Mount Wellington (Tasmania)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Mount Wellington | |
|---|---|
 Mount Wellington |
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| Elevation | 1,271 metres AHD (4,170 feet) |
| Location | Tasmania, Australia |
| Range | Wellington Range |
| Coordinates | |
| First ascent | 25 December 1798 - George Bass (May have been a partial climb) 18 February 1804 - Robert Brown |
| Easiest route | Hike, road |
Mount Wellington is the mountain on whose foothills is built much of the city of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is frequently snow covered, sometimes even in summer. It is often referred to simply as 'the Mountain' by Hobartians, and it rises to 1,271 metres AHD.
The lower slopes are thickly forested, but criss-crossed by many walking tracks and a few fire trails. There is also a sealed but narrow road to the summit, about 22 km (14 miles) travel from the city. Halfway up this road is a picnic area called "The Springs", near the site of a chalet/health spa that was destroyed by bushfire in 1967. An enclosed lookout near the summit provides spectacular views of the city below and to the east, the Derwent estuary, and also glimpses of the World Heritage Area nearly 100 km (60 miles) to the west.
The Mountain has played host to some notorious characters over time, especially thebushranger 'Rocky' Whelan, who murdered several bushwalkers through the early 19th century. The cave where he lived is known appropriately as 'Rocky Whelan's Cave', and is an easy walk from the Springs.
Throughout the 19th and into the 20th centuries, the Mountain was a popular day-resort for Hobartains, who, with no TV, were forced to find alternate means or occupation. To that end, many excursion huts were built over the lower slopes of the mountain. However, none of these early huts survive as they were all destroyed during the diastrous bushfires of 1967, though modern huts are open to the public at the Springs, the Pinnacle, the Chalet - a picnic spot about halfway between the Springs and the Pinnacle - and elsewhere. Sadly, many of the more remote huts have suffered from vandalism, and some are in virtually derelict condition.
The road to the summit was constructed in the early 1930s as a relief scheme for the unemployed, an idea initiated by Mr. A.G. Ogilvie, the Premier of Tasmania of the day. While the road is officially known as the Pinnacle Drive, it was, for some time, also widely known among Hobartians as 'Ogilvies Scar' because at the time it was constructed 'the Mountain' was heavily logged and almost bare, and the road was an all-too-obvious scar across the already denuded mountain. Today the trees have grown again but the road is still noticeable. The road was opened in August 1937, after nearly two years of work, by Governor Sir Ernest Clark.
From Hobart, the most distinctive feature of Mt. Wellington is the cliff of dolerite columns known as the Organ Pipes.
The mountain significantly influences the city's weather, and intending visitors to the summit are advised to dress warmly against the often icy winds at the summit, which have been recorded at sustained speeds of over 157 km/h (97 mph), with rare gusts of up to 200km/h.
It is not popularly known that, when standing on the very summit of the Mountain and looking due west, the nearest permanent human settlement is 11,000 kilometres away in Chile!
In February 1836, Charles Darwin, visited Hobart Town and climbed Mt. Wellington. In his book "The Voyage of the Beagle", Darwin described the mountain thus; "... In many parts the Eucalypti grew to a great size, and composed a noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns flourished in an extraordinary manner; I saw one which must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of the first hour of the night. The summit of the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is 3100 feet above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view; to the north, the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline: to the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with clearness before us. ..."
The first weather station was set up on Mount Wellington in 1895 by Clement Lindley Wragge.
Mt. Wellington was selected by many broadcasters as the site of broadcast radio and television transmitters because it provides line-of-sight transnmission to a much larger area of Hobart and surrounding districts than any other point in the region. The first television stations to transmit from there were TVT-6 (now WIN Television) and ABT-2 (the ABC) in 1960.
A cable car development has been proposed for the mountain on various occasions, but public opposition has so far prevented any major developments.
