
area
Large
triangular slatted boxes, which float more than three quarters submerged
offshore, are called caufs (pronounced "coffs"). Live
crayfish are penned in them until required.
Often
few boats are to be seen. A good fishing port is, most of the time,
an empty port. In favourable weather, fishers will not be wasting
their time at home. In bad weather, fishing boats from Tasmania
and Victoria shelter at Lady Barron.
Lady
Barron is sometimes a welcome refuge for cruising yachts and for
competitors in the Sydney/Hobart race. This is also the first destination
for yachts in the Three Peaks Race.
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The
best view of this whole area is from nearby Vinegar Hill lookout
(107m). With binoculars or a telephoto lens, it is possible to see
beyond Scotts Lagoon and Logan Lagoon, the wild maelstrom of the
Pot Boil Shoals (when the Pot is boiling) off the south-east coast
of Flinders Island and the wreck of the Farsund on Vansittart Shoals,
north-east of Cape Barren Island.
The
shoals have been created by wind and eastward sweeping currents
from enormous masses of unconsolidated, shifting sand north and
south of the eastern entrance to Franklin Sound. At times a whole
island of sand may appear. You can land a boat and walk about on
it. A few days later it may have disappeared.
From
the big windows of the Flinders Island Lodge you can watch in comfort
the changing moods of this lovely waterway, the play of light and
cloud shadows on the mountains of Cape Barren Island across the
Sound.
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Badger
Corner Wildlife Sanctuary (430 hectares)
A large
section of Petrifaction Bay and its shoreline have been dedicated
as the Badger Corner Wildlife Sanctuary. The eastern boundary, not
far from Lady Barron wharf, is marked by tiny Fisher Island, the CSIRO
station, Yolla.
There
are extensive level rock platforms with sandbanks to which birds retreat
as the tide rises. The rocks may be black basalt but the sand is golden
and threaded with big lilac flowers and colourful fleshy leaves of
the Noonflowers. The whole area is most rewarding for bird observers
with its population of sea birds, local and long distance migratory
waders and small land birds.
At Badger
Corner, 2.5km from the Samphire River bridge, there are picnic facilities
and a boat ramp. Walk west along the fire trail or coast to Big River
and Trousers Point Beach. Sandy beaches
alternate with sculptured granite headlands. Beaches are lonely but
lovely – white beaches, golden beaches, with little creeks and
estuaries the colour of Chinese tea.
As the
National Park comes right down to the sea in places, you may see many
native animals especially at dawn and dusk. Fishing is good and bait
is available.
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The tiger snakes on Chappel Island starve for most of the year. Their diet consists of muttonbird chicks which are only available for a short period each year.
