Quirky Tasmania
The wheels of time turn back over a hundred years as the peaceful village of Evandale in northern Tasmania once again plays host to the Evandale Village Fair and National Penny Farthing Championships. The Evandale Village Fair is held annually in February, and features a full program of Penny Farthing bicycle racing featuring the National Penny Farthing Championship.
Started in 1983 the Evandale Penny Farthing races attract enthusiasts from across Australia and around the world. Accompanying the Penny Farthings races are a country fair and period themed festival.
The World's Toughest Half Marathon is a grueling 22 kilometre footrace from Wrest Point Casino to the pinnacle of Mt Wellington, held every November. All finishers within the time limits will receive a finishers medal and a digital finisher's certificate. The first prize is $2,000 each (male and female). Also run is the 10km Point to Pub Marathon.
The Two-day Chocolate Winterfest is held annually at Latrobe, just a 10 minute drive from Devonport. It is no coincidence that the Latin name for cocoa, from which chocolate is made, translates as "food of the gods". Some cultures even valued chocolate more than gold, and who could blame them. Just the mere mention of chocolate turns heads and that's what Chocolate Winterfest, Latrobe will do to you. The Chocolate Winterfest will indulge, inform, astound, amuse but above all celebrate chocolate as you escape from the bleakness of winter.
River raft race including music and ground activities for young and old. The Derby is an integral part of The North East Rivers Festival based in Derby in north-eastern Tasmania. The Ferstival in fact grew on the back of the iconic Derby River Derby. Every year, young folk and adventuresome adults tackle the windy, rapid laden Ringarooma River vying for trophies and bragging rights. The Festival offers several different events over 2 big weekends in October each year. You can fish, golf, enjoy a wine tasting to music or get really active by being involved in a full on adventure participating in the Derby River Derby or Bridport Fun Run.
A biennial celebration of wooden boats and maritime traditions on Hobart's historic waterfront. The inaugural Australian Wooden Boat Festival was held in November 1994 by boating enthusiasts and friends, Cathy Hawkins, Ian Johnston and Andy Gamlin. Held over just two days, the Festival attracted enormous crowds and featured a very successful food component, a French frigate that transported a canoe from Isle de Pins (New Caledonia) and the HM Bark Endeavour Replica on her maiden voyage from Perth, WA. In 2017, the remarkable tall ship Tenacious made Hobart her port for a five-day stopover, demonstrating that serious blue-water ocean sailing is not just for the able-bodied. The ship is designed to be sailed by people living with a broad range of disabilities. Tenacious has established an Australian base and plans Austral summer seasons in future.
Doo Town, not far from Eaglehawk Neck on the way to Port Arthur, is where the residents have become very creative - and funny - by incorporating the word "Doo" into the novel names of their properties. Doo Town is on Pirate's Bay, from which cruises up and down the Tasman Peninsula coastline depart.
Wasabi
Tasmania has created a niche producing and exporting a range of boutique 'quirky' foods to mainland Australia and across the world. Tasmania has the ideal clean and cool climate for producing wasabi - the hot green plant used extensively in Japanese cooking. Farmer Ian Farquhar is the founder of the state's wasabi industry and grows wasabi for restaurants on the Australian mainland and in Japan. Prior to 2000, the Australian restaurant trade did not have access to fresh wasabi. More >>
Follow the road from Wilmot to Devonport travel down the aptly named "Valley of the Views", which is also known as the Wilmot Novelty Letterbox Trail. and you'll nNot only will you be treated to some great scenery, you'll find the road is lined with the most interesting and unique array of letterboxes you are ever likely to see. Someone started the trend a few decades ago, it caught on and now everyone has one! Also look out for the graphic portrayal of Wilmot s history by local artists and school children on telegraph poles along the road.
The names of rivers, coastal features, districts and their streets tell a lot about the history of a place. Australia has plenty of unusual place names, but when it comes to the strange, quirky and sometimes downright rude (by modern meaning of words), Tasmania has it all over the other states.
The reason for that is that much of Tasmania was pioneered by Scottish and Irish migrants. There's nothing unusual about that, except that the ones Tasmania inherited all seem to have had a rather strange sense of humour when it came to naming places. As expected, they splashed plenty of Irish and Scottish place names about, but then they threw some rather colourful, whimsical, odd-ball names into Tasmania's nomenclature pot for good measure. Names like Nowhere Else, Flowerpot and Butchers Bottom.
Not to be outdone, others followed their lead with such beauties as Half Woody Hill, Eggs and Bacon Bay, Boobs Flat, Look-In Lookout and Snug. No doubt these names made a lot of sense at the time, but they leave us today scratching our heads and wondering, "what on earth were they thinking!".
