Strahan: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Macquarie Harbour is huge and almost closed, with an entrance so narrow and dangerous that the colony chose it as a prison nobody could escape from. This is the cruise day: out to the harbour mouth, back across to the penal station on Sarah Island, up the Gordon River into the rainforest, and in the evening the play that tells the island's most famous escape. Most of it happens on the boat, so dress in layers and take a seat by a window. The town itself fills the gaps on foot.

A short history of Strahan

Strahan is a small town on the shore of Macquarie Harbour in western Tasmania. In 1822 a penal settlement was set up on Sarah Island in the harbour, considered one of the harshest in the British Empire, until it was abandoned in 1833. The narrow entrance to the harbour is called "Hells Gates". In the late 19th century Strahan grew as the port for the copper mines at Queenstown, linked to it by a railway. In 1982–1983 protesters who blockaded the building of a dam on the Franklin River were based here, and in 1983 the High Court ruled the dam out. This protest is regarded as the birth of the environmental movement in Australia.

The ten best sights in Strahan

1
Gordon River cruise wharf
The cruise takes most of the day and leaves in the morning; book a day ahead in summer
2
Sarah Island
Reached only on the cruise, with a guided walk among the ruins; the guides make it
3
Hells Gates
The cruise boats push their nose out into the ocean here; on a swell day it gets rough
4
Macquarie Heads
A gravel road to the harbour mouth, for those who want to see the Gates from land
5
Ocean Beach
Come for the sunset, not for a swim — the surf and rips here are dangerous
6
Henty Dunes
Walk 20 minutes in for the big dunes; sandboards can be hired in town
7
The Ship That Never Was
The evening play everyone in town recommends; the audience gets roped into the cast
8
Hogarth Falls
A 40-minute return walk from People's Park through rainforest; watch the creek for platypus
9
Strahan Customs House
The grand brick building on the waterfront shows how busy this port once was
10
Queenstown
The bare, coloured hills are the work of a century of copper smelting; fuel up here for the Hobart road

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Tours in Strahan →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Strahan:

Free walking tours in Strahan

The convict harbour

Gordon River cruise wharf · In the summer of 1982–83 Strahan was the base of the blockade against a dam on the Franklin River, and protesters set out from here in rubber boats. More than a thousand were arrested, and in 1983 the High Court ruled that the federal government could stop the dam.
Hells Gates · The convicts named the entrance, because for them it led to hell on Sarah Island. Behind it lies a harbour about six times the size of Sydney Harbour, reached only through this one narrow passage.
Sarah Island · From 1822 to 1833 the colony sent its worst re-offenders here. In 1822 Alexander Pearce escaped with seven others into the wilderness and was the only one to come out, having eaten his companions; he was hanged in Hobart in 1824.
Heritage Landing · The boardwalk passes Huon pines that are many centuries old; the species can live for more than two thousand years. Its timber barely rots, so the convicts and later the piners cut it along these rivers for boats.
Morrison's Huon Pine Sawmill · Huon pine is full of an oil, methyl eugenol, that keeps insects and rot away and gives it its smell. Living trees can no longer be logged, so the mill cuts only salvaged wood — old logs pulled from rivers, lakes and forest floor.
The Ship That Never Was · In January 1834, as Sarah Island was being closed, ten convicts seized the brig Frederick they had just built and sailed her to Chile. The play about them has run in Strahan since 1994 and is recognised as Australia's longest-running play.

Copper country

Strahan grew as the port for the copper mines of Mount Lyell, and a railway was built through the rainforest to bring the ore down. This route follows the copper from the harbour up to Queenstown, by train or by car along the same valley. At the top the landscape changes all at once: bare, pink and orange hills, stripped by smelter fumes and wood-cutting. Allow a full day for the train, or half a day by road.

Regatta Point Station · The Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company opened the line in the late 1890s to carry copper to the port. It closed in 1963, and was rebuilt and reopened for visitors in 2002.
Dubbil Barril · The King River beside the line ran grey for most of the 20th century, as the mine dumped its tailings into it. The waste built a delta of sludge where the river meets Macquarie Harbour, still visible from the air.
Queenstown Station · Between here and the coast the line climbs grades too steep for ordinary wheels, so the locomotives use the Abt rack system, a toothed middle rail gripped by a cog. It is one of the very few rack railways in the southern hemisphere.
Queenstown Oval · The town's football oval has no grass — it is gravel, and local teams have played on it for generations. Visiting players learned to fear it, and the oval is as famous in Tasmania as the bare hills around it.
Iron Blow Lookout · The Iron Blow was the outcrop where prospectors first worked Mount Lyell in the 1880s, looking for gold. The real wealth turned out to be copper, and the outcrop became the open pit you look down into, now full of water.
Lake Burbury · The lake is young: it was created in the early 1990s by a hydro-electric dam on the King River, and it drowned the site of the old mining town of Crotty. Hydro dams like this one were exactly what the Franklin blockade stopped further south.

Dunes, ocean and falls

North of the harbour the west coast is one long beach facing the Roaring Forties, backed by dunes and then by rainforest. This route takes the car out to the sea and back through the old silver town of Zeehan to the best waterfall walk on the coast. Pack lunch, since there is little to buy on the way. The day ends in the forest at Montezuma, so leave time to be out before dark.

Hogarth Falls · The creek on the way to the falls is one of the easiest places in Tasmania to see a wild platypus, best at dawn or dusk. The platypus is one of only a handful of mammals in the world that lay eggs.
Macquarie Heads · Macquarie Harbour is the only home in the world of the Maugean skate, a ray that has survived here since the age of the dinosaurs. Its survival is now at the heart of a fight over the salmon farms you see out on the water.
Ocean Beach · The beach runs for over 30 km, and the waves that hit it have crossed the Southern Ocean with no land in the way since South America. The wind here is the Roaring Forties, the westerlies of the 40th parallels.
Henty Dunes · The dunes are sand blown inland from Ocean Beach by the westerlies, and some reach about 30 metres. They keep moving, slowly burying the forest on their eastern edge.
Zeehan · In the silver boom of the 1890s Zeehan had around 10,000 people and was the third-largest town in Tasmania. The mining museum fills its old School of Mines, and the Gaiety Theatre next door was built for the boom-time crowds.
Montezuma Falls · At 104 metres it is one of the highest waterfalls in Tasmania. The path follows the bed of an old narrow-gauge tramway built for the silver mines, so the walk in is almost flat.

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Getting to Strahan and getting around

Strahan Airport · No airline flights — this strip is for scenic flights over the harbour and the wild rivers
Regatta Point Station · The Wilderness Railway's Strahan end; the timetable changes by season, so check which trips leave from here
Queenstown Station · The railway's other end, 40 minutes' drive away; the steep