In and out of Hobart, we follow in the footsteps of the first peoples of Tasmania and those who came after them.
The physical shape of these trails have been cut through the landscape over a period of 40,000 years, first by the feet of the Muwinina people and in more recent times the stamping hooves of horses on packhorse trails.
And all the while birds found nowhere else on earth have provided the background music for these songlines and laylines. This soundscape is a link with history as strong as contours etched into mountains and valleys.
The latest celebration of these ancient links comes in the shape of an information panel installed along the Lower Pipeline Track in South Hobart.
Although there are many of these panels shining a light on both human and natural history throughout the Hobart area, this one concentrates purely on birdlife. That’s appropriate because the sign itself is located at what has become a popular bird-watching spot, the Fantail Quarry situated about a kilometre along the track before it meets Romilly St at the border of South Hobart and Dynnyrne.
The idea to turn the disused and overgrown quarry into a nature reserve came from a member of the Waterworks Valley Landcare group who had seen a similar “pop-up” nature reserve in a mainland city.
Over recent years members of the group have cleared the site of invasive weeds and planted native grasses, shrubs and trees supplied by the Hobart City Council nursery. Nest boxes have also been installed.
In all, 50 bird species have been spotted at the quarry site, including the grey fantail which gives the location its name.
Hobart is not alone in protecting and extolling its ancient pathways. They appear on maps of towns and cities throughout the world. I always seek them out when I travel and am constantly amazed at how many have survived. The footsteps of our forefathers are difficult to erase.
When I once lived in New York City, I discovered that the famous Broadway thoroughfare was initially a Native American trail, linking fishing grounds on the tip of Manhattan to those in the north of what was then an island. When the grid street pattern was adopted as homes replaced farmland, what was to become Broadway was so set in folklore and history it was allowed to run diagonally across the neat, square street pattern.
Although the Pipeline Track, built above the pipeline supplying water from kunanyi/ Mt Wellington to the city, might have a more utilitarian purpose, it still follows an Aboriginal track linking the Derwent to the mountain. This track later became the Huon packhorse trail which Charles Darwin followed on his trip to Hobart in the early 1800s.
First peoples or the father of evolutionary theory, the birdsong at Fantail Quarry connects them both, echoing from the past, ringing through the ages.