The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present... The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific. The drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea, where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of keeping the peace. This is a documentary account of the situation in the Pacific, of the men and events which are today influencing world affairs for generations to come. Tasmania, Switzerland of the South. The Pacific Story. Aye, sir, it was right here at Eagle Hawk Neck that it happened. The prisoners, and they were bad ones, had escaped from the penal settlement at Port Arthur. They came this way, toward the Neck. Where, sir? The whole peninsula was alive with military guards and bloodhounds. And the being of those animals, they say, was something fierce. Those prisoners were desperate men, and they were bound that they were not going to be taken. Where, sir? The showdown came right here at Eagle Hawk Neck. Aye, and when it was all over, the guards marched the prisoners back to the settlement at Port Arthur. And some people do say they can still hear those bloodhounds baying today. You stand at Eagle Hawk Neck on the peninsula of Tasmania, and you look toward the old powder magazine at Port Arthur. This island has seen some thrilling sights. You remember that the Dutch navigator, Abel Janssoon Tasman, landed here, and that the whole island was named for him. Look at those mountains, will you? You look up toward the mountains, and you begin to realize why this fabulous island, 150 miles off the southeast corner of Australia, once used only as a penal colony because of its isolation, is now famous in its own right for its mineral and agricultural riches. You can see for yourself why it's called the Switzerland of the South. Abel Tasman, the Dutch navigator, did not dream of the value of the island that was to bear his name. In fact, he named it... ...Van Diemen's Land, in honor of Anthony Van Diemen. The governor of the Dutch settlements in the East Indies will be pleased. It was he who had the vision to send me on this voyage of exploration. Yeah. At the first opportunity, we will land and plant the Dutch flag. Tasman tried to anchor in a bay on the southeast side, but a storm blew up and swept his ships out to sea. He named the bay Storm Bay, and then sailed up the east coast to another bay and tried to land again. If it is impossible, sir, we must land in order to plant the flag. Hold on! Hold on! Uh, what weather! If we crew up the lower of the boat, the boat and the men will be lost. The same thing has happened wherever we have tried to land. We cannot leave without planting the flag. Hang on! Hang on! We will wait until it quiet down. Until it quiet down. Tasman, wait. The seas are named rough. So rough that the boat could not be lowered. I will take a flag ashore. What do you mean? I will swim ashore with it. I am a strong swimmer. No man could live in those seas. It is better, sir, than losing an entire boat crew and the boat. You are the ship's carpenter, are you not? Yes, I am the carpenter. We cannot afford to lose you. Can we afford to lose this land? What is your name, carpenter? Jacobson, sir. Mr. de Goethe, get Jacobson here a flag. Aye, aye, sir. With the Dutch flag in a compact roll on his back, and with the seaman's knife and marlin in his pocket, the carpenter Jacobson was lowered over the side into the steaming water. He struck out for sure. Tasman and his officers followed him with long glasses from the quarter deck. The crew on the well deck and the folks who strained their eyes to watch him. The waves caught him up and tossed him like a cork. From the crest of the waves down into the trough, up and down they tossed him. Where is he? Can you see him? I have lost him. He has spawned. Can anyone see him? No, no, no, he's down, he's down. At last Tasman gave up. He gave orders to get underway. The seaman climbed a loft to make sail. And as the canvas fluttered in the wind, a cry came down from the yard of the uppert again. The flag, the flag, I can see the flag. Tasman was called out of his cabin. He scanned the shoreline with his long glasses. He made it, he made it. He has raised the Dutch flag on a pole and I can see him down beside it. In the name of the Netherlands, I claim this land. Tasman never knew the land he had discovered was an island. With the thought that it was part of the Australian mainland, he sailed away and never came back. More than 150 years were to pass before it was discovered that it was an island. And more than half a century more was to pass before the colonists of the island, now under British rule, discarded the name Van Diemen's Land with all its memories of penal servitude and called the island Tasmania. Tasmania is almost triangular in shape. Its greatest length north to south is about 180 miles. Its greatest width, 190 miles. Today with a population of a quarter of a million, Tasmania is enjoying unprecedented prosperity. Production is up and incomes have never been higher. That's an expert observer of the Tasmanian scene. That's quite coal you see there, liquid coal. Tasmania's rivers, roaring down from the mountains, are generating hydroelectric power to industrialize the whole island. In the forest, about 300 sawmills. Tasmania is cutting nearly 100 million superfeet in the round every year. The hills are rich in minerals. Tasmania is mining copper, zinc, tin, gold, lead, silver, and many other ores, an amount running annually into the million. Apples are brought out of the valley by the train rolls. Tasmania produces 7,500,000 bushels of apples and pears a year. Tasmania is riding high today and a new business is developing. The tourist business. The tourists are enchanted by the glory of her wonderful mountains. They tell you down here that the mountains of Tasmania are older geologically than the Alps, the