Trip to Albatross Island

We were privileged to visit the magical Albatross Island west of Three Hummock Island. The island has no inhabitants - just the wildlife, particularly Shy Albatross Diomedea cauta. Friends of ours, Casey, Mel, Sam and Amy took us over in their boat. It was a perfect day weather wise to make the journey and we spent a couple of hours exploring the island and enjoyed viewing the fascinating Shy Albatross that breed there.

The rocky island from the sea on approach.

"Guyra" - Casey and Mel's boat safely anchored awaiting our return
- note the calm sea.

John takes his first step off the tender onto the island

John helping Amy down the ladder and into the valley.

John entering the big cave.

Looking back towards Three Hummock Island - you can see the three hummocks clearly from Albatross island - this aspect shows why both islands were so named.

The magnificent young Shy Albatross on their nests.

Goodbye Albatross Island - a wonderful adventure

The Shy Albatross is unique to Tasmania and Albatross Island is one of the three islands on which they breed. Albatrosses are one of the most threatened seabird groups in the world. This island is a Nature Reserve and a very special place.

The Vegetable Garden

The garden has been flourishing over Summer and providing us with most of our vegetables - we have harvested - broad beans, potatoes, zucchini, lettuce, strawberries, onions, beans (bush and scarlet runners), spring onions, peas, carrots, rhubarb, leeks, spinach and rocket. The herbs we have growing are corriander, rosemary, oregano, russian tarragon, basil, sage, parsley, thyme, chives, borage, comfrey, mint and we are even have horseradish!

Soon we should have delicious tomatoes.

Nearly ripe

The old bath tub full of herbs

Scarlet runner beans - after they have finished we will cut them down and they will hopefully continue to give us beans for 7 years!

All our efforts have paid off - composting is essential in the sandy soil here, but finally we have it all sorted and everything is doing well. We are fortunate we don't have frosts which is certainly an attribute. The garden is fully enclosed to stop possums and birds from entering.

The garden provides us with great joy and it is wonderful to watch nature develop under your hands.

Come on down to the island and we are sure to have something fresh to supplement your meals!!

Island inhabitants

Three Hummock Island was not immune to the rain that fell on the whole eastern seaboard of Australia this summer.  After a relatively dry spring we were thankful for the rain.

The many roos that graze around the homestead were looking decidedly soaked after three days of rain.

Once the sun came out they spent the next couple of days lying around in the grass near the homestead drying out.

Three Hummock leek-orchid

Three Hummock Island has it's own orchid! It was found here in 1999 and to date our island is the only place in the world where this species is found! It only grows on the main airstrip.

On December 14 a count was carried out. Over 300 plants were counted by 7 people. Quite a job as the airstrip is 1 km long and also has cross sections.

The scientific name is Prasophyllum atratum.

The group consisted of Wendy Potts from the Threatened species unit in Hobart, Peter Hefferon from Parks Tasmania, 2 volunteers - Janine and Alison - even the pilot Chas joined in - of course John and Beverley too!

One of the beautiful orchids on the air strip

The team arriving to do the count.

Wendy Potts from the Threatened species unit in Hobart.

The count is on!

Enjoying a cuppa after a rewarding afternoon


Left to right - Janine, John, Alison, Wendy, Peter and Chas pilot from Seair Wynyard Tasmania. Beverley took the photo.

It is just amazing that something so unique is growing on our airstrip!

A perfect island escape?

There's something about Three Hummock Island that captures the hearts of all who are lucky enough to visit.

Giuseppe Garibaldi, the famous uniter of Italy, happened upon our shores in 1852.  He was one of the first to try and capture in words what he felt for our island:

"O desert island of the Hunter Group - how many times have you pleasantly excited my imagination.  When tired of this civilized society, so full of tyrants and gendarmes, I have often transported myself in my imagination into your gracious bosom."

Here is what some more recent visitors have had to say in our guest book:

• Too wonderful to put into words.
• A very special place
• A magical place
• It is refreshing to know that untouched wilderness still exists.  In one week we saw only a few of the wonders this island can reveal.
• Our stay has been a very special experience.  You can feel the spirit of the island all around you.
• Bliss!
• Absolute serenity.  A little piece of heaven untouched.  Pristine beaches, turquoise waters.  Simply utopia!

