Three great day trips from Cairns, Canberra & HobartPush the boundaries of some of our favourite holiday destinations and you’ll discover some holiday treasures – and all in a day’s drive. Peter Thoeming highlights three great day-drives from Cairns, Canberra and Hobart.
Short and sweet day trips are one of the best ways to explore all a region has to offer. If you crave a break in your routine or a mini-getaway without planning a huge holiday mission, here are three great day drives that will satisfy your urge for adventure without taking you too far off the beaten track.
If you like quick trips that combine a dash of nature with a splash of coffee, an invigorating walk through the wilderness with a relaxing drive through the country, then pack your maps, your snacks and your camera and hit the road. Each of these drives are easily accessible and offer so much to see and do along the way, you’ll want to come back for more than one visit.
Tucked away above Cairns, and behind the two tallest mountains in Queensland, is a scenic escape away from the crowded coast of the Far North — the Atherton Tablelands. It offers a cool respite from the coast and a range of beautiful natural and historical sights.
Your journey starts as you head south from Cairns on the Bruce Highway. As you approach Walsh’s Pyramid, an impressive triangular mountain, turn right onto the Atherton (Gillies) Highway towards Atherton.
With a reputed 364 corners, the Gillies is not an easy road to drive but it repays visitors with stunning panoramic views — especially from Heales Outlook — and provides access to the lush greenery of the Atherton Tablelands. Once at the top, you can go one of two ways to Atherton.
To the right lies the back road, a partly sealed, partly dirt road that alternates between pine and rainforests to the lovely town of Tinaroo Falls, a pleasant escape from the heat of the coast and the site of Lake Tinaroo, a great spot for boating, windsurfing and barramundi fishing.
If you opt to go straight ahead down the highway from Heales Outlook, you must stop at the town of Yungaburra, first settled in 1878. The town has more than 20 National Trust-listed buildings, all made from local timber. The town is also home to some impressive natural wonders. A must-see is the famous Curtain Fig Tree, with a vast curtain of roots that drop 15 metres from the main body of the tree to the ground. The foreshore along the 10,000-year-old crater lake, Lake Eacham, is stunning and swimming is permitted. Or you could join a boat cruise on nearby Lake Barrine.
Both routes will lead you to Atherton. Once there, make sure you visit Halloran’s Hill Environmental Park which houses a crater from an extinct volcano and The Old Post Office Gallery, housing a range of works by local artists and potters. The Chinese Temple to the Emperor Ho Wong is a tribute to the Chinese who worked as timber-cutters until the turn of the last century and combines charming traditional Chinese architecture with local corrugated iron.
From Atherton, head north up the Kennedy Highway through Tolga to Mareeba. If time allows, turn west at Mareeba and head through the tobacco plantations for about 12 kms until you reach Granite Gorge, where you will find the Granite Boulders. There is a nominal charge to enter but these massive stone formations that dot the area, the result of volcanic activity, shouldn’t be missed. From Mareeba head east back to Cairns on the Kennedy Highway via Kuranda and the new exotic wildlife park.
A great days journey which offers something for everyone.
Canberra has a great deal to offer, from wonderful public gardens to the sombre War Memorial, and from the super-modern Parliament House to the ancient Aboriginal art in the National Gallery.
What’s more, the capital is also only 150 km from the unspoilt NSW south coast town of Batemans Bay and its beaches. The Kings Highway, which leads there via the spectacular Clyde Mountain, offers a terrific day drive.
Leave the city along Canberra Avenue, which will take you out through Queanbeyan and on through the park-like countryside with its scattered eucalypts to the village of Bungendore.
Bungendore is great for shopping — beautiful woodwork, all sorts of leathercraft, books, souvenirs and antiques are available in the scattered shops. So is good coffee.
From there, head south along the Kings Highway to Braidwood, where the scenery becomes more stark and dramatic as you cross the Monaro Plains.
Braidwood is a one-time goldmining town full of charm, historic buildings and a wide selection of cafés and shops that can be found along the town’s long and wide main street. Your first port of call should be the Museum, which provides great maps and a list of the many historic buildings, including the sandstone brick and gabled-roof former Council Chambers and AJS Bank, the Commercial Hotel with its cast iron columns and decorative lacework, the Federation-style Court House, St Bede’s Roman Catholic Church and St. Andrew’s Anglican Church.
