Separated from mainland Australia by the 240 km stretch of Bass Strait, Tasmania is a land apart – a place of wild and beautiful landscapes; friendly, welcoming people; a pleasant, temperate climate; wonderful wine and food; a rich history; and a relaxed island lifestyle.
Tasmania is a land of things to do and see.
On the island, you’ll contemplate days from a distant past – and let your senses savor the present. You can climb a remote peak, set foot on ancient shores, and meet amazing animals. Duck your head in a deep, dark cave. Climb up and down a family tree. Widen your horizons on a wilderness beach. Breathe the world’s freshest air in an ancient rainforest. Trek, taste, fish, fossick, shop, snap and stroll – and more, much more.
The mountain’s jagged, truncated contours evoke a primeval feel unlike anything on the Australian mainland. Landscapes include ancient rainforest and alpine heath lands, interspersed with button grass and stands of colorful, deciduous beech. Cradle Mountain itself is reflected in the still waters of the lakes that ring it.
Trails winding through forests of King Billy pines around the mountain offer superb day treks and some travelers rate the two hour walk around Dove Lake as the best in the world. If you`re lucky, you may come across a wombat. These hefty, shy animals are mainly nocturnal but in cold periods graze during the day.
Cradle Mountain Huts offers private accommodation and a six-day guided trek. Each night, groups arrive at a warm, cozy hut with hot showers, comfortable beds and delicious meals.

ISLANDS

King Island, known throughout Australia for its delicious, creamy cheeses (plus beef, crayfish and oysters) is building a similarly high reputation among walkers and divers.Tasmania’s northernmost island is green, grassy, low, windswept and just 58 kilometers long. It’s a bracing outpost full of character, secluded beaches and serene lagoons. The two main townships are Grassy and the larger, kelp-harvesting town of Currie.If you’re interested in trivia, King Island’s celebrated cheese will provide you with a gem. This cheese (and the island’s beef, as well) have a special flavor that competitors have never been able to duplicate. The explanation is said to lie in the island’s pasture grasses, which grow nowhere else in Australia. The grasses are believed to have sprung from seeds in straw-filled mattresses, washed a shore from stricken ships. The theory may well be correct. More shipwrecks litter the seabed around here than any other part of Australia. Scuba dive tours are offered off the island. Wetsuits are necessary but the dives are rewarding.
Cape Wickham Lighthouse at the island’s north end, granite-built and 48 meters high is Australia’s tallest. King Island Dairy is worth visiting and the Currie Museum, originally the lighthouse keeper’s cottage, has information about some of the island’s shipwrecks. The worst was that of the immigrant ship Cataraqui, which hit rocks and foundered during a storm in 1845, sending 400 people to a watery grave.

Burnie, Tasmania’s fourth-largest city, located on the shores of Emu Bay, is known for its deepwater port, welcoming people, and green spaces. It’s surrounded by rich farming land, waterfalls, bushwalks, stunning parks and gardens. Within a short distance to beaches, rainforest and lakes, Burnie makes an ideal base to explore the region.In the wild and remote far north of Tasmania’s west coast is the Arthur River, flowing through eucalypt forests and rainforests to the sea. Beyond the river is the western explorer route, an adventurous journey on gravel roads through wilderness to Corinna on the Pieman River, about 100 kilometers south.The pretty harbor town of Strahan is the base for booking day-long cruises on the scenic Gordon River. Trips take you through wilderness, with stop-offs at rainforests and the convict ruins on Sarah Island, where prisoners once logged valuable Huon pine. Small tourist planes also fly around here.

Whether you’re looking for a pleasant stroll through a historic city, for one of the best meals of your life, or for a trek through some of Australia’s most dramatic national parks on the trail of abundant wildlife, then Tasmania’s east coast will seem heaven-sent.
Surrounded by farmland, Launceston is crammed with Victorian and Edwardian architecture, parks and gardens. A meandering river, a scenic gorge and historic hotels add to its charm.Tasmania’s second city, Launceston, stands near Cataract Gorge, a dramatic set of rapids best viewed from the suspension bridge built in 1904. A hundred years before the bridge, William Collins, first European explorer to reach the site, described the scene: `a huge fall of water over rocks, nearly a quarter of a mile up a straight gully between perpendicular rocks about 150 feet high. The beauty of the scene is probably not surpassed in the world`.The falls are now surrounded by a reserve, with walking trails and fine Victorian gardens. The gorge, formed by the South Esk River on its way to the Tamar, is crossed by the longest single-span chairlift in the world (282 meters). It takes six minutes to cross.
Launceston itself is a Victorian and Edwardian architectural gem. Don’t miss historic Penny Royal World. If you return to the city after a day walking in the scenic Tamar Valley, perhaps revive in opulently incongruous surroundings at the Aquarius Roman Baths in George Street. Here, you can lounge like Nero in a bathhouse resembling ancient Rome, complete with classical statues and works of art, busts and temple-like pillars of Italian marble. The bathing regime is based on the Roman system of entering various hot rooms to bathe in warm and hot water before an invigorating cold plunge. Hot rooms include the Laconicum (54º Celsius), the Calcellarium (68º Celsius), the Hypocaust (88º Celsius, if you can stand it) and the Sudatorium steam room (a relatively modest 48º Celsius).

Explore Narawntapu National Park’s coastal ranges, beaches, inlets, islands, wetlands, dunes and lagoons. An amazing variety of plants and animals inhabit the park, including wombats and Tasmanian devils, forester kangaroos and Bennetts wallabies, which come out in the evening to graze on the grasslands.
Mount William National Park abounds with wildflowers in spring, forests, and beaches popular with surfers and anglers. Rich with forester kangaroos, wallabies, pademelons, echidnas, wombats, possums, quolls and bird life, it has panoramic mountain views and remains of ancient Aboriginal feasts.

The ruins of the former prison settlement at Port Arthur look surprisingly placid and picturesque by day, but by night the site rates as one of the spookiest in the world. The lantern-light tour here combines with spine-chilling narrative to leave visitors trembling.
Founded in 1830 to house intractable and troublesome convicts who committed crimes after having been transported, Port Arthur became one of the world’s most feared names. It ranked with the hellish French penal settlement of Devil’s Island in South America as the last place any sane person would want to visit.In an ironic twist, the grim old Australian prison is now Tasmania’s most visited historic highlight, a convenient one-hour drive from Hobart. In the old convict days, slavering, half-starved killer dogs guarded the route and sharks patrolled the seas. The most common way of escaping Port Arthur was by dying. More than 1,700 graves occupy the profoundly creepy Isle of the Dead nearby.

Rolling hills, farmland, waterways and wilderness mark the Huon valley. A centre of fruit growing, the Huon offers scenic drives, willow-clad river banks and fishing villages. From Cockle Creek, walk a few hours to stand on the edge of the world, and gaze out to the vast expanse of the Southern Ocean.Visit Mt Field National Park for swamp gum forests, massive tree ferns and rainforest. See the famous Russell Falls, or stroll between some of the tallest trees in the world. Near Lake Dobson you’ll find day walks and skiing areas. Dramatic mountain scenery and alpine plants feature in the higher areas.Beautiful Richmond, 20 minutes from Hobart on the Heritage Highway, is Tasmania’s premier historic town. You’ll find the oldest bridge and Catholic Church in Tasmania, as well as the oldest post office in Australia. Richmond has numerous cafes, galleries and craft shops to cater for the visitor.The magnificent Southwest National Park covers over 600,000 hectares of wild, inspiring country. The park, the largest in Tasmania, epitomizes the grandeur and spirit of wilderness. The Gordon River and Scotts Peak roads wind through forest, scrub and moorland, with breathtaking views of rugged mountains.

The Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park ranks among the most rugged and inaccessible tracts of wilderness left untouched on earth. It is also among the most beautiful. The best way to see it is by raft, along one of the world’s few remaining wild rivers, the Franklin.
In Australia, the name of this river is synonymous with the country’s largest conservation battle – the struggle to save the Franklin from a proposed hydro-electric power scheme which would have flooded and destroyed it. Fortunately, the right side won and on 1 July 1983 a historic Australian High Court ruling guaranteed the continued existence of one of the world’s last pristine temperate wilderness regions. The river was preserved for mankind as part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area.