TASMANIA - Tasmania, -Oh How I Love that Place! "Tassie", as the Aussies Call this State Sized Southern Island of their's. Wild, Cool, Isolated, Sparsely Settled, Forested, Mountainous, Tassy is my Kind of Place!

Though Sparsely Populated, It Does possess a Rather Few Developed Towns and Cities. It has some 475,000 People all told, -Less than Half a Million! And a Large Part of these, Live in Tasmania's Few Smallish Cities, such as Hobart and Launceston. Which Makes the Already Sparsely Settled Countryside!, even More so! In the Late 90s, Tasmania even Lost Population! There is also some Forestry, Fishing, Farming, and Ranching, Going On. All the Same, You've still got yourself a quite Large and Rather Empty Place in which to Roam!, and Feel Yourself to Pretty Well be Left Alone!

You also have the Advantage, of being within a Friendly, Fellow English Speaking Area! And Friendly, Knowledgeable, and Helpful People and Pioneering Country Folk!, in Many Other Ways Besides!

"Boulder Shaped" in a "Circleish Square", She sits just off Australia's Southeastern Coast. A Coast which Already Dips Well to the Continent's Southeast! Into Increasingly Cool to Cold Southern Antarctic Waters. Tass is a Part of Australia, a State of it's Own. It's about 150 Miles South of the Australian Mainland, Across the Stormy Bass Strait. Several Important Islands lie in this Channel, Closer to the Australian Mainland. The Furneaux Group, Flinders, and King. They are Much, Much Smaller than Tasmania. It, Tasmania, comes in at 26,200 Square Miles.

It's Highest Mountain, Mt. Ossa, Comes in at 5,300 Feet High. Thats somewhat Representative of the Tasmanian Highlands as a Whole. And Thats Pretty High, for a Pretty Cool-Cold Southerly Locale! Here in the Far Southern Hemisphere, where "South" effectively Equates to Meaning our "North"!

And so Tasmania has a Decidedly Cool, Forested, Mountain Climate! -The 2nd Ranking *Non*-Continental COOL Wild Area in the World, the Other being just mentioned New Zealand. They're in the Same General Part of the World, but still Separated by a Good 1,000 to 1,500 Miles of Ocean. Tasmania comes in Midway as such a Cool Wild Area of our World, between New Zealand, and Japan's Northern Island of Hokkaido. Not Neccessarily in Size, but in COOL Wildness!

Like as with New Zealand, It's Far Enuff South to be Cool!, yet Far Enuff North Not to be in the Icy Grip of the Antarctic Cold Belt!

It is Another, Different Sort of Australia! None of it's Parent Continent's Well Known Red Deserts or Tropical Northern Jungles, Down Here! Tass is Cool, Cloudy, and Wet!, as Oppossed to Their Hot, Sunny, and Dry!

Like Madagascar, New Zealand, and Other Large sort of Isolated World Islands, -Tasmania has Evolved Many Plant and Animal Life Forms!, -Uniquely All it's Own! As Well as Having Australian type Marsupials, from the Nearby Land just to it's North. Which Itself is Quite a Uniquely Isolated, World Lifeform, Area!

Some Deforestation and Other Environmental Changes heve Occurred in some Areas of Tasmania, but So Much still Remains Unspoiled, Untouched, and Wild! And of Damage and Degradation as has been Done, Early Native, Pre- European Man, is now Known to Have Done it's Good Share of Such too!, in Tasmania and Other Parts of the World. Previous New Zealand and Madagascar being Two Prime such ones. Deforestation, Species Extinction, and Other Sorts of Environmental Havoc! Both New Settlers and Previous Natives! Just Look at All the Slash and Burn going on in the Tropics now! But Still Much of Tasmania has None of this assorted Enviro-Destruction.

But it's yet Australia Thru and Thru!, as Much a Full and Equal Part of Australia, as any Other! But in a Different Sort of Way!, -a Tasmanian Way! A Refreshingly Cool!, Great Tasmanian Outdoors!, Sort of Way! Wild, Free, Untouched, and Natural! Tasmania Indeed is Quite Different! From the Austral Outback to the North, though Not All that Different from it's Cool Climate Cousin, our earlier mentioned New Zealand. This is Tasmania! This and More is Tassie!

I Love the Place!, and I would Really Like to Go there someday, to Live, to Visit, or to Survive!

So How Does one now Go About the Task of Surviving There? What are the Prevailing Conditions, and Techniques, -of Tasmanian Survival?

It's Mountains, Forests, Lakes, Fields, Coasts, and Streams!, Can Provide Generously for the Survivor!

Tasmania so Comes Down to, Forest, Mountain, Seacoast, Grassland, and Cool, Temperate Survival.

There's even a Good Healthy Dose, of our Old Friend Cold Survival, Here! It Can Indeed get Cold here! An Antarctic Cold Snap can Always Come Up!, even into the Lowlands, Let Alone the Mountainous Uplands! Tasmania is one of the Few Australian Places that Pretty Regularly gets Snow! If Not Often more than a Dusting.

