Renowned for its produce, King Island is swept by the winds of Bass Strait and home to a sturdy and innovative group of people.
Story By Tim Dub
If you want to understand the nature of a place built on hard work and isolation, you could do worse than spend a week on King Island. Caroline Kininmonth visited the island for a weekend 15 years ago and she is still there. “It’s a man’s world here,” she muses. “Don’t misunderstand me, the women are beautifully strong, it’s just that when you look at the industries, they’re all very strong industries: cray, kelp, agriculture, abalone, dairy – all manual industries.”
Tasmania’s King Island is located in Bass Strait about 80 kilometres from the north-west tip of Tasmania and similarly distant from Cape Otway in Victoria. It’s about 65km long and 25km wide, so you can drive east-west in about 40 minutes and north-south in a couple of hours, but King Islanders still refer to ‘down south’ or ‘up north’. The terrain is mainly flat, with the island’s highest point a modest couple of hundred metres, and it boasts a temperate climate and good rainfall.
This story excerpt is from Issue #47
Outback Magazine: June/July 2006
