Maria Island

After a scrumptious breakfast at The Sanda Guesthouse we backtracked to Triabunna to catch the boat to Maria Island. The tour went from 9:40am until 5:00pm. Morning tea and lunch were provided and on both occasions the boat moored in a sheltered bay or cove while we ate. We actually circumnavigated the whole island. The goi g did get pretty rough in one section which resulted in the three people sitting on the open deck on top being doused with a wave; Neville and I being two of them. And you needed two hands to hold on. It was ROUGH!
Maria Island was a convict prison twice. It was owned by an Italian entrepreneur who in the mid to late 1800s ran an ambitious tourism operation complete with a grand hotel and coffee palace. The settlement town was called Darlington. Lost his money then refinanced and built a concrete works on the island.
Again lost his money and the government bought the island and leased out land to farmers. Finally they ended all leases and it has been run by Parks and Wildlife since the 1960s. There are some buildings left from all four eras of European settlement.
On the boat tour the rock formations were explained - see photos.Read more