Bill Surtees and Huon Pine Boats
Traditional Piner's punt on Strahan foreshore. Photo Jonathan Wallis
The west coast of Tasmania is splendid in its isolation, being, even today, quite remote from either Hobart or Launceston, and that by very winding and hilly roads means a lengthy car trip. But the very wildness of the area with its lakes and mountainous terrain is also a great attraction for old sailors like myself who delight in the wind-blown expanse of its Ocean Beach, the breakers combing in through ‘Hell’s Gates’, the narrow perilous entrance to Macquarie Harbour and to Strahan, the indigo stormy skies and the wind tossed Pacific Gulls and the Shy Albatross wheeling on the updrafts.