Andes, and the Himalayas. I don't know how you tell the age of mountains, but they are majestic. Nearly the entire island is covered with mountains, but they become higher and more rugged as you move from east to west. Actually, the country is just one succession of hills and mountains. There are no plains, only hills and valleys, deep canyons and rushing rivers that come down from the lakes in the middle of the island and plunge over waterfalls on their way to the sea. Some of the mountains are closed with forests almost to their very summits, and some are bare and rugged and rocky. When you stand at Lake St. Clair, you forget that you are near the center of an island which is almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. But on the coast, the city is hung with industry and commerce. Fine harbor, isn't it? The Tasmanians are proud of the port of Hobart. One of the very finest harbors in the world. Ha ha, it's that. Look at John Steamer there. A stately ocean-going liner is docked at the wharf. The water beside that wharf there is sixty-four feet deep. What vessel draws more water than that? Ships are entering and leaving the harbor. The busiest season is between February and May. That's when most of the vessels call to take away our great crop of apples and pears. If you look up the tumbling, turbulent Derwent River, which empties into the sea here at Hobart. The River Derwent comes all the way down from Lake St. Clair up in the Midlands, and I'll tell you something about that river. This was a great whaling place in those days. There were not only English whalers here, but there were American and French whalers. Ha ha. Well, man, some immigrants had made a settlement at Rizdan not far from where Hobart here now stands. But a year later, a fellow named David Collins, a lieutenant colonel, he came out to Rizdan. He said Rizdan was unsuitable for the town, and he chose the site of Hobart here. So, that was the beginning of Hobart, back in 1804, and the River Derwent you see there was swarming with whalers. Hooray! Twenty-one years later, in 1825, Tasmania became a separate colony of Australia, and Hobart became the capital. The city is built on the foothills of Mount Wellington. You stand on the waterfront of Hobart, and you look upward to the mountain which seems to brood over the city. It is not a high mountain, actually, only some 4,100 feet above sea level. But you get the feeling that there is something almost night-like about it, keeping guard over Hobart, where 70,000 people make the wheels of the city hum. Today, Hobart, on the southeast end coast, is connected by rail with Launceston on the Tamar River in the northwest. I'll tell you why I'm here. This was William Patterson in 1804. I've come here from Sydney with orders to establish a suitable site for the city on the Tamar River. Could it be in opposition to us? If I may say so, you as an American whaler have no legal right here. What of the French? Nor have the French. We're aware of the possibility that the French might undertake to occupy Bath State between Australia and the island, as we are aware of the fact that you American whalers are operating among a channel island between this island and Australia. It is therefore my duty to inform you that I have come here prepared to take whatever measures necessary to establish a settlement as a base on the Tamar River. A post was established at Fort Delrimpel. Two years later, its settlers moved to the present site of Launceston, and Launceston became not only an important base in the north, but also the agricultural headquarters of the north. Today, Launceston is a city of 35,000, called the northern capital of Tasmania. It is 40 miles up the Tamar River from the sea, where the North Esk River and the South Esk River flow together and become the Tamar River. You stand beside this magnificent stream and you see the passenger and mail steamers coming and going. There are three trips each week over this route between Launceston and Victoria, and you learn that there is a rivalry of long standing between Launceston here in the north and Hobart in the southeast. Hobart is twice the size of Launceston, and yet each in its way is individual, and rather than competing with each other, they complement each other. And you have only a short distance to go to get into the apple country of the Tamar Valley. The apples of Tasmania are some of the finest in the world. Tasmania is the most important producer of export apples in the world. This is the observer. Tasmania's apple crop is more valuable than all the wool clips here on the island each year, and is equal in value to our production of minerals. The valleys are dotted with apple orchards. Not as much land is planted to apples as to hay, peas, and some other things. But still, the apple is the most important crop in Tasmania, not only because of its dollars and cents value, but because such a large percentage of the Tasmanian population is involved in growing and export of apples. There are more than 2,500 apple growers in Tasmania. You watch the trains ringing in the apples. The apples of the Bois, the Derwent, and the Baghdad Valley. The apples of the Donkotsktole Channel in Tasman's peninsular center. The apples of the Lilydale, Scottsdale, and Mercy Valley districts. You watch the trains come into the trading centers, and you begin to understand the extent of the apple industry in Tasmania. These same apples will turn up on tables halfway around the world. Not only as fresh apples, but also in the form of jams, jellies, and cider. And even dried and canned. The trains roll in, and they bring in not only apples, but other products of the earth. That's tin in those cars there. Tin. A strategic and critical metal. It was, oh, 75 years back, I think. Back along about 1871. When, you might say, a new chapter opened up here in Tasmania. Well, the men