On the fourth day of our mission Tasmania we had two choices – go for Dolphin Watch to an Island spend the night at Hobart and cut short the next day visit to return to Launceston to prepare for our return voyage to Melbourne. The second option was to visit Stanley Beach on South West for Seal Watch and some surrounding look outs and gardens. After lot of thoughts we decided for the later postponing watching Dolphins for next trip to Tasmania.

As usual we went for a sumptuous dinner to an authentic Thai Restaurant at Launceston. This time Rozy was our host from the money she saved from what allotted to her for shopping every month. She was pretty excited when she was voted the best photographer amongst four of us. She enjoyed the fireworks of the New Year’s celebration the previous night and made few friends.


Stanley beach is on the South West Coast of Tasmania from where nothing but water separates Australia from New Zealand Islands. The two and half hours drive was mostly along the coast with heavenly views of Bass Strait on one side and gardens and majestically set up gardens and towns on the other. Coffee break on the way in a war veteran managed restaurant gave us an opportunity to meet with a Second World War hero.  We reached the Stanley beach around 12 AM and found all trips to Seal watch for the day completely booked. But upon our explanation the operators agreed for a special trip for us after the scheduled last trip returns at 4PM. We had about four hours to spend. The views around were also exciting. First we had lunch in open air beside the beach and then visited a small aquatic animal museum. On suggestions of the local we took a ride on chair lift to the mountain top where from a distant view of New Zealand and surrounding water could be seen. We returned for Seal Watch trip in time. Before we describe our trip it will not be out of place to describe a little about Seals of Australia.

Australian Seals:


Australian Fur Seals use Bull Rock as their ‘haul-out’ or ‘holiday’ rock in Seal terms. The breeding grounds for Australian Fur Seals are Reid Rocks, located in the North West and Tenth Island in the North East. They rest, lie in the sun, and frolic in the water. The Seals travel up to 350kms to feed. Their diet includes squid, small fish and crustasions, and can consume up to one fifth of their body weight at any one time. The Great White Shark is the natural predator of the Australian Fur Seal.

The Bull Seals vary in size from 200-350kgs, while the females are around 180-200kgs.
The Pups are born between November 15 and December 30 each year. They range in size from 7-9kgs at birth. The Pups suckle the female up to 12 months. At approximately 6-8 weeks, The Pups have retained enough body fat and weight, at which time they are ready to enter the water.


Twin Pups have been born on Bull Rock, which is very rare, but in one year 3 sets have been sighted. Bull Rock, not being a breeding ground, Seals can be viewed within 100 meters of the Rock, and seals approach the boat on arrival. Black Faced Cormorants, Pacific Gulls, Oyster Catchers, and Arctic Turns can also be viewed at Bull Rock. Australasian Gannets if following their food chain close to shore, and Bottle Nose Dolphins are often viewed on the cruise.

Cruise Ship Endeavor:


Anderson and his Family operate a small cruise vessel for the visitors for seal watch .From the mooring point the small islands or rather very small blocks of land where seals appear for sun bathing from October to April every year is a half an hour distance. As we four were the only visitors on this special trip the operators were very kind to explain about the seals and how these have changed the economy of the small village through attracting thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. As we were getting close to the seals we saw them running towards us as they all know about this vessel by now and were expecting some fishes and food. The operators threw food for them. They were hundreds of different sizes. I had earlier experience of dealing with seals in Netherlands in 1988 when we spent few months on training at Gasuine BV with my Colleagues of Bangladesh Gas Sector. But for Rozy, Shuvro and Mahabub it was new experience. Although the smell was not very friendly but they enjoyed. The sea gulls and Seals were peaceful staying beside one another and were sharing food. We all took lot of photographs and some of these could be used as view cards. We returned to mooring point by 5:30 PM .

Visit to War Memorial Garden:


The War Memorial Garden was on the way back. We were amazed to see how affectionately Australians value their war heroes. The garden was looking majestic with multi colored flowers in full bloom. The Camellias, Dahlias, Tulips, Golden Wattles, Marigolds, Chrysanthemum and off course the various varieties of roses made that garden managed by local council a bliss of solitude . My wife Rozy had a lovely Rose garden at the roof of our apartment in Uttara Model Town Dhaka . So she had special reason to get excited.  I was reading the touching words that people wrote on the stones for the war heroes. This made me a bit nostalgic as well remembering about my works for the War Heroes and language martyrs at my Work Station at Ashuganj Gas Manifold Station of GTCL.
To be continued.

BDST: 1001 HRS, SEP 20, 2014