Life on wild and windy Maatsuyker told in print

IF the scenery at Maatsuyker Island doesn’t blow you away, the wind might.

As one of the windiest sites in Australia, the remote island is hit with gusts of more than 100km/h about 68 days a year, while Hobart sees fewer than five such days annually.

Couple Paul Richardson and Amanda Walker experienced the wild weather first hand after jumping at the chance to be caretakers on the island for six months in 2015.

The duo recently published a book — Maatsuyker through

our eyes — giving readers an insight into what it was like to live and work in such an unpredictable place.

Mr Richardson said the pair had a front-row seat to super swells and lightning strikes, including one that directly hit the 124-year-old lighthouse they were looking after.

“I had never had the opportunity to see the weather at its most extreme and the island delivered,” he said.

“Maatsuyker is the weather; we were living and working in the weather every day, so we go into detail in the book about the weather we experienced, what was involved in recording the weather and working with the technicians who came to the island.”

The 186ha island, 5km off the south coast of Tasmania, is part of the Southwest National Park and Tasmanian Wilderness Word Heritage Area.

The average wind speed on the island is 34km/h, almost three times faster than the average Hobart wind speed of 13km/h.

Despite damaging winds, Maatsuyker Island has relatively mild temperatures because of the moderating effects of the sea.

Bureau of Meteorology data shows that most winter nights are between 6C and 9C degrees and rarely drop below 3C. Maatsuyker through our eyes includes photographs and artwork from the couple’s outpost.

The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service recruits a new caretaker for the island every six months.

For more information, go to parks.tas.gov.au