The first place I visited in Hobart was the Maritime Museum of Tasmania. There is so much to view in their collection! Rob and I did the circuit of the displays several times trying to soak it all in. There was a staggering number of models of ships to be seen. Some of the models were in bottles. The first model of a tall ship that I ever saw had been displayed like that. - What an amazing skill!

It was very hard to absorb the fact that I was only a stone’s throw from Hunter Island. In February 1804 my 4th great grandparents, Thomas and Mary ‘Ann’ Peters, had come ashore there. Their eighteen month old daughter Elizabeth was with them, and Ann was a couple of months pregnant. She was one of the sixteen wives of convicts among the party of 433 who came ashore. On arrival some of the thick undergrowth had to be cleared before the tents could be erected among the tall gum trees.

One of the most impressive displays in the Maritime Museum lay immediately inside the doorway. It was an example of the bound bark and reed canoes of Aboriginal people of Tasmania. Two days later we saw a similar canoe on display in the ningina tunapri exhibition at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. The canoes were used all over Tasmania and not just for short trips on calm waters.  Amazingly they were used for trips as far out as Maatsuyker Island and Eddystone Rock.