Bulletin - Vol 8 No. 6 November/December 2005

Hope for Tasman Island

by Christian Bell, LoA Inc Tasmanian representative

On about 16 hours notice from Australian Maritime Systems, an assessment team consisting of Brian Campbell (ranger), Phil Wicks (PWS field assistant & builder), Mike Dowling (asbestos consultant), Andy Cianchi (photographer) and Christian Bell (author), headed for Tasman Island on Thursday, 15 September 2005.

We left Safety Cove on the Tasman Peninsula for Tasman Island flying with Helicopter Resources. Our trip was organized to coincide with Australian Maritime Systems (AMSA's contractors) annual maintenance visit to the island. This greatly reduced the cost of transport to the island, as their helicopter was also made available to us. The weather was pretty stable at first with a fifteen to twenty knot breeze towards the later part of the day.

When talking to the Parks staff, we discovered that the Nature Conservation Branch had been on the island a week before with a party of people to shoot feral cats. During their stay, they occupied the visitors house (Quarters number 3 - the second Assistants keepers cottage). Unlike us, they came by sea and landed their boat near the deteriorating haulage way.

After landing on the island's helipad, we found the Australian Maritime Systems crew hard at work, servicing the tower. Thanks to their efforts, it was in very good condition. They were also mowing the grass around the tower and helipad. It was surprising to see that the mower still worked, even though it has received a constant drenching of rain ever since half of the roof of the service building in which it was stored blew off. Later, it broke a belt which will need replacing during the next field visit. To protect it from further damage by water, we covered the mower up with roofing iron which we weighted down. 

The service shed is one of the original brick buildings on the island and is a priority to repair. It could easily be done given it is one of the few buildings without asbestos in its roof and replacing the roofing iron should be easy.

Mike Dowling conducted very thorough inspection of the asbestos on the island and will be producing a detailed report for Parks. In his opinion, all the asbestos roofs should be replaced rather than being treated with a sealant. Mike will explain all the reasons in his report but the main concern is that the asbestos roof sheets are much weathered and too brittle to walk on when it is necessary to gain access to missing roof and chimney capping or sheeting. The capping on the chimneys of all houses is missing or badly damaged and appears to be the main point of rainwater leakage. Only the roof in Quarters No3 is still keeping the interior dry. How long this will continue is anyone's guess.

Quarters No 3 is neat, tidy and clean. and still has that certain "lived in" feeling to it, due to the past presence of people participating in previous Parks working bees or Australian Maritime Systems staff staying at the house during maintenance visits. The interior is in much better condition than I thought it would be, though there is obviously still plenty of work to do on the outside of the house.

The other two houses have a much more deserted air to them. Given that no one has used them for nearly thirty years, it is not surprising. Their condition was, however, still somewhat better than I had anticipated. One's views on these things tends to be influenced by how they are remembered from the previous visit. Phil Wicks who last visited Tasman four years ago observed quite a few changes. For example, water leaking through the uncapped chimneys rusted all the wood heaters to the point of not being functional. On his last visit, many were still quite useable. Phil Wicks and Brian Campbell are producing a condition report that would document the changes noted since previous visits and are compiling the list of priority maintenance tasks.

There are plenty of small maintenance jobs at Tasman Lightstation that could be done at modest cost. These would probably amount to about 30% of all tasks that need to be done. The other 70% consists of much more expensive jobs that require substantial funding to realise. In many cases, the expense would largely depend on the choice of the way in which the task would be executed. For example, all the houses have some bricks on the weather side of the building that have deteriorated and crumbled off, allowing the moisture to enter into the house's interior. The easiest way the fix this problem would be to render these walls, a job which could easily be done in one day at a modest cost. However, such an approach would have negative visual impact and erode the houses' exterior heritage value, even though they may well conserve the heritage value of the interior. Cutting out the perishing bricks and mortar in their replacement would be more expensive and time consuming, but it would not diminish the buildings' heritage value. A less satisfactory compromise approach would be cementing the holes up. Because Tasman Island does not have a conservation management plan for guidance on such decisions yet, it might be some time before anything happens on this matter. 

Travel to the island was made easier (at a much lower cost) in that we combined our visit with Australian Maritime Systems annual maintenance of the lighthouse. The Bureau of Meteorology (who were also supposed to be part of the September 14 visit to the island) did not come because a part they needed was not ready. The Bureau normally undertakes two visits to Tasman a year (budget dependent). After telephoning them they confirmed an interest in combining their potential visits with our field trips in the future.

As for surface transport, it still may be an option depending on the skill and fitness of the participating individuals. The track on the haulage way, while steep, has a hand rail for most of its length, the track and sleepers are still solidly in place and an individual of average fitness probably would not find it too difficult to climb. Andy from our party tried it and went two thirds the way down and up the haulage way track.

More difficult would be landing by boat, however Nature Conservation Branch, the Marine Police and numerous sea kayakers do use this method of access to Tasman via the sea, so it should be acceptable for volunteers too. The main proviso is that such people should be very experienced in getting in an out of small boats and that the coxswain is also very good at handling the ship in such situations. An inflatable boat would be the best one to use. We did not get to the zigzag track on this trip so we were not able to assess this alternative way of access. 

These are the main tasks and jobs to do on subsequent field trips. The list is not exhaustive.

• Cut back vegetation from buildings
• Re-establish tracks
• To remove and inspect the fittings on the gas stove. Before it is repaired, it should be possible to use the gas barbecue from the visitors house for cooking. More LPG gas needs to be brought, the gas cylinders are empty
• An electrician needs to inspect visitor house wiring. Electricity is only available if a generator is running. Consider purchase of a generator to leave on island. Cheap petrol generators are readily available
• Re-roofing of the service shed is a priority. It could be done easily because the roof actually does not contain asbestos as the other buildings
• Undertake flora survey and develop weed strategy

Thanks very much to Leah Page for organizing the necessary approvals and the JSA's in conjunction with Brian Campbell.

Christian Bell
Friends of Tasman Island
Marine & Coastal Community Network
Lighthouses of Australia Inc Tasmanian representative

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