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
The new FortySouth website went live this week. There is some fantastic content available there, including Lobster Tales and other articles from from my back catalogue
The Lobster unlocks the backrooms of Melbourne Museum and we meet the “remarkable” Ellen Clark
Northwest Van Diemen’s Land, February 1828. John Helder Wedge catches and eats the lobster. But that’s not all he captures on this expedition.
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 Van Diemen Anthology 2019
Featuring ‘St Valentine’s Tears’ by Terry Mulhern
Launched at the Hobart Writers Festival 2019
September 13-15, 2019
Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart
The Van Diemen Anthology 2019 is available at the Festival Bookstore, from Forty South Publishing online and good bookstores around Tasmania
The tragic story of Henry Hellyer, explorer and surveyor for the Van Diemen’s Land Company