were prospecting in the vicinity of Warata. When, what did they discover but tin? Well, until that time, Tasmania had been a farming country, and had been supplying a good part of the stable foodstuffs to Australia. But Australia had got to a place where she was raising her own foodstuffs, and no longer needed ours. Where are you going, all packed up, out to the Warata country? You don't believe that about tin up there. That is the point. Then what is the point? Where are you going to make a living around here? I've heard talk like this talk about tin at Warata before, and it's talk that's all it is. I'll stay here, and I'll make a living somehow, until I see the tin coming out of Warata. Well, do as you like. Come on, get up there. Some went into the hills, and some stayed behind. Most Tasmanians still thought of the island as farming country. Some mineral deposits had been worked, but they were thought of by most to be of no great value. Tasmania's best customer was no longer buying Tasmania's farm products as she had for so many years. But the sedentary attitude of those who stayed behind did not alter the enterprise of those who went into the hills. For many of them went not only to Warata, but also out into the districts of Bowmanston, Rosebury, Balfour, and other districts. And in time they were coming back with their eyes gleaming and their spirits high. Look! Look! I've discovered deposits of copper! Copper? You discovered copper? Yes, I found it. There are deep deposits in the... I've discovered zinc, look you. The earth is full of it. Zinc? What did you discover? The earth is full of it. I found it out. I've discovered lead. Where? Where did you discover lead? The rocks are bursting with it. I was out in the hill country behind the... Silver! I've discovered silver! Gold! I've discovered gold! The country's rich with minerals! Well, oh there. You're back? Yes, I'm back. You must have found tin at Warata. I did, and I've come back down here to get some more help. To help me work my claims. You understand? Well, things have changed here in Tasmania, haven't they? Yes, they have. Tasmania's no longer only a farming country. It's also a mining country. Heh. Yes. The discoveries went on for 11 years. Mines were opened up everywhere, machinery brought in, and mining centers grew up. And one reason that Lanston is so important is that it's connected with most of the mining centers in the northwestern part of the island. You watch a Tasmanian mine in operation. The minerals coming out of the earth by the tongue. The trains hauling it away to be used in the plant. Something more than $400 million worth of minerals have been produced in Tasmania. This is the observer. This is tin coming out of this mine. But today many other metallics and non-metallics are being mined in Tasmania. Asbestos, bismuth, cobalt, silica, wiltrum, things like that. And in addition to all this, there has been another important development within the last several years. Ask this government official. During the war back in 1944, there was an acute danger of imported supplies of aluminum, feeling at a time when demands of the munition factories were increasing. They say aluminum instead of aluminum. There are deposits of bauxite in Tasmania. Aluminum is derived from bauxite. The Australian government has therefore set aside funds to purchase a plant and commence the Tasmanian project for the production of aluminum. Some three million pounds sterling have been set aside for this project, which will not only produce aluminum, but will also create an important marker for Tasmania's great hydroelectric power. From the lake, high in the mountains, the waters rush down to the sea. The never failing rain replenishes the lakes, and the never failing rivers carry the roaring waters down to the hydroelectric plants that generate the power. Aye, the waters tumbled only gaudies in the rivers the years before we put them to work. We started the first power station at Dutch Reach near Lansden back in 1895. It generated 600 horsepower. Ha ha, but that just showed us what could be done. And ten years later we had increased the output to 1600 horsepower. That was a mere drop in the bucket. In 1914 we started work on the Great Lakes Key. Up in the edge in the middle of the island, 3,300 feet above the sea level, this station now develops 114 horsepower. Today the rushing waters of the Upper Derwent River have been harnessed. And with the other projects now in operation, a quarter of a million horsepower are now being generated. And where the waters come rushing down from the mountains, the timber stands high. All the native trees of Tasmania are evergreen except one, and that is a beech, which heads its leaves deep here. The forests are rich. The eucalyptus trees are beautiful as lace. They form a lovely filigree against the blue of the sky. The Tasmanians call these trees the hardwoods. The hardwoods are very durable, and they are very easy to grow. The Tasmanians are proud of their trees. They know them all. That's a blackwood bear. That's a satepras, and that's a wattle. They use the blackwood timber for ornamental furniture, and the myrtle beech for flooring. But our hardwoods, ay, they are the ones. The eucalypts are as magnificent as the Sequoias of California. They don't have quite the height, but they're almost equal in grandeur. And you get the same feeling walking through some of the forests that are nearing exhaustion here that you get walking through similar forest areas in the United States. But now restrictions have been set up, and there will be less cuttings in these areas while newer areas, less accessible, will be opened. The forests of Tasmania ring with the sound of the saw the year round. Timber! Timber! Watch it coming down! The annual cut of logs from the crown forest is now nearly 100 million superfeet in the round. Tasmania annually