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Paradise in Bass Strait

January 24, 2004

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Willi Watts, one of the volunteer caretakers, on Deal Island.
Picture: Sandy Scheltema

There's no wonder people are queuing for a crack at island babysitting jobs. Melissa Fyfe reports.

They call it babysitting - but there are no babies. Instead, there are some of the most remarkable views in Australia, hundreds of wallabies, the second-highest lighthouse in the world and a bunch of remote and rugged islands.

John and Willi Watts are spending this summer "babysitting" the Kent Group National Park, a cluster of five islands in Bass Strait, halfway between Wilsons Promontory and Tasmania's Flinders Island.

"The people who babysit these islands think of themselves as some of the most privileged people on earth," says Willi, 53, a part-time librarian with a big, easy laugh. "They are here by the grace of governments, really."

The islands - part of Tasmania, despite being slightly closer to Victoria - seem almost cut off from the rest of the world. You can land only by boat or helicopter, and the volatile weather can leave you stranded, sometimes for weeks.

Despite this, the Parks and Wildlife Service of Tasmania has a long list of volunteers wanting three-month caretaker stints. The service pays only for gas, diesel and the return trip. The volunteers take their own food.

"You've got to get used to paying for things when you get back to civilisation," says Mr Watts, 57, a retired metallurgist from Low Head in northern Tasmania.

The caretakers live in a 1950s-style brick house on Deal, the biggest island in the Kent Group. Their job is to look after the historic buildings, which include the lighthouse - no longer operating - that stands spectacularly atop cliffs, some ruins around the lighthouse where assistant keepers once lived with their families, and the head keeper's 1846 homestead, now a museum and the oldest intact lighthouse keeper's residence in Australia.

There's also a stark outdoor dunny, lonely graves dotted across the tussock landscape, rusty equipment and a rickety jetty.

But that's just the built heritage. The caretakers also need to battle aggressive coastal weeds, negotiate with the boom-and-bust wallaby population, check for rabbits and endear themselves to the resident Cape Barren geese.

Once this is done, there are social duties: tea for everyone who trudges the hill from idyllic East Cove - mainly Victorian yachties but also fishermen and, increasingly, kayakers making the arm-aching trip across Bass Strait.

The couple are also in contact with Melbourne's Murray-Smith family and friends, who each year sail to Erith, a smaller island across from Deal. The late academic and historian Stephen Murray-Smith started the tradition as a family camping adventure in the summer of 1962-63. His daughter, playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, has used the islands as a backdrop for her novel Judgement Rock.

This latest stint is a cinch compared to the Watts's other island babysitting chores. They had two three-month terms on Maatsuyker Island, off Tasmania's south coast, one of Australia's windiest and most southerly places.

One of these stints was in winter - with no heating. Photographs of the couple inside at night show them rugged up and clinging for dear life to hot water bottles.

On Maatsuyker they went for six weeks without seeing a soul. Luckily, after 33 years of marriage, the Watts like each other. "It's just that we accept our relationship as it is," says Mrs Watts, who makes a mean cheese scone and gave herself the luxury on this trip of bringing lipstick and perfume.

"I wouldn't say it is roses all the time, but I can guarantee it doesn't go below daisies. It always feels good."







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