Discover Tasmania Australia’s Natural State Tasmania, Australia’s island state, is about the same size as Scotland, and, like Scotland, is also renowned for its great natural beauty. Recently, the Tasmanian experience has been undergoing a sophisticated change. While you can still spend a lot of your time surrounded by unspoilt wilderness, there are now also plenty of opportunities to spoil yourself. Luxurious accommodation, mountains of fresh produce and mouth-watering boutique wines ensure non-stop pampering at the end of a day’s adventuring. As you wander on a deserted white sand beach your only thought of other people will be as dining companions later that day, when you share local wines or nibble on freshly shucked oysters at a luxury beachfront standing camp. Go trout fishing in wild rivers and highland lakes, then relax with a Tasmanian-distilled single malt whisky in an intimate five-star lodge or a charming bed and breakfast. Take an eco-cruise under towering sea cliffs then dine out in an award-winning restaurant on the catch of the day, to tales of encounters with whales, dolphins, sea eagles and a mighty coastline. Step out with rare wildlife. Wild quolls and Tasmanian devils are found nowhere else in the world and while you may have to go nocturnal to see these unique creatures, wombats, wallabies and platypus can be readily encountered during the day. Revel in the rollicking tales and the grand sandstone buildings which define our convict past, or trace your family back a few centuries – your forebears may have helped to shape our colonial history. If local art and crafts are your passions, you can engage with a thriving Tasmanian art scene in galleries and markets. Tasmania remains gloriously unspoilt. But these days our island caters to passions as diverse as our cherished natural attributes. We look forward to welcoming you soon. Yours sincerely Felicia Mariani CEO Front cover: Tasmanian devil Bay of Fires D i r e c t M D e irec l b o Cape t u M r Wickham elbourne n e t CONTENTS o F K t U i o n F R g l N in I d E s er l A a TASMANIA s U n KING I d sla X n d Stories of Tasmania FLINDERS ISLAND 01020 30 40 50 Naracoopa Emita G Currie kilometres ISLAND R O Whitemark U P 6 A Devil of an Encounter Yarra Creek Lackrana Grassy Strzelecki Lady Barron by DEREK GRELEWSKI Di r National Park ect As seen in Australian Geographic M n e n o K t l o s in b t BASS STRAIT s e g o c Tasmanian devils – theirs is a life without subtleties … I urne to e n s c l u a n n a CAPE BARREN ISLAND d u L Three a Direct Melbour o - L t D W Wy Hummock i o e r t n n y K n e a to in c y Island y n b s g t e a yard Me s e r I n i c Hunter d s r Clarke l d n a B n y u Island l a Island d b S t L - o t c - D ur c e r e i d e A Wilderness Retreat v ne to ne to Launc n r 8 o i D n la Robbins p D s Cape Grim o I r s Island t D r by EMMA SLOLEY e e v d on n i l Swan F p Spirit of Tasmania I & II eston Cape Portland Island o As seen in Harper’s Bazaar Stanley rt from Melbourne Devonport Bracing walks, massages and wildlife encounters … SMITHTON Rocky Cape Terminal Port National Park Mt William Marrawah Latta National Park West Boat Harbour Point Table Cape Gladstone WYNYARD Bridport Eddystone Point Somerset BURNIE Narawntapu 9 Gourmet Delights National Park GEORGE Penguin TOWN Pipers VERSTONE River Derby by CAROL DRINKWATER UL DEVONPORT Yolla SCOTTSDALE Ridgley Port Beauty Pt Sorell Beaconsfield Description to come … Forth Ringarooma LATROBE Hampshire Lilydale Binalong Bay Gunns Plains Exeter Savage River Barrington Railton Frankford ST HELENS National Park Nietta Sheffield Wilmot Sandy Cape Destinations of Tasmania Waratah Elizabeth Town LAUNCESTON Mathinna Scamander DELORAINE Savage River Westbury Ben Lomond PERTH Mole Creek Evandale National Park Ironhouse Point Mole Creek Karst Longford Deddington St Marys 10 Hobart and Surrounds National Park Nile Cradle Valley Rossarden Fingal Corinna Cressy Douglas Apsley 12 Launceston, Tamar and the North Cleveland Avoca National Rosebery Cradle Mountain Poatina Park Conara Walls of Bicheno - Lake St Clair Zeehan Campbell Town 14 The Western Wilderness Jerusalem National Park Miena National Park Freycinet Ross National 16 The North West Coast QUEENSTOWN Bronte Coles Bay Park Swansea STRAHAN Derwent Bridge Park Tunbridge Cape Sorell Freycinet S Peninsula 18 King Island O Franklin - Gordon Tarraleah Oatlands Schouten Island U Wild Rivers Bothwell 19 Flinders Island T National Park H Ouse Melton Mowbray Triabunna rt Maria Island a Kempton