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TRAVEL - AUSTRALIA
MEGAN GOVERNI
THROUGH THE GATES OF HELL
Following the Macquarie Heads Road in a south-westerly direction it ’ s hard to see how this once untouched land could be the harbinger of such tales of horror and heroism yet here we were riding through the Tasmanian bush to what seemed to be the end of the world . As the crow flies Macquarie Heads is just ten kilometres from the colonial township of Strahan on Tasmania ’ s west coast , by road it ’ s a little further and a pleasant ride hiding the entrance to the natural harbour with a name that gives some indication as to the treachery that lies within the waters .
Hells Gate , the entrance to Macquarie Harbour , is notorious for the broiling waters that since European settlement has seen numerous ships lost . Marked by two small lighthouses , Hells Gate is a narrow channel that passes on the western edge of the heads between the mainland and Entrance
Island . The eastern side has a larger opening but is too shallow for even the smallest of boats .
We stood on the eastern side looking across to what must seem an untameable land , the western side has tracks but most unreachable without the aid of a boat , the bikes would have to wait as we boarded our vessel for an exploration of this harbour said to be many times larger than that of Sydney . It seemed each body of water on the Australian continent is measured in comparison to Sydney Harbour .
Staring at the churning black waters it was easy to see why the early convicts of the Tasmania penal system referred to it as Hells Gates , for what they would witness on the inside of the heads seemed far worse than anything else in Tasmania and much more gruesome than the mainland settlements .
Cutting across the entrance we begin following the remains of an
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