• Definitely one of the highlights of Tassie.  Will be back.
• A lovely, restful place.
• This island may well be the best place in Australia.
• It's been a dream come true and more.  This island is idyllic and its lonely beaches and bush tracks, its birds and dolphins.  Quite magic.
• Wonderful, isolated environment.
• What an experience - rugged beauty.

What will you say about Three Hummock Island when you visit?

John and Beverley - Managers

Why do you live here?

This is a question often asked of us. Some think we are crazy, adventurous and many other thoughts! We just wanted to change our lifestyle - as simple as that. May 2008 we set our plan in action. We both resigned from our jobs, rented out our very cherished home to a lovely lady, who is looking after it really well and headed west! Sounds easy, but it was actually a big process! Our first stop was a month living on the western side of the Simpson Desert with a group called Desert Discovery - we identify mammals, birds, plants etc for an entire month - wonderful! Great group of people and we meet every two years in another desert - sadly because of our location we missed out this year.

Our rig - Leaving home!

Next was voluntary caretakers at the beautiful Eyre Bird Observatory, Western Australia - Old Telegraph Station built in 1897 - we spent 7 months there. We looked after day and overnight guests (including cooking all the meals!) Identified and counted birds and had an absolutely sensational time there. A great place to visit if you are travelling the Eyre Highway - it is located between Cocklebiddy and Madura and about 50 kms south of the highway along a very sandy 4WD track - a kilometre from the Great Australian Bight and the Southern Ocean.

Taken from the top of one of the many sand dunes.

Some of the amazing birds that visited us - Major Mitchell Cockatoos

We were to go to the Bungle Bungles in the Kimberley next as camp hosts but the position we accepted was given to a couple who had been there last season - we were very disappointed. What do we do now?? Luckily we had a guest at Eyre who told us of the position here! So the process started and finally we arrived here in March 2009 to manage the island. We are great believers in fate - we had never even heard of this island - neither had a lot of our friends and family.

Aerial view of the south west of the island -we live at the top right in the dark green section.
We love living on this beautiful island.

Flying visit

Where did September go? We have been busy renovating the guest cottage. There are never enough hours in the day! We have also been doing our planting in the vegie garden for this season and with everyday chores and visitors we haven't seemed to stop! People ask how we spend our days here??? We have plenty to do.

On Friday afternoon we had 5 planes and 13 people visit the island. They left Melbourne on Friday morning, lunch at King Island, here for the night. They left here Saturday heading to Wynyard for refueling, Bridport for lunch, Flinders Island for the night and back into Melbourne Sunday afternoon. What a great trip! The picture above shows the 5 planes parked at the side of the main airstrip for the night. John is the traffic controller and has the vehicle ready for transport of luggage and guests.

The first plane as it landed at the main airstrip.

Bec and Shelley ready for departure. Shelley (left) is a writer for Aviation magazines and is doing an article on the trip. Shelley has been the first female pilot here since we arrived.

Beverley and John with eyes to the sky watching one of the planes leaving the island.

Jonathon Merridew from Lilydale airport with his plane - Jonathon organised the trip. He is one the pilots who regularly flies charter planes here from Melbourne.

A great visit was had by all - Friday afternoon was spent exploring the settlement area and a few guys even managed to throw a line in at the jetty! A group went to the Muttonbird rookery with John to watch the birds come in at dusk - an amazing sight. Of course a walk along the beach was on the agenda for some. Saturday came too quickly for them all as they bid us farewell till their next visit.

Telstra's visit

Our fax line is not working so telstra came to fix it. Does your technican come by helicopter and also pick up your grocery order? It is quite an occasion for us! Beverley even got an opportunity to do some baking which was greatly appreciated.

Unfortunately they couldn't find the fault so will have to come back and maybe do some digging! John was helping!

Adrian the pilot and John unloaded the groceries - John is pretty excited as we had run out of potato chips! He now has them in his hands! We did get healthy food too.

Just another day of island life.

Nice to be home

We are home from our holiday to visit family and friends - and this is the welcome we get! These babies only left the nest this morning and the parents are doing a great job protecting them. John got too close obviously.Tracy and her two sons Eli and Link came over while we were away and took excellent care of the island. It was a wonderful experience for them. As with other guests the island got into Tracy's veins and she was very sad to leave this paradise.

We are very happy to be home!