On the Mt. Wellington hike in Tasmania last Monday, there were beautiful landscape sites- the infinite rocky terrains, the clusters of gum trees, the ghostly fog and mist, and the blue distant sea. Due to the fog it was hard to transverse the landscape, but when it cleared it made the landscape look twice as beautiful and desirable. It was interesting being in a landscape that I recently just studied in my Australian Environment and Visual culture class. I saw the landscape through early Australian painters such as Glover and McLean. I thought the artists exaggerated the "wavyiness" of the gum trees, but it turns out that they truly have amazing curvature.
Despite my lack of sleep from having to wake up at 3:30 in the morning to catch a flight to Hobart that morning, the "hide and seek" game the foggy landscape was playing with me made me want to further explore. Along the way up I noticed several manholes with a "T" for telecom, as well as many water pipes. It occurred to me, that although Mt. Wellington is one of Hobart's greatest natural landmarks it is also a landmark embedded with cables and satellites that provide the infrastructure for Hobart's telecommunications.
At the top of our hike, the fog was so thick it was hard to see anything at the top of the mountain. Several of us joked that we were just hiking in circles following the same hiking markers- lost in a sea of fog. Relieved with the sight of a fellow hiker, we were told that about 10 minutes away there would be a tower. When we reached the top we saw a translucent shadow of a phallic tower- we had no idea what it was. However when the fog cleared it turned out that this eerie shadow was actually the Mount Wellington Broadcasting facility. Surrounding the tower are several satellites, each with an orange lightening bolt in the center. Lots of people have commented on how the tower is "imposing" upon the beautiful landscape. However, I think the tower comments on how contemporary Tasmania is trying to "boost" their telecommunication facility to keep up to par with the Mainland's robust tele-network.
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