This blog takes us from the west coast of Tasmania through the centre to the east coast. We were still travelling with Steve and Denise and our first stop after leaving Strahn was in Queenstown. It is an historic mining town, nestled between Mt Lyell and Mt Owen, that features a cratered moonscape. We were not overly taken with the town, in spite of the fact that I had naming rights on a few prominent sites, so we walked around the town, visited the lookout and then moved on.
I focussed on these two locations when we walked around the town.The view from the lookout in Queenstown – mountains and not much of a town to look at. Dick would have been happy to skip stopping there.
It was more interesting to stop at the Iron Blow Lookout.
We were on a cantilevered lookout over the Iron Blow Mine pit, where copper was mined in the late 1800’s. The moonscape is a result of the mining and the aqua blue water is due to high levels of copper exposure.There are 35 kms of MTB (Mountain bike) tracks on Mt Owen and lots more in the area – you can see some of the hairpin curves in the top picture. In this area we did the Horsetail Falls walk, which may be something to look at when there is lots of water around, but it is called seasonal and we were not there in the right season! It is supposed to be a 50 metre waterfall at the foot of Mt Owen.Lots of mountains everywhere as our little Explorer motorhome convey wound its way through the area.That night we camped at Lake King William, which was created by Hydro Tasmania in 1950 with the construction of the Clark Dam across the Derwent River. There was not much water in the area where we camped, but some wildlife! Interesting as the Tasmanian tiger has been extinct since 1936.
Our first stop in the morning was the town of Derwent Bridge (population 40), where we visited an amazing place called ‘The Wall in the Wilderness’. This ambitious art project has been created and designed by Greg Duncan who is carving the history of the Central Highlands of Tasmania in 100 meters of timber 3 meteres high, mostly Huon Pine.
Set out in relief sculpture the work depicts the history, hardship and perseverance of early settlers. The work has an uncanny realism and some of the carved pieces in the foyer looked absolutely real. Each one metre of panels represents a month’s work. These photos don’t do the work justice BUT there are no photos allowed! So I bought a fancy brochure that had good photos and I have used copies of those. The work covers the history from the indigenous population to pioneers harvesting timber to pastoralists to miners and hydro-electric scheme workers. THIS IS A WORLD CLASS EXPERIENCE – there is nothing like this anywhere else in Australia. If you ever visit Tasmania, put this on your list. I rate it one of the best things we saw on our travels in Tasmania.We stayed at Tarraleah, which is a former hydro construction village (from the 1930’s – 1980’s) now turned into an estate that caters for tourists. In 2023 it was bought back by Hydro Tasmania for $11.2million. With limited camping places it is usually hard to get in, but we were in the middle of a bush fire danger area so there was room for us to camp. We were told that if the fires got closer we would have to leave immediately. However the sports field was a parking lot for the firefighting helicopters and all the crews were staying there. The woman who checked us in said that the fire fighters must have thought it would be safe there or they wouldn’t all be staying there. We ate dinner in the pub with Steve and Denise – our last evening together as we were heading off on our separate ways.
We headed for Lake Pedder, Lake Gordon and the Gordon Dam. After hearing about the controversy over the flooding of Lake Pedder and the completion of the Gordon Dam in 1974, we were keen to see the area. On the way in we bumped into another three Explorer Motorhome contacts and decided to camp with them at Ted’s Beach on Lake Pedder.
On the drive into the Gordon Dam we saw lots of mountains, interesting art works and glimpses of Lake Pedder.Amazing views of the Gordon Dam and Lake Gordon, the largest water storage in the country. We spent a lot of time walking across the top of the dam and enjoying the views. The dam and power station are associated with the construction of the first road into southwest Tasmania, and the controversy over the flooding of Lake Pedder.Lake Pedder and Lake Gordon combine to form Australia’s largest water storage, covering more than 500 sq kilometers and holding approximately 31 times the volume of water in Sydney Harbour. The Gordon River runs from here to Macquarie Harbour in Strahn where we did that boat cruise.Not sure why we were camped behind the beach area with the view but we were the last to arrive, so not our call. The flooded Lake Pedder now has a surface area of approximately 242 sq kilometers. It was the flooding of Lake Pedder that saw the birth of the United Tasmania Group, the first green political party in the world.At Strathgordon we saw this massive Huon Pine log. This log was salvaged in 1975 from the area now covered by Lake Gordon. At the time of salvage this Huon Pine was 2200 years old and had a circumference of 8 meters. Its age was established by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and the markers on the tree rings indicate the size of the tree and what was happening in the world at the time. For example, the first marker says – “AD 68 DEATH OF NERO EMPEROR OF ROME. The sixth marker says – “Magna Carta signed by King John 1215”. Huon Pine only gorws in the wet, temperate rainforests of SW Tasmania. They do not start to reproduce until 600-800 years of age and their timber has remarkable properties. It has a high oil content which renders it impervious to insects, waterproof and it does not rot. It can be bent, shaped, worked and sculpted without splitting and finishes to a superb, fine lustre. Woodworkers love it! Dick used it to do a major rebuild on his boat in the early 90’s.
