Doing quality time

By PETER LOWNDES
May 28, 2006
Destination: Victoria Australia Theme: Eccentricities


Peter Lowndes escapes to a former prison site with star appeal.

The notion of an island as an exotic place to escape to has not always been a realistic one. For a while there, islands were viewed as ideal enclosures for criminals, an island's remoteness perfect for isolating and banishing inmates from society and the mainland.

Island prisons such as Alcatraz were renowned for being near impossible to escape from. Closer to home, Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour was notorious, and Rottnest Island functioned as a prison once. Of course, Tasmania began as one giant penal colony and island Australia was originally - well, you get the picture.

Most of these places have since been rehabilitated into tourist attractions and holiday destinations. The thought of being marooned on an island, encased by water, now seems idyllic to most, but not to those island inmates who dreamt of little else but escape.

French Island, in Victoria's Western Port, was another island of incarceration, being home to the McLeod Prison Farm from 1916 to 1975. The naming of the island comes from a French scientific expedition in 1802.

French Island itself remains something of an unspoilt and untapped location and two-thirds of the island is gazetted as national park. Whereas nearby Phillip Island is a renowned tourist destination, French Island remains, in comparison, the quintessential deserted island. There are more than 230 species of birds and a significant koala colony, the members of which outnumber humans.

Many of my summer holidays as a child were spent at a place called Lang Lang, across the water from French Island.

We sometimes took an outboard boat across (French Island is accessible only by boat or ferry) to explore the mostly uninhabited island and the abandoned prison site.

One could wander freely from cell to cell and even sit in the diabolical-looking old dentist's chair. Given that it was prominently a reformatory prison (prisoners were encouraged to produce their food on the farm), it did not give off that oppressive "escape at all costs" air of your typical prison. Still, it was a prison and some did not take to being incarcerated.

The old-timers of Lang Lang could recall occasions when prisoners attempted to escape by swimming across the bay to the mainland. Some got stuck in the mud after misjudging tide times. Two-thirds of the island's coastline is mudflats and mosquitoes are in abundance. Not the ideal place to plonk a Club Med. French Island is more in the Club Mud mould.

Once off the island, the escapees ransacked the uninhabited beach shacks for food and fresh clothes. But all they got were tins of baked beans, daggy beach-house flannels and a bottle of beer if they were lucky. Undernourished and in ill-fitting rags, they were usually picked up on the highway to Melbourne.

I visited in mid-January and was informed that Kylie Minogue had bought a property on French Island. She has since bought another 80 hectares, expanding her retreat to 100 hectares. I know, too, that ex-Beatle George Harrison once had a house on Hamilton Island, but seldom used it, and I thought this the likely case with Kylie. She probably has property in exotic and idyllic locations around the globe.

So to hear of Kylie actually heading to her French Island getaway earlier this year left me dumbfounded - even more, the rumours that she might just marry there. Why would she go to a place that has only one general store, 70 residents, is inaccessible by car and has minimal modern conveniences? Sure, Kylie's boyfriend is a Frenchman but French Island is about as Gallic as Paris, Texas.

But the island must appeal to someone trying to temporarily get away from the rat race. And that's all of us at some time or other. Doubly so if you are a celebrity hoping to find a haven away from prying eyes.

Odd, how one man's prison can be refashioned into another's haven. What would the island's inmates make of the organic restaurant that sits on the prison site and the fact that 40 of the remaining cells are used for accommodation? There is also a camping ground at Fairhaven and a few B&Bs. The best way to view this unspoilt island and its remote beaches is on a hired bike or via an organised eco-tour.

I only hope there is a song on Kylie's next album that touches on the convict experience at French Island. Perhaps a tale of swimming for it at low tide (The Tides are a'changing) or getting stuck and waiting for the tide to come back in (Stuck in the Mud with You). Or perhaps a funked-up My Island Home.

TRIP NOTES
* Ferries leave from Stony Point on the Mornington Peninsula or Cowes on Phillip Island. Timetables: http://www.interisland-ferries.com

* A permit for vehicles must be obtained in advance from Parks Victoria: 131 963.

* There is one general store.

* Eco Tours 1300 307 054; http://www.frenchisland ecotours.com.au.
* McLeod Eco Farm 5678 0155, French Island B&B 5980 1209, French Island Farm 5980 1278, camping 5986 8987.

Original article:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/victoria/doing-quality-time/2006/05/30/1148754975470.html