exports timber in the value of 560,000 pounds sterling. Timber! Timber! Watch it coming down! From the forest, most of the timber goes to the saw mills. Three hundred saw mills in the forest cut the timber for a thousand purposes. These mills have a sawing output of 55 million superfeet every year. A good deal of this goes into furniture and wood products, and a lot of it goes into the wood pulp and paper mills. This is the Burney paper mill. We produce the best quality wood for the forest. We produce most of Australia's fine printing and writing papers right here. And it was a lucky thing we had this plant during the war. Australia used more paper than ever before during the war. All the government departments and all the extra commercial printing. Well, same time our need for paper was mounting, shipping space was becoming scarcer. Shipping was taxed to the limit for war transport. So we knuckled down to business. We brought the timber out of the forest. We used our hydroelectric power as we've never used it before. We stepped up our operations and we met the demand for paper. And now instead of going back to our pre-war level of production, we're putting in a development that will cost a million pounds. We're going to install new machinery to turn out the maximum production of the highest quality paper possible. And while this mill was turning out paper at Burney, another mill was turning out newsprint on the River Derwent. And this is one of the big roles played by Tasmanian timber and hydroelectric power and industry in the war. The industry's hum in the valley. The timber and the waters come down from the mountains to work for men and people from far and near come to luxuriate in the beauties of the island. People have been coming here all the days of my life just to see Tasmania. You see, we're only 16 hours by steamer from Melbourne and only 44 hours from Sydney. That's why people come here, even during short holiday periods. The people flock in, and the government itself runs the tourist agency. The Christmas New Year's holiday marks the height of the summer tourist season. Tasmania has become the playground of the many Australians who flock across the strait to escape the hotter climates of the mainland. Most of the tourists come from the capitals of Australia. The government maintains tourist bureaus in all the principal cities, Hobart, Launceton, and the rest. You go by train or highway into the Midlands, and there is the most scenic area of the island, a national reserve of 200 square miles with Lake St. Clair and its three covered mountains around it. You hike through the reserve, through the forests and wild canyons. You stop beside the quiet, cool lake, the rushing streams, the waterfalls. This is where the pleasure seekers come to escape the heat of the day. ...in December and to enjoy the winter sports in June and July. The plateau has become the winter center for skiers and skaters. ... This is the Switzerland of the South, an isolated island of mountains covered with snow, of frozen water and evergreen trees cupping in the high winds. A wintry island in the South Pacific not so very far from sweltering jungle-covered islands populated by natives who have learned to live under the tropical sun. Ah, it's changing this country here, but it is so far off the beaten path that it's still much like it's been here for centuries. The wildflowers and flowering shrubs and the ferns everywhere. Some of them so tall, they're almost like palms, and the horizontal trees and the bowera plants that impede your progress in the woods. All that is as it has always been. The great Tasmanian emu is gone, extinct, and there are a few forested kangaroos, but there are many wallabies, and if you're looking for them, you'll be sure to find Tasmanian devils and Tasmanian tigers. The streams are stocked with fish, more today than ever before. Yes, Tasmania is changing, but in most places it's as it has, as it has been for centuries. Today, Tasmania is more prosperous than ever before, but today Tasmania faces a post-war world, a changing world fraught with new and complex problems. While incomes are higher and savings deposits have increased, there is no unemployment. Tasmania is nevertheless affected by external conditions. Tasmania has suffered certain handicaps for some time. One is the stiff competition from the richer mainland states of Australia. Another is her isolated location. These, with some economic policies of Australia, have contributed to Tasmania's problems. But against this, Tasmania is learning to use to advantage the natural resources she has, hydroelectric power. Three of our industries are already using to advantage our cheap hydroelectric power, our zinc industry, our paper industry, and our carbide industry. It is true that the costs of sea transport have offset a disadvantage, but we can more than make up for this by producing for less. This we can do with our cheap hydroelectric power, along with the rich resources we have. The industries of Tasmania are humming. And the ships of the sea are carrying her products to the far ports of the world. Her timber, her minerals, her apples. Today, a quarter of a million people in a hundred cities and towns are working out their destinies on this island, where 300 years ago a Dutch navigator planted his flag on the shore and sailed away and never came back. You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations, to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross currents of life in the Pacific Basin. The Pacific Story is written and produced by Arnold Marquess. The music was scored and conducted by Henry Russell. Your narrator, Gaines Whitman. Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood and is heard in Canada over the facilities of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. This is NBC, the National Broadcasting Company.
