Leaving Flinders Island, bound for Launceston, Tasmania
©Kara Rosenlund
Tasmania! Ice! Snow! Sheep! Are you ready for it?
I was shooting on location on Flinders Island, just off Tasmania. Such a beautiful unspoilt little island – only accessible by incy wincy plane.
Bad wintery weather closed in on the last day of our shoot, so we wrapped up and the crew and I left the island pretty fast. Bad weather and small planes – eeeeek, not a good mix. Word on the tarmac was that snow was coming for Tasmania! Snow? What!!!
The thick blanket of snow throughout central Tasmania
A snowy winter wonderland in Tasmania
Above right: Snow Shack Photographic Print.
And did it snow! A thick blanket across everything. Husband Timothy O and I decided to meet up in Tasmania for the weekend – not planning for snow mind you.
We both travel with our work and sometimes we meet up half way between where we are both travelling and working from, which makes things exciting.
So Tasmania was home for the next 24 hours, Lake St Clair to be exact, in the Tasmanian central highlands – extra, extra icy cold.
Curious sheep in the blanketed paddocks
Above right: Snow Sheep Photographic Print.
There is just something about Tasmania. Driving through the snow was so beautiful. So incredibly enchanting, such silence.
I had to stop the car many many times, just to get out and feel the textures and the coldness on my face and to be at one with the wintery landscape in that moment.
So exciting to experience, I felt almost dizzy with the joy of snow – remember, I am from Queensland, two seasons, hot…. and hotter.
Heavy snow fall on the towering gumtrees
The green gum leaves reminding us we were still in Australia, rather than Europe
It was really stunning to see the bush completely covered in white dust. It really didn’t feel at all like Australia, rather some European mountain top, far far away.
Nothing was recognisable, bedsides some fallen gum leaves, can’t mistake those.
Pumphouse Point on Lake St Clair
Home for the weekend was Pumphouse Point, in the heart of the Tasmanian wilderness. A converted 1940’s hydroelectric pump station on the Lake St Clair.
Looking back at the weekend, it felt very cinematic – We were snowed in and cut off, completely isolated.
Between the snow, the dizzy high of playing in the snow and the old pump house on the lake, it was all so surreal, like Kubrick’s snow set thriller The Shining – without the bad bits of course.
The converted 1940’s hydroelectric pump station on Lake St Clair
The fire heating the communal dining room at Pumphouse Point
The sunshine gradually melting the snow
Above right: Snow Trunk Photographic Print.
Blue skies and blue waters revealed after the snow stopped falling
The snowy track back to the airport
Oh lordy, totally transported with the addition of the music. Are you trying to hypnotise us, evil Kara?
Would I do that Barb? Haha – totally! K X
the music, those images especially the eerily industrial old pump house . sorceress
Was so surreal Kim! K x
Stunning photos, as always Kara. I haven’t made it to Tazzy yet, but hoping to later this year. Thanks for the inspiration :)