Given we had been in Hobart many times, we decided to have three nights in a caravan park in Huonville, a small town south of Hobart. It was a relaxing and social stop. We visited an old friend of mine from Dress for Success days, Kerri and her husband Rob, We also caught up with friends from our Arnhem Land trip, Jan and Paul, over a lovely lunch.
The view from our bedroom window for two of our three mornings in the caravan park. Not a bad place to have a few days to relax.We had a great catchup and a yummy lunch with Jan and Paul who gave us lots of travel tips for the rest of our time in Tassie. That Arnhem Land trip we did with them had a big impact on all of us.A big bonus of staying in that caravan park was that the park supported the ‘Save the Tasmanian Devil Program’ and had two Tasmanian Devils which they featured in a close-up show for their guests. Tasmanian devils are threatened by the Devil Facial Tumor Disease, a type of cancer which could wipe them out eventually.
From here we headed up the east coast of Tasmania and on to another scenic part of this small and very scenic island state.
Its been a while between blogs because we had such a good and very busy time in Tasmania; and because on returning home we seemed to also have lots on.
On arrival in Devonport on the ferry, we had to get setup for our Tassie travels, with fuel and a major grocery shop, as all our fruit and vegetables were either eaten or given away to comply with Tasmania’s strict biosecurity laws. Afterall this is an island state 250 kms south of the mainland. The initial plan was to head for Cradle Mountain and do the Dove Lake walk, but that was too ambitious so we camped at Lake Gardiner in a popular free camp where we got the second last spot. It was a popular spot for seeing platypus but as luck would have it, other people saw them just after we walked away.
Dick enjoying the view at Lake Gardiner – great free camp and platypus spotting area.
Given we had already done most of the well known multi-day walks previously, and given we are not as fit as we were then, we decided to focus on ‘The 60 Great Short Walks’ in Tasmania, which are outlined in a very useful brochure. It was a short drive from our camp to the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre, where we had to take a shuttle bus to Dove Lake. The 6km Dove Lake Circuit is known as one of Tasmania’s premier walks. We scored a hot, sunny day for our walk which weaves through rainforest and provides stunning views of Cradle Mountain.
At the beginning of the walk – we were happy and rested. That’s Cradle Mountain in the background.This is the view looking back to where we started. Lots of places to get down to the water’s edge on this walk.Great views of Cradle Mountain from most of the walk.Dick having a rest. The walk has lots of boardwalk over the rough sections.It is a one way walk as it is so popular. Amazing views around every corner. It took us just over 2.5 hours and we were both tired at the end. Then we left the stunning Cradle Moutain area and headed for the coast.Our night in the Boat Harbour caravan park on the north coast of Tasmania was uneventful and the view was terrific.Meeting up with Steve and Denise to commence our travels down the west coast, in our twin Explorer Motorhomes.
After a coffee stop, a visit to the Smithton Information Centre where we did a cheese tasting, and a grocery stop; we ended up camping behind the Marrawah pub, where we had dinner. Sadly the scenic free camp on the beach was full!
The red line on this map outlines The Tarkine Drive, which is a scenic drive through the greatest expanse of cool temperate rainforest in Australia and the second largest in the world. It marks the beginning of an overload of beautiful sights to see over two days.Our first stop was at the West Point State Reserve, and was just a taste of the stunning coastline ahead.We made a short stop at the Lighthouse and then we ventured down a little road and found another beach to explore, and a small spit of land to climb on at Mawson Bay.After we drove through Arthur River, our next stop was a lookout called Edge of the World which offered more great views of the Tarkine coast. We then drove to Couta Rocks and spent some time exploring the landscape and taking in the views.
