Easy-To-Get-To Tasmania

For A Cool Holiday, Try Easy-To-Get-To Tasmania

Islands residents usually try to visit Australia in the summer months when the heat can be worse than what they left behind. Those who really want a change of climate and a cooling-off period can, however, try the island State of Tasmania.

THE new, so-called Searoad to Tas mania from Sydney now makes getting there pleasanter and easier and you can take the family car with no more trouble than it takes to drive into a parking station.

The Australian-built, 10,000-ton motor-vessel Empress of Australia went into service in January for the Australian National Line. She makes three voyages to Tasmania a fort night—the first to Hobart and the second and third to Bell Bay (the aluminium refinery at the mouth of the Tamar River) and Burnie on the NW coast.

She carries 250 passengers in single, double and four-berth cabins and 1,200 tons of cargo in passengers’ vehicles, freight vehicles or bulk con tainers.

Quick Turn-Around A feature of the new service is that the vessel is turned around within 12 hours—the crew of over 100 has three months of duty and then a month off.

A passenger can simply drive his :ar on to the vessel over the big item ramp about li hours before the vessel leaves port, park it as directed and forget it until he is ready to disembark. Vehicles are deared from the ship at journey’s md in short order—usually within 10 or 40 minutes.

The voyage between Sydney and Hobart takes about 37 hours; be ween Burnie and Sydney a couple )f hours less. The Empress is itabilised and air-conditioned—al hough on this run, even in summer veather, it doesn’t much need the alter.

Intending travellers would be well idvised to take something warm to )ut on in the public rooms, most of vhich (when a PIM representative ravelled to and from Tasmania in he vessel in February) were posi

ively frigid.

The cabins are on the small side but adequate for a voyage that takes only two nights and one full day.

Only the single de luxe cabins, the double de luxe cabins and the two suites have private showers and toilets. This type of accommodation is very limited, so if you are a discriminating traveller who likes the best available, it is necessary to book long in advance.

Decor in cabins and public rooms is modern, if slightly on the severe side.

The only matter on which the in terior decorators have really let their heads go is on curtains—or as they say in the US, drapes. Some of these are quite spectacular.

Undoubtedly the most pleasant public room is the huge smoke-room and, strangely for Australian travellers who usually have very long thirsts, it frequently has only half a dozen passengers rattling around in it. The air-conditioning might have something to do with this. If it were allowed to warm up a little, longer thirsts might be the outcome.

Invisible Stewards If you are used to the kind of cabin steward who becomes part of the cabin fixtures, you will probably be amazed at those on the Empress.

In fact it is possible (as in our case) to travel to Hobart and back from Burnie and not sight the cabin steward once.

The bed is made up and the cabin cleaned some time when you are out of sight and, if you are the type who apportions part of your travel budget to a tip for your steward, you will likely have to leave it on the dressing table on the morning of departure.

Your steward is off somewhere struggling with the mountains of luggage carried by non-vehicle owning passengers. (If you have brought a vehicle, the drill is to

leave your luggage packed in it and bring into the cabin only a small bag, with the amount of equipment you’ll need for the short voyage.) Nonetheless, all members of the crew are obliging, courteous and helpful.

Against the general excellence of the vessel and its service, there are a few minor irritations that will probably be ironed out in time.

There is a shop which sells souvenirs, paperback books and postage stamps —but there is (or was, in February) no post box, although the purser would take letters for posting.

The decks outside some of the cabins have fluorescent lighting, but as no shades, other than lined cur tains, are provided for the windows, it is impossible to adequately darken the cabins. Probably the fluorescent lights should be turned out some time through the night, but they aren’t.

Or at least, weren’t.

Finally, there is the ever-lasting piped music that issues from hun dreds of loudspeakers in every nook and cranny of the ship, from break fast time until late supper. It is im possible to escape from it even in your cabin because there are speakers attached to thie bulkheads in corri dors and even to the outside tleck.

Even those who appreciate “Over the Sea to Skye” or the late Nat King Cole in small doses might quail when these things are repeated ad nauseam. People who treasure an occasional moment of complete silence are almost driven to attacking the sound outlets with a hatchet.

Costs

(All single voyages; no discount for return.) The costs of taking cars, which must be accompanied by a passenger are: Up to 11 ft. long, £27; special return concession, £36. 11 ft.-13 ft. long, £32; special return concession, £42. 13 ft. 6 ft.-15 ft. 6 in. long, £36; special return concession, £4B.

Over 15 ft. 6 in., £4l; special return concession, £54. (A VW 1200, for example, is in the 11 ft.-13 ft. 6 in. category.) There are other charges for caravans (from £35 return); and for cycles (£6 return).

Tasmania has a history almost as long as New South Wales and the relics of its early colonial and penal settlement period are far better preserved. Beautiful old country homes, built in the English manner 100 to 140 years; ago, are still being lived in—sometimes by descendants of the original family.

The old penal establishment ruins (some of them being restored), at Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula are interesting, and" Port Arthur, itself, and indeed the whole Tasman Peninsula, are scenically beautiful in any man’s language.

The whole South East corner of

Tasmania is fretted with waterways and is a yachtsman’s paradise. The island possesses some of the best pastoral property in the Common wealth, lush farms on its north coast, thousands upon thousands of acres of apples and pears (all for export). and some extraordinarily large secondary industries attracted by abundant hydro-generated electricity, Tasmania’s main roads are good and, for a mainlander. surprisingly free of traffic. There are first-class hotels in Hobart and Launceston and good, modern hotel-motel type of accommodation in the main tourist afbasJ

The cost of passages in the Empress are: Berth in a 4-berth cabin £17 0 0 Berth in a 2-berth cabin £18 10 0 Berth in a double de luxe cabin £22 10 0 Berth in suite . . £24 0 0 Single cabin £20 0 0 Single cabin de luxe . . £22 10 0