Terry Mulhern

Freshwater crayfish lurk beneath the surface of Tasmanian literature.  Read about reading about lobsters in FortySouth Tasmania

Astacopsis tricornis, from south-west Tasmania, depicted as “Freshwater Crayfish” by W.B. Gould, from the Sketchbook of Fishes (c1832). A. tricornis features in Richard Flanagan’s novels ‘Death of a River Guide’ and ‘Gould’s Book of Fish’.

The “Extinction” edition of Science Write Now features an essay on one of last summer’s lobster hunting expeditions

Everywhere I look, I see lobsters. Other people look in the same places and don’t notice them, but the lobsters are there. And I’ve found them in some unusual places. In old paintings and among the handwritten pages of diaries; in the journals of explorers and in colonial newspapers; and in people’s memories and family stories. I am talking about real lobsters, lutaralipina, Tasmania’s endangered giant freshwater crayfish. The more I learn about Tasmania, its people and its history, the more I find the lobster, and vice versa.

The tragic story of Henry Hellyer, explorer and surveyor for the Van Diemen’s Land Company

by Terry Mulhern

‘Highly Commended’ in

The Van Diemen History Prize 2018/2019