From Braidwood, continue along the Kings Highway and through the increasingly hilly grazing country to the edge of the coastal scarp. The road takes you from the tablelands of Clyde Mountain down to sea level on the Clyde River on what is a thoroughly enjoyable drive.
Once you’re at the bottom, you’ll pass through the pretty little village of Nelligen on the Clyde River, then it’s across the river on a long bridge and down along its left bank until you meet the Princes Highway. A right turn, another crossing of the Clyde and you’re at your destination — the cheerful and bustling township of Batemans Bay.
Batemans Bay is an attractive fishing port, close to great beaches, forests and bushwalking tracks and is a good central point for scenic drives and camping. You can also fish, take a cruise along the Clyde River, visit the Eurobodalla Native Botanic Gardens or relax and enjoy fish and chips by the water, right in the middle of Batemans Bay.
The best way to get back to Canberra is to retrace your drive — but that’s all right. It gives you another chance at all the shops and cafés you might have missed on the way down.
Hobart is surrounded by lovely scenery and quaint towns but there’s a new destination that really stands out. It’s the Tahune Air Walk on the Huon Trail.
Take Sandy Bay Road past Wrest Point Casino, rather than the main road, the Southern Outlet. The 13 km drive down to Kingston is very pretty and offers spectacular views over the lower reaches of the Derwent River. The famous Shot Tower is part of the way along, and worth a stop. Built in 1870, it is constructed from more than 8,000 curved and tapered sandstone blocks. The Shot Tower was, of course, used to produce shot whereby molten lead was poured through perforations and dropped inside the tower into water. It now offers great views — if you’re fit enough to climb the 291 steps to the top. Two kilometres south of Kingston is the Australian Antarctic Headquarters, home to some great displays, photographs and Antarctic artefacts including Sir Douglas Mawson’s sledge.
Head south down the Channel Highway and if you’re feeling peckish stop at the antique train-style café in Margate for freshly-made pancakes served to you as you sit in a carriage. The Channel Highway is a relatively quiet road that connects the many small settlements of this attractive peninsula including towns with intriguing names like Snug, Cygnet and Flowerpot, which are worth a visit for the names alone. If you have a designated driver then you should visit one of the cool climate wineries at Kettering, Gardners Bay or Birchs Bay, all of which hug the coast along the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. At Huonville, the Channel Highway ends and you join the Huon Highway, crossing the Huon River and turn south.
From here, follow the river through Franklin to Geeveston. Make sure you stop at the tourist information centre in town to pick up detailed information and look at the stylish craftwork on display. Then you head west for the Tahune Air Walk and Waratah Lookout.
Arve Forest Drive is not sealed but is in generally good condition. Be aware, the road is used by the logging trucks that serve the many timber cutters of the area and can make the going slow if you get stuck behind one.
There are three attractions hidden deep in the forest, all well signposted. Waratah Lookout is high in the Hartz Mountains and offers a fascinating look at the strange high altitude vegetation of its elevated swamps. Further in, on the banks of the Arve River, is a pretty little picnic spot, and finally there’s the Air Walk, part of the Huon Trail. Suspended high in the forest canopy, it is an amazing feat of engineering and a sight worth seeing. This spectacular treetops walkway is one of only a few fixed structure canopy walkways in the world and provides amazing views of the southern forests, the local mountain range and the Tasmanian World Heritage Area. Suspended 45 metres in the air and spanning half a kilomtre long, it winds through the treetops at the junction of the Huon and Picton rivers, so you feel as if you are suspended above them. If you’re not keen on heights, the nearby Huon Pine Walk provides easy access to a vast array of trees that are thousands of years old. Have a swim in the Hastings Thermal Pool or tour the Newdate Cave System formed millions of years ago.
On the return journey back to Hobart, take the Huon Highway at Huonville and stop at The Huon Valley Apple & Heritage Museum for a history of the area and, in season, as many apples as you can eat!
Tourism Tropical North Queensland
Batemans Bay Information Centre
Discover Tasmania
4WD
