Our arrival on Australia’s untouched ‘most magnificent’ island is a game changer

In their role as caretakers of Three Hummock Island – an eco-reserve located off the north-western tip of Tasmania in the wind-lashed Hunter Island group – Melaynie and Casey Spinks deal with a maximum of eight guests at any one time, tailoring a stay in the historic homestead (established c. 1910) into an exclusive, castaway experience.

Imagine the couple’s discombobulation, then, when the passengers from Aurora Expeditions’ Douglas Mawson alight from Zodiacs and march towards the whitewashed homestead, where a roaring fire pit and copious cups of tea await.

“We think it’s probably a record for the number of people at once on the island,” Casey tells me. “If there’s 20 people on the island at a time, that’s a big day for us – but with 120, it was a shock to see everyone walking up the track.”

It’s a highlight of Douglas Mawson’s inaugural journey, setting sail from Hobart and originally slated as a circumnavigation of Tasmania. But with the proposed journey up Tasmania’s west coast aborted due to wild, Roaring Forties-tossed seas, the cruise becomes somewhat of a potluck, with a flexible itinerary along the eastern and northern Tasmanian coastlines and spontaneous landings determined by sea conditions.

So there was jubilation when it was announced that the scheduled landing on Three Hummock Island – named by Matthew Flinders in 1798 after its three hump-like protrusions - would indeed take place, giving passengers the opportunity to stretch their legs on one of Tasmania’s 334 offshore islands.

For the Spinkses, it’s also a day of great anticipation as they welcome the first cruise ship to visit the island. It’s a fitting collaboration with sustainably minded Aurora Expeditions, with many of the passengers interested in nature and keen to explore untouched destinations.

After a quick introduction to Mel and Casey outside the homestead (“Beware near that sign,” Casey points out, “there’s a tiger snake that hangs out there”), passengers splinter off according to interests. The keenest bushwalkers will tackle the 237-metre climb up South Hummock – the highest point of the island; others will focus on birdwatching along Home Beach; while my group is taking a leisurely stroll to Spiers Bay, on the north-western coastline overlooking Bass Strait.

Forging up a cleared hill past honking Cape Barren geese, grazing kangaroos and a quirky sculpture of two men and a dog perched on a boulder, we follow a track meticulously mown by Casey to a viewpoint where a plaque commemorates the lives of two former residents, John and Eleanor Alliston.

Running the island as a farm between 1951 and 1999, the Allistons’ life of isolation was documented in two books written by Eleanor, Escape to an Island and Island Affair. During their tenure, the island was declared a Nature Reserve (in 1978); while it became a State Reserve in 2001, with livestock removed and fencing gradually reclaimed by nature.

It’s rare to walk along an Australian beach devoid of human footprints; but while we’re the first to make a mark in the golden sands today, for many centuries the island was a hunting ground for Palawa people from the North West tribe, who swam across five kilometres of open water from neighbouring Hunter Island.

The crescent of the bay is overseen by a landmark called Five Sisters – a group of comely boulders clumped together, as if posing for a family portrait. With sculptural indents and adorned with lichen, it’s almost as if they’ve been carved by Henry Moore and displayed in a natural art gallery.

Back at the homestead, Mel is making her 100th cup of tea for the day, yet still has time for a friendly chat about life on the island. The biggest challenge, she says, is the wind, which dries out her vegetable garden; while husband Casey laments the fact that machinery repairs take three times longer than on the “mainland”.

“The last caretaker’s parting words to us were ‘The island always wins’,” he says. “But the highlight is waking up in the most magnificent place you can imagine.”

THE DETAILS

CRUISE
Aurora’s 11-day Coastal Tasmania: Untamed Wilderness cruise on Douglas Mawson starts from $12,316 a person, including a visit to Three Hummock Island. See aurora-expeditions.com

MORE
See threehummockisland.com.au

Julie Miller travelled as a guest of Aurora Expeditions.