Pemberton – 9 to 11 April 2010

Pemberton is a timber town, and given the surplus forest wood, the Pemberton Caravan park  allows campfires. Pemberton is named after Pemberton Walcott who was the first settler in the area in 1862.

We did the excellent Donnelly River Cruise on the Donnelly River through the D'Entrecasteaux National Park to the mouth of the river.  D'Entrecasteaux NP is pristine except for the introduced trout and the squatters shacks, a cause of some dissension.

We visited the Big Creek Dam for a picnic lunch, and watched the black swans feeding, heads solidly down and tails in the air.

We explored the forests, wineries and local farms stopping for coffee at the Lost Lake winery, named after a lake that disappeared as the land was cleared.

Near Fonty's Pool we met Robert Fontinini, a nephew of the Fontinini who as a young Italian immigrant created Fonty’s Pool as the local swimming hole, and was one of  the original orchardists of the area. We bought some fruit and chestnuts from him.

It is sad to see this productive farm land being turned over to tree farms, mostly Tasmanian Blue gums, which are barely viable and then only with a tax concession, while the apples are left to rot on the trees.  A new initiative is truffles, and we visited  the Wine and Truffle Farm and met Lesley and the truffle dogs who find the truffles on the root systems of oaks and hazelnuts. The advantage of dogs over pigs is they don't want to eat the truffles. They are a nice friendly bunch.
For dinner we roasted some of our fresh chestnuts over an open fire.