More exploring at Couta Rocks.We drove back up the coast to Nelson Bay and camped in a lovely free camp. That evening we did a 4 k return walk along the beach to see these petroglyphs, ancient aboriginal rock carvings, at Sundown Point. It was a very full day and to finish it off, I climbed a sand dune near camp and got a nice sunset photo. Hard to imagine we saw so many beautiful places in one day. This also finished the coastal section of the Tarkine Drive. Next comes the rainforest section.
The second day of our Tarkine Drive continued to be almost overwhelming as there was so much to see.
First stop of the day was the Sumac Lookout over Arthur River and the cool temperate rainforest.So many beehives around almost every corner of the Tarkine Drive.Rainforest walk through the man ferns at Julius River and a walk to Lake Chisholm, one of the finest examples of a flooded limestone sinkhole in Australia.This was a very scenic drive through the Tarkine with lots of stops.We thought it had been an amzing day already, but we were blown away by our last stop at the Trowutta Arch. A short walk took us to the huge arch leading to yet another large sinkhole. Naturally occuring and created by the collapse of a cave, resulting in the formation of two sinkholes – one dry and one wet on either side of the arch.
The water filled sinkhole is geomorphologically classified as a cenote (a steep walled water filled sinkhole) and is regarded as one of the best examples in Tasmania. It is more than 20m deep and is an important habitat for invertebrates. This was another great day where we saw so much, walked 6k’s and ended up at a free roadside camp at the Lindsay River on the Western Explorer Wilderness Drive, our next adventure drive.
Our first rainy day, as you can see in the photos, but we still saw lots of leatherwood plants and flowers, rivers and various lookouts.The Western Explorer Rd took us to Corinna, a historic mining town and bustling port in the 1800’s gold rush. It is now a restaurant, accommodation and staging point for the Fatman Barge. On the other side we continued inland along windy roads through a remote area with lots of dams, and camped at the Mackintosh dam, near Tullah.
Next stop Roseberry and Montezuma Falls.
MONTEZUMA FALLS – a beautiful 11 k return walk through a temperate rainforest along an historic tramway, brought us to one of the highest waterfalls in Tasmania (104 m). We had a lovely day and finished up camping at the Zeehan Golf Club.
Strahan is the iconic port on the banks of Macquarie Harbour, nestled between the Southern Ocean and Gateway to Tasmania’s World Heritage Area. Macquarie Harbour is 6 times the size of Sydney Harbour. 20% of Tasmania is World Heritage area. In fact, Strahan is the staging point to the south-western wilderness as south of Strahan and all of the southern half of the west side of Tasmania is not accessible by road. We were in a very special part of the world.
Day one in Strahan was spent wandering around town, getting our bearings, cruise tickets for tomorrow’s outing, groceries and browsing. The highlight was our big night out at View 41 celebrating Steve and Dick’s big birthdays (70 & 80). We made a fuss when we booked so they got special little cakes, candles and the whole restaurant sang to them. Denise and I did neglect to say that the birthdays were months ago but we hadn’t all been able to celebrate together. Some people even commented on the coincidence of them having birthdays on the same day. It was funny!!!
Day Two in Strahan is one of the highlights of our time in Tassie – we did the cruise on the Gordon River into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area.
The cruise began by heading out to Hells Gates, and through that narrow opening into or out of the harbour. On the way back into the harbour we passed lots and lots of fish farms (80% salmon and 20% ocean trout). Above is a close up of one fish farm and then many others in the distance. The commentary on the cruise was excellant and so informative.A special part of the cruise took us up the Gordon River into world heritage wilderness; so pristine. This world heritage area meets 7 out of the 10 criteria for world heritage listing and those are extensive and wide ranging criteria.Our cruise stopped twice; at Heritage Landing, where we walked through ancient rainforest and learned a lot about Huon Pine (14,000 hectares grown in Tassie and the trees take 500 years to mature) and at Sarah Island, where we learned about the infamous convict settlement there. Sarah Island was known as the harshest penal settlement in the Australian colonies. In fact our guide on the island was very knowledgeable and gave us great tales about the history there. Later that night we saw her again when we attended a play called ‘The Ship That Never Was’ about convicts on Sarah Island. She was the main character in the play, which has been running continuously for 30 years and which was written by her father. Above is the cruise boat loading us back on from the pier at Sarah Island.This map and this blog post outline our travels since we arrived in Tasmania, with a primary focus on the west coast.
This ends our jouney down the west coast of Tasmania and it is also a good place to end this blog post. We have already seen and learnt so much, although we have not travelled that far; less than 900 km’s in the 9 days since we arrived in Tasmania.