But Tassie is still Far Enuf North, to By and Large be considered a Cool Place!, rather than a Cold Clime!

Food, Plentiful! Fish and Coastal Sealife, Plentiful! Fresh Water, Plentiful! Firewood, Plentiful! Plant and Other Shelter Materials, Plentiful! "Fish" here includes Rich Inland Lake and Stream Fish Life, as Well as Coastal, Marine Fish Sources.

Tasmanian Rivers and Streams Provide you with Ready, -if at Times Rocky and Rapids Filled,- Transportation Routes toward the Coast, or Elsewhere Inland. They also so Serve as a Valuable Direction Indicating Means. And for their Greatest Bountiful Benefit of All!, -They're such a Rich Fresh Water, Fish, and Food Source!

You can Stay either in the Isolated Inland Interior to Survive!, (Especially if you Want to Stay, and Have an even Better Chance of Being Left the Heck Alone and at Peace!). -Or you can Move More to the Coasts for your Survival! Where you now Have even More Bountiful Sea Food Resources! And an even Better Chance of Location, Extrication, and Rescue!, if That be your Desire.

If you're Seeking a *Little* More Warm!, in This Cool to Cold Land!, -Then Move toward the North Coast, as Oppossed to the Southerly Ones, the Lowlands as Oppossed to the Highland Plateaus and Mountains!

You may also Want to Work your Way to one of the Towns along the Coast. Or to one of the Far More Scattered Towns or Settlements, Sprinkled every Here and There, in the Interior. Those Occassional Coastal Towns, are More on the Northern and Southeastern Coasts, than Elsewhere. The Major Centers of Launceston and Hobart, are on the North and Southeast Coasts, Respectively. Caution here!, -Launceston is somewhat Inland, on a Deep Running Inlet. With a Small Total Tasmanian Population, These Towns have Got to be Small! So Worry Not about any Great Urban Congestion or Anything Down Here! -Not Down Here in the Tass!

Here on the Tasmanian Coasts, Most Especially the Northern, Followed by the Southeastern, -Rescue and Re-Integration "Back into the World" is Most Possible! And Reasonably Likely, at least on those particular Coasts. Keep in Mind that Tasmania is in a Very Isolated, Obscure, Backwater Part of the World! And that it's Coasts, -Especially it's Western, Southern, and to some extent it's Eastern Ones!, Are So Too! They are No Exception to the General Rule!, and so Hailing or Signaling a Passing Ship or Plane!, -May Take some Time and Doing! Even here on the Coasts, your Best Chance for Such! You Stand a Far Better Chance of Doing so in the Hobart or Launceston Areas, Heck!, if you're that Close to these Centers, -You'd Mayswell just Go in and Talk to someone, rather than have to Signal Seaward or Skyward anymore! Elsewhere on these *More* "Settled" Northern and Southeastern Coasts, your Chances of Successfully so Signaling, are Still Somewhat Limited! But Far Better than say on the Southern or Western Coasts!

But Signaling Chances or No, You Stand a Much Better Chance of Rescue and Extrication on the Coasts, than you Do Inland! Strike and Head for These!, if that is What you Seek!

Once you Do so Meet Someone, Your Tasmanian Survival Experience shud Soon be Over! In this Reasonably Well Developed (Where It Is), First World, Friendly / Knowledgeable / and Helpfully Peopled Area! An Area of Good to Great SAR and Such Besides!

I'm Sure that the World Renowned Australian Flying Doctor Service, Operates Down Here as Well! Includeing via their Ground Based, Emergency Radio Comm, System. After All, They're Very Isolated! An Outback of their Own! At least the Equal of Many Another in Australia! After All, They're a Part of Australia!, Full and Equal as Any Other! No Less than Hawaii, is as Full and Equal a State of Our's!, as Any of our Others. So One can be Quite Sure!, that the RFDS is Down Here! This is Only a Further Boon to One's Survival and Extrication Chances! Seek it Out, and Avail Yourself of it's Excellent Services!, if Ever Down There.

Survive in the Forests, Mountains, Streams, and Beaches! And Work your Way Down to the Coasts! Those are the All Round, General Keys, to Tasmanian Rescue and Survival! It's Not a Siberia!, Nor an Antarctica only some 2,000 Miles to it's South! But Tasmanian Survival, as Richly Resourced as it Often is!, Can be a Rugged Challenge and Harsh!, as Well! Let it's General Coolness Kid or Fool you Not!

Aside from that, Enjoy the Great Tasmanian Outdoors!, and Cool Wild Place! It's Indeed one of the World's Wild Great Ones! You just Might Like to Stay!, to Live andor Survive So!

And Last but Not Least, -Watch Out for that Tasmanian Wolf and Devil!, -Just Two More of it's Uniquely Strange Faunal Life Forms! [color:"black"] [/color] [email]ScottRezaLogan[/email]


Edited by ScottRezaLogan (03/08/04 07:19 AM)
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"No Substitute for Victory!"and"You Can't be a Beacon if your Light Don't Shine!"-Gen. Douglass MacArthur and Donna Fargo.