This is the main log cabin built on Partridge Island, Tasmania as the bunkhouse for young people at the proposed Sail and Adventure facility. It no longer exists, removed by Tasmanian Government officials after the island was compulsorily acquired from its owner. Built in 1975 by a prominent Melbourne based medical practitioner, the proposal was destroyed by ill informed conservationists whispering into the ears of the then Labour politicians not long before the Tasmanian election took place. The island became part of the nearby Labillardiere National Park on Bruny Island.
Partridge Island was purchased by Dr. Richard Ham, a well known yachtsman as a place to establish a sail training facility for young people. He himself, as a boy, was a product of such a facility run by the historic figure of Skipper (Spuddo) Giles aboard his yacht "Utiekah 111". A Melbourne schoolmaster and yachtsman, Skipper Giles crewed his 50 foot Utiekah with schoolboys from the school where he taught, and also many young people in Tasmania where he based his operation after he retired. It was Dr. Ham's dream to carry on this endeavour and add to it the adventure of living a while on an island.
The cabins, and the wharf in the photograph below, were built in several working bees organised by
Dr. Ham during short breaks from his busy medical practice. The wharf was built first with professional assistance from Hobart contractors. The cabins were built in one tremendous effort involving a large crowd of helpers, including a couple of building professionals. Materials were brought from Victoria as, at the time, prefabricated log buildings were not obtainable in Tasmania. To convey all the building materials Dr. Ham charted the small coastal vessel, "Lady Jillian" which operated between Launceston, Flinders Island and Port Welchpool in Victoria.
Pictured is the "Lady Jillian" now retired and rotting peacefully in the Tamar River. The little ship tied up to the new Partridge wharf (the wharf now rotting also) and spent a very busy two or three days unloading building materials, two tractors - one with a front end loader, some twenty very large and heavy containers containing stone for the concrete blocks, water tanks, even a windmill, even furniture for the cabins and many other things - a huge old diesel powered concrete mixer.
Building operations lasted about a month. The concrete blocks for two cabins were built - the sand for the concrete found on the island. There is no water on the island so sea water was used for the concreting. The steel frames for the buildings went up easily and quickly, one of the tractors driving a welder for the job. The logs slotted in and the windows installed, and having reached this point, the Tasmanian Government moved to stop everything.
A governmental official arrived at the island by charted fishing boat in the midst of operations and ordered all building and activity on the island must stop immediately. Dr. Ham nonplussed demanded the reason. The island was being compulsorily acquired came the answer. Dr. Ham was not exactly what the official expected. Politicians in the Tasmanian Parliament, and one in particular, the Minister for Conservation and Treasurer of the Government, looking towards assuming the role of Premier at a moment of change in the Labour Party, spread the information that Dr. Ham was a "rich itinerant doctor from the mainland".
Dr. Ham did not fit this description. Dressed in dirt encrusted clothing and large gum boots, unshaven and had been working on placing the septic tank in a large hand dug hole, ordered the official off the island, and then returned to his work. The official, shocked and nonplussed by the situation quietly left the island, returning by the Dover based fishing boat.
Building operations continued for about a week. Then one day a helicopter came over the island. Dr. Ham, by this time worked up and worried by the possibilities assumed the helicopter was another official arriving. Work stopped as the machine flew back and forth over the whole island and then approached for landing. The Doctor infuriated, stormed up to the site the machine was approaching to land. It hovered for a minute or two in case of trouble, and a passenger jumped out and came running round to where the doctor waited trembling with rage.
"It's alright Doctor, we are the ABC from the current affairs program 'This Day Tonight' ".
All this was a long time ago, and much of it is forgotten and even unknown by many people except those closely involved. As a result of that visit by the ABC the island today is a mass of blackberries, and rats, huge ones living on the neglected rubbish left by many boat and yacht visits leaving their rubbish behind. The publicity of that visit and the court cases which followed - as Dr. Ham fought the acquisition fiercely, left the island in the hands of the Government which has done nothing in maintenance since. Now a part of the Labillardiere National Park on nearby Bruny Island, Partridge receives no care or attention from Government agencies.
Looking north up the DeEntrecasteaux Channel
