tory, a perhaps dark and disturbing
history, a history of trial and hard-
ship, a history of perseverance, yet
it’s future seems to be brightening
and adapting.
Europeans first discovered King
Island in the late 1700’s as early mar-
itime explorers stumbled across it
while exploring the waters between
Tasmania and Victoria.
These very same explorers, sail-
ors and passengers soon discovered
the darker side of Bass Strait. Winds
whipped up in the west blew their
ships dangerously close to the rug-
ged shoreline of King Island, wreck-
ing many ships and lives. Since the
first European discovery of the island
there has been at least 60 known ship
wrecks with a loss of over 2,000 lives.
Many of the inhabitants of King Is-
land are descendants of castaways
from those shipwrecks.
The treacherous waters and loss
of life prompted the British rulers to
build a lighthouse on the northern tip
of King Island at what is now known
as Cape Wickham. The lighthouse,
completed in 1861 and built from
granite is Australia’s tallest at 48 me-
tres. It’s an impressive site that seems
to have lost its significance with the
‘other’ local population. Cows!
King Island produces some of the
best beef and dairy products any-
where in the world. Little wonder
considering the lush green grass that
covers almost its entirety, attributed
to the temperate conditions and fa-
vourable rainfall. It’s reasonable to
assume that King Island is the most
favourable 1,100 square kilometres
of pastoral land in the whole of Aus-
tralia, 150,000 cows can’t be wrong.
That’s right 150,000! And, they all
seem extremely happy.
The locals will tell you that while
the beef industry is very important,
it’s not the most important, as the
Tasmanian government seems to be
making it hard for the local industry.
In 2012, the Argentinian owners of the
islands only abattoir closed it down
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