Drive the Apple IsleTasmania is one of Australia’s great drive holiday destinations. It’s a small island, but incredibly diverse. Everywhere is only a few hours drive from anywhere, and there is lots to see in between.
Here we look at three of Tasmania’s best drives: Port Arthur and the Tasman Peninsula, east of Hobart; The Wild Way, from Hobart to Strahan on the west coast; the wilderness of Cradle Mountain and the central north-west.
Start your day in Hobart’s Battery Point on a Saturday morning at the famed Salamanca Market. Here you’ll find lots of bargain-priced hand-spun, hand-knitted jumpers, beautifully-turned native Tasmanian timber work and freshly-picked garden produce. Shopping done, head east on the Arthur Highway to the Tasman Peninsula and Port Arthur.
Connected to mainland Tasmania by a strip of land less than 100 metres wide, called Eaglehawk Neck, surrounded by shark-infested waters and wild beaches and towering cliffs, the Tasman Peninsula was a natural penitentiary — or so thought the colonial powers in the early days of settlement. A sizeable chunk of the peninsula is now Tasman National Park, which has great bushwalking and beautiful beaches and bays. Near Eaglehawk Neck are some descriptively-named coastal rock formations — the Tessellated Pavement, the Blowhole, the Devils Kitchen, Tasman’s Arch and Waterfall Bay. You can also visit the Tasmanian Devil Park at Taranna.
The largest town on the peninsula is Nubeena (population 500), on Wedge Bay. There’s great surf here at White Beach and Roaring Beach, a coastal reserve with spectacular views. Coal used to be mined on the north-west of the peninsula in convict times, and the ruins of the mine, including barracks, convict quarters and the lime kiln, are just north of town. There is a nice cliff-walk along Shipstern Bluff at Cape Raoul State Reserve, south of town, as well as Tunnel Bay, a natural rock tunnel created by water erosion.
But the main reason people come here is the dramatic history, which is so pervasive that you can almost hear the clanking of convict chains as you explore the ruins. Although Port Arthur is a comfortable day-trip from Hobart, there is so much to see that you can easily fill a full day. Stay overnight and you can join a historic ghost tour of the site, where guides dressed in black carry glass lanterns and speak of ghost sightings and unexplained happenings in many of the houses and cells during the former convict settlement’s 172-year history. The guides enthral visitors with their own on-site encounters with the supernatural. If you didn’t believe in ghosts when you arrived, you will by the time you leave!
Begin your drive in Hobart and head north, following the signs to Launceston before turning off to New Norfolk and Lake St Clair on the Lyell Highway.
The pretty drive to Strahan on the west coast will take around four hours. It passes through the Derwent Valley, past farmlands, hop fields, forests and remnants of rainforest. This stretch of highway, linking Hobart with the west coast, has been named the Wild Way. Along the route, you will find information bays that relate the natural and man-made history of the area.
Break your journey west at Lake St Clair, at the southern end of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. There are some lovely walks here, ranging from 45 minutes to a few hours. The truly energetic can try the 80 km Overland Trek to Cradle Mountain. The more sedate can catch a ferry to the northern end of the lake and take a five-minute walk into the rainforest.
The drive from Lake St Clair to Strahan is spectacular. The first 80 km section winds through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, where it seems as if a new jagged mountain rises around every curve of the road.
The contrast when you reach Queenstown is startling. The alpine wilderness is replaced by a moonscape of treeless, eroded hills where the vegetation has been killed by almost 100 years of tree felling, sulphurous pollution from smelters and bushfires.
It’s 37 km further to Strahan, beside the sea at the mouth of Macquarie Harbour. This is the jumping-off place for Gordon River Cruises. Most cruises leave in the morning, although there are afternoon cruises during summer. Thrill-seekers can try the 50-minute jet boat ride to King River. Alternatively, if the weather is nasty, you can always while away the afternoon by the fire in Hamers Hotel with a bowl of soup and watch fishing boats laden with cray pots dock at the wharf.
Drive 3: Cradle Mountain wilderness This drive starts on the west coast at Strahan, and can easily be coupled with Drive 2 to make a great week-long trip.
From Strahan, drive north to Cradle Mountain. This section takes around two hours, depending on conditions, but it is worth stopping at the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum in the small mining township of Zeehan. Fourteen galleries chronicle the life and history of the west coast, with a major emphasis on mining and minerals.
Cradle Mountain, at the opposite end of the national park to Lake St Clair, has a range of walks for all levels of fitness and enthusiasm. If you don’t want to walk, drive up to Lake Dove for spectacular views of Cradle Mountain (weather permitting!)
If you’re staying at Cradle Mountain Lodge, you can ride a horse to the aptly-named Fury Plains, go four-wheel driving, join a guided walk or a night-time animal-spotting tour or take in a slide show.
From Cradle Mountain, double back to the junction with the A10 and spear north to the small town of Wynyard, in the shadow of Table Cape and Fossil Bluff. From here, take the Bass Highway, which runs along the northern coast beside Rocky Cape National Park to Stanley. The first thing you’ll see when you get there is the Nut, a 152-metre-high, flat-topped volcanic rock formation, thought to be more than 12 million years old. There are two ways to get to the top — brave a 20-minute, very steep climb or take a chairlift. The views from the top stretch out across Bass Strait. There are a number of lookouts that you can stroll between.
Alternatively, you can drive two hours from Cradle Mountain to Launceston, descending the mountain wilderness to find yourself in green fields, farmhouses and quaint townships — quintessential Tasmania. Stop by Mole Creek Wildlife Park for a close encounter with Tasmanian devils and historic Deloraine, with its many galleries, craft centres, museums and restaurants.
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