# photos from Hobart, Tasmania



## moloch05 (Feb 12, 2008)

As I mentioned before, I am working on a project in Tasmania. I have visited it every month since May last year. Most of my time is spent in Hobart, a great place with lots of restaurants and nice scenery. I especially like the Salamanca area.

... Salamanca in the winter:






... The Salamanca Market that is held every Saturday.






... a view of the city from the road towards Mt. Wellington:






I normally stay in a villa on top of a hill in West Hobart since it is only a short distance to Knocklofty Reserve where I can see a variety of wildlife. Here is a view of the city from the reserve:











The reserve is scenic with views of the nearby Mt. Wellington.






... the habitat is eucalyptus forest that grows over a rocky grassland.











There are many lizards in this reserve. These will emerge and bask whenever there is a little sun even when the day is cool. My favourite here is the Ocellated Skink (_Niveoscincus ocellatus_).
















The two most common skinks, Tasmanian Tree Skinks (_Niveoscincus pretiosus_) and Metallic Skink (N. metallicus), look almost the same to me so I am not certain about my identifications.

These are what I think to be Tasmanian Tree Skinks:

















... and this I think is a Metallic Skink:






On my last trip, I saw several of these small skinks near grassy tussocks. I think that these are Southern Grass Skink (_Pseudemoia entrecasteauxii_).

... here is a male in its nuptial colours:






... and here is a female:






There is apparently a population of Barred Bandicoots in the reserve but so far I have not seen them.







On two occasions, I drove to the top of Mt. Wellington, the 1300m (4000') mountain behind the city of Hobart. Although the mountain is not high, the top of it is alpine and it receives snow in the winter. It is often a cold place even in the summer. The summit is quite rocky:





















This is the habitat of the Southern Snow Skink (_Niveoscincus microlepidotus_), a "high-altitude" lizard. On my last visit, the day was misting, windy and cold but two of these skinks were basking in the grey conditions.






The skinks were abundant on a sunny day in November when I first visited the summit. Some of these were nearly black in colouration, no doubt an adaptation to absorb as much warmth from the sun as possible.





















Here are a few plants from the upper slope and alpine areas of Mt. Wellington.

These are Tasmanian Waratahs. They were flowering in November.






I don't know the identity of this plant but the seed pods are colourful.












... plants with woolly leaves in the alpine area:






Regards,
David


----------



## cracksinthepitch (Feb 12, 2008)

i was there a few years ago and its Brilliant. Loved Stanley and strahan. Beauty point has a aquarium with sea dragons etc they breed them, went caving near sheffeild loved the massive spiders but most of all went to a tiger snake farm,, wicked snakes ,cant remember location but massive snakes.


----------



## DragonKeeper (Feb 12, 2008)

Nice pics, my dad has been there, I would love to go sometime...


----------



## callith (Feb 12, 2008)

Nice Pics


----------



## Lethal (Feb 12, 2008)

Ho Hum, 

Very nice pix.

But they make me home sick. 

Ive been in Qld for 13 years, but whenever I see pictures of the Flora and Fauna of Tassie I wish I was back there.

(But after a week visiting, Im over it :lol

Cheers
Lethal


----------



## moloch05 (Feb 13, 2008)

Thanks for the replies.

Regards,
David


----------



## mattmc (Feb 13, 2008)

oh tassie looks great
that waratah is stunning. looks a bit like a dorrigo waratah but not as big. i guess it has something to do with the high altitude and evolution. 
cheers
matt


----------



## falconboy (Feb 13, 2008)

I've loved Tassie since holidaying there. I'd move there in an instant, until we have a cold day here in Sydney and them I realise how bad it would be in Tassie. 

Mt Wellington is lovely, although as already mentioned, it can be cold - we were there in mid december for a week in nice weather and it was bitterly cold on the summit.


----------



## moloch05 (Feb 14, 2008)

Thanks for the comments. 

I was surprised to read that the Southern Snow Skinks on Mt. Wellington feed primarily on nectar during the summer. I have never heard of a nectar-feeding lizard before. 
http://www.apstas.com/skinklink.htm 

I searched a little on the net and found the name of one of the plants. It is a Mountain Rocket (_Bellendena montana_), another member of the diverse Proteaceae family (family of banksias, grevilleas, waratahs ...).


----------

