r/tasmania

So I've been solo travelling around Tasmania and had one of the strangest travel experiences I’ve ever had in Queenstown.

I checked into the Empire Hotel in Queenstown planning to stay the night after driving from Strahan. The weather was awful, low cloud, drizzle, dark, barely anyone around. The off-season and I think I was the only tourist. But there was just something about the atmosphere of the town that got to me almost immediately.

Nothing happened. Nobody was unfriendly. I wasn’t unsafe. But within about two hours I suddenly had this overwhelming urge to leave right away. There was something telling me that I COULD NOT stay the night.

I packed my stuff back into the car and drove the 4 hours all the way back to Hobart in the dark. I didn't stop once and kept one eye on the rearview mirror. The Lyell Highway was equally unsettling.

It’s hard to explain properly. The whole place just felt incredibly heavy. There was a weight. An intensity. The energy.

I’ve travelled a lot, including some pretty remote parts of the world, and I’ve never had a town affect me like that before. I've never felt the urge to leave somewhere I've booked.

Am I imagining this or do other Tasmanians/Australians know exactly what I mean about Queenstown?

Also, before anyone says it, it’s not that I’m uncomfortable with small towns or remote places. I live in a pretty small remote town myself in North America and have spent a lot of time in isolated areas. I'm also NOT at all superstitious.

EDIT: this is my first Reddit post and I’m surprised it’s received such attention. Just to clarify, I live in a remote isolated misty non-touristy mountain town in the moody Pacific Northwest, not a city dweller as some have assumed here. It wasn’t simply the weather and atmosphere. It was a feeling.

It seems like every other month there is a search and rescue operation in the news for someone who went for a day walk and vanished

I love the idea of the School Lunch Program in Tasmania.

But I have just been informed from my grade 6 daughter that they use the grade 6 students to set up and pack down everything (all chairs / hand out food / cutlery and then clean up and put everything away). They miss out of 45 minutes of school learning time to set up before lunch starts and then have to pack/clean up during their lunch time.

I am obviously going to the school about this but is this happening at other schools?

What's everyone's favourite starter whisky. Looking to get something they would be a good starting point, not necessarily the "best" or most expensive.

Hello folks

So as the heading says. You're down. and you own a few guns.

You would like to seek some professional help, for your probable depression. You might have some bad coping strategies too I.E. drinking, smoking green, sitting alone, etc, whatever.

It is so. Damn. Hard. To access any service without the fear of losing your firearms. They all freak cause you can own guns.

If you're like me, we own em for work, for food, for good reasons.

You're just fuckin down and want to get some help.

Yet you bloody well can't. Cause they might take your work tools away.

Da faaaaacq do you do?

Keep consulting your 24 therapists? (they are delicious though)

Lie about what you're really thinking about? Thus defeating the purpose of talking?

Bottle it. Keep being a man and then ah fuck yas all and drop off... cause your shitcunt side won?

I rang mens line. They said they won't talk cause I kept saying "I'm no danger to me, I would just like to have a yarn, but I keep thinking about shooting myself, I don't intend to, but it makes me feel better cause I can, again, I am not going to, but it's all that gets me by, having the option"

So the person ended the call because "you repeated yourself, have you been drinking? yes? we must stop talking"

woooooooow. They never said "no worries, lets yarn objectively" or "I get it, sup?" nope.

They just shut down a conversation with a dude. Who said "knowing I can shoot myself makes me feel okay, I'm not a danger, Its a wierd thought, is this at all common? again, I am not going to do that but I am down and worried about it".

The same bloke who just said, I own guns and I dislike thinking about using them on myself, but I am and its not good, help.

MATE.

I think I should start a yarn line for people who need a hand... without the damn fear of raising red flags and losing one their tools.

Shit. You don't revoke a nail gun off a sad tradie. You don't take a speargun off a diver. Why take a flipping gun off a farmer.

Goddamn bullshit. The stigma around mental health and guns. To some of us, guns are tools. Fun tools, but just fucking tools man. To some of us, mental health is jist another damn thing we have to beat to shit till we stand proud again. To fucking some of us, we are willing to wage war on that shit side of ourselves. Beat that shitty cunt taking residence in our heads to an inch of its life.

Some people aren't so lucky. that shit cunt in their head cant be belted. They can't beat it and that fucking sucks.

But some of us get that luxury and its total bullshit that for those lucky folk, you get shot down when you just fucking try to kick off that fight.

I am so damn sure I am not the only one.

I am not giving shit to people in rougher or different spots to myself. Good luck to you lot. Really. I've been kicked around. I've got mates with no way to fight back against their own noggin. Some of em didn't win either.

and its all fucked.

im jist cracking it for those in my spot.

rant over

cheers.

Spent 23 years in Tasmania, born and raised. I’ve been to all the cities, I’ve camped on mountain peaks, I’ve walked off the side of the highway to see waterfalls, I’ve been through MONA, I’ve been fishing off at the bluff. What’s left? If it was your last day in Tasmania, what would you do?

Hi all,

Im applying for a job in Tas that I think I might get. Im still studying, and so is my partner, but the job pays well and it would be beneficial for my career after I graduate.

I was wondering how the rental market is down there, and what some good suburbs to look at are? The job is in Hobart so looking for some suburbs that have accessible public transport into the city and are otherwise nice but not too expensive :)

Im currently in Brisbane and it took me several months to find my current rental, so concerned how long it might take to find a place in Tassie, especially not being able to view them.

Also, my partner is studying secondary education and currently works as a teacher aid & OSHC supervisor. Are jobs like that in high demand/easy to come by?

Otherwise I used to have family down there and its such a beautiful place so very excited to take this next step :)

Moving from ACT to TAS due to work, looking for any recommendations from people who have recently done the move from the mainland on what removalist companies they used, or which to avoid!!
If I drive I’d do it myself but not on the cards 😭