It’s sounds a bit silly if I say “I’ve always been interested in railways”, because I say that about so many things. But there is something inspiring about being onboard a train. There’s history, character, atmosphere, geography, music involved in train journeys. And Michael Palin has a series called “The World’s Great Train Journeys.” I…
Read More
Ask me 12 years ago if I thought I’d be working as a broccoli harvester when I’m 30, and I would simply have laughed at you! But there I was, aged 30, working on farms in Northern Tasmania as a broccoli harvester. Loving it. I got into it totally by chance, but through my insistence…
Read More
It was a question by my co-worker Cameron after another long long tough day on a broccoli field at Wesley Vale, just over 3 months ago during my farming work in Tasmania. “Bottle-O” in case you’re wondering, is a brand name for off licences here in Tasmania, as is the “Thirsty Camel.” The Australians call…
Read More
Not another Northern Ireland Supporters Club surely? And not just any old Northern Ireland Supporters Club! I just happened to form the world’s southernmost Northern Ireland Supporters Club. Or as we called it “Planet Earth’s Southernmost Norn Iron Buck Eejits,” so it is. There I was in March 2010, about to turn 30 years old…
Read More
So to my time spent in Tasman Backpackers in Devonport in Tasmania, Australia! Tasman Backpackers is basically a dwelling place for harvest and factory workers in the city of Devonport, Tasmania. I guess you could call it a working hostel if you wanted to, but I don’t want you to. But I will anyway in this…
Read More
In July 2007 I visited a northern suburb of Auckland known as Devonport. Come February 2010 i was in Devonport, a totally different one, also in the north of an island. This time it was Devonport, Tasmania, which has been my home now for about 8 weeks. I believe Devonport is the third largest city…
Read More
Or Devonport as the case may be, “where the girls are so pretty, I first set my eyes on sweet Molly Malone, as she wheeled her wheelbarrow through streets broad and narrow singing ‘cockles and mussels, alive, alive, OH!’”, basically that song, based on a supposed pretty fish seller in Dublin whether fictional or not…
Read More
Harvesting, fishing and farming work are the main industries on the south Australian island of Tasmania. Within a week of living in “Tassie” I had got myself one of those farming and harvest jobs – I was a broccoli picker. I stayed at first in the city of Devonport. I had looked for a flat…
Read More
It was a breezy brisk Friday evening. The southermost sunset I’ve ever seen nestled deep into the sky. Our ship for the day, the Spirit of Tasmania 2 had arrived safely and without drama into the port of Devonport. I had been to a “Devonport” once before – back in 2007 I had visited Devonport…
Read More
I have always loved ships. Ever since the days of getting the St David or the Galloway Princess from Larne to Stranraer or from going out boating with my mate Peter Bell and his step -Dad Ken Taylor on the Impala yacht in Ringhaddy. Then in 2008 I worked on the Isle of Wight ferries…
Read More