Colebrook b E Orford National Park o H The East Coast Hamilton rt 20 Darlington o t ba R Mount Field Buckland e o Bagdad Maria id H National la to Island e e d n N Park A ur Gretna t o c lb National Park Bushy Brighton e e rt ir M ba Park Richmond D t Ho BRIDGEWATER rec y to Di ydne What’s Happening in Tasmania Strathgordon SORELL ct S Maydena Dire bart to Ho NEW NORFOLK Cambridge Copping Direct Brisbane Di GLENORCHY rect C anberra O to Hobart HOBART Dunalley Lauderdale 21 Tasmanian itinerary suggestions C KINGSTON Low Rocky E South Arm Eaglehawk Neck Point HUONVILLE Margate Tasman A Snug Franklin 22 Tasmanian Events Kettering Nubeena N Southwest Cygnet Port Tasman Geeveston Woodbridge Peninsula Arthur National Park National Park Cape Pillar Hartz Mtns Cape Raoul 23 Getting here National Park Dover BRUNY Alonnah Adventure Bay Melaleuca ISLAND TRAVELLING DISTANCES (km) AND TIMES Southport Photographic acknowledgments: Tourism Tasmania.© Disclaimer: Tourism Tasmania has made every endeavour Launceston-St Helens (via Scottsdale) 163 2hrs20 South Bruny All rights reserved. George Apostolidis, John de la Roche, to ensure that details are correct at the time of printing Launceston-Bicheno (via Scottsdale) 236 3hrs30 National Park South West Cape Tim Dub, Richard Eastwood, Mark Eveleigh, Don Fuchs, (April 2009) but can accept no responsibility for any Launceston-Hobart (via Midlands Hwy) 198 2hrs20 Cockle Creek Bicheno-Hobart (via Sorell) 178 2hrs25 Maatsuyker Dennis Harding, Keiichi Hiki, Jeff Jennings, Andrei Jewell, inaccuracy or mis-description contained in this brochure Group South East Cape Hobart-Port Arthur 93 1hr30 Ray Joyce, Simon Kenny, Darran Leal, Geoffrey Lea, as a result of information supplied, and can accept no Hobart-Queenstown 260 3hrs40 Garry Moore, Peter Morse, Geoff Murray, Matthew responsibility for subsequent change or withdrawal of Queenstown-Burnie 176 2hrs25 AUSTRALIA Burnie-Devonport 49 40min Newton, Robin Nyfeler, Nick Osborne, Pure Tasmania, prices, details or services shown. ©Tourism Tasmania Burnie-Smithton 85 1hr Diane and Lindsay Stockbridge, Joe Shemesh, Rob Walls, UNITED KINGDOM Devonport-Launceston 99 1hr15 Devonport-Hobart (via Midlands Hwy) 277 3hrs Peter Whyte, Greg Willson. Hobart-St Helens 265 3hrs40 Queenstown-Launceston (via Sheffield) 251 3hrs30 © STATE OF TASMANIA Tasmania discovertasmania.com 5 The autumn dusk descends quickly over the forests in north-west Tasmania. Hopping wallabies BY DEREK GRELEWSKI recede into the night. Thump! Thump! Thump! The night also hums with the mystery of the As seen in Australian Geographic* A Devil of an Encounter unseen. In 1982, here in the north-west, an experienced wildlife ranger reported seeing a thylacine, so close he could count all 12 black stripes across its back. I am, however, not looking for apparitions of the Tasmanian tiger. My quarry is its surviving relative, the Tasmanian devil. Pre-dinner drinks Maybe it was the childhood Bugs Bunny cartoons featuring the whirlwind ogre Taz, or the larger-than-life reputation of the beast, or the fact that among the world’s carnivorous marsupials they are a stand-alone success story, I’ve always been fascinated by the devils. Yet I’ve never seen one. The entrée In 1986, Androo Kelly took over the Trowunna Wildlife Park, at Mole Creek, in the Great Western Tiers. Androo is one of the devil’s most ardent advocates in Tasmania. The devils, he tells me, live such a furious life, running some 15 km every night in pursuit of food or mates, they simply burn themselves out. Few live longer than five years. Theirs is a life without subtleties, where even mating is a form of combat. It’s tough going from the moment they’re born. ‘The female gives birth to 20 young – each the size of a grain of rice – and they immediately set off on a long crawl to the mother’s marsupial pouch,’ Androo says. It’s an all-important race because in the pouch there are only four nipples. This running start sets the pace for the rest of their lives. Tasmania’s wildlife parks are great places to get close to a devil. But Androo suggests I should also book a seat at one of three devil restaurants. He recommends one in Marrawah, near the north-west tip of Tasmania. Main course Marrawah, perched on the edge of the ocean, is the home of Geoff King, a farmer-turned-devil- restaurateur. Geoff has set up an ecotourism business, the devils’ restaurant, where it’s the devils that dine — from the road-killed wallaby Geoff stakes out. Geoff and I wait in an old fisherman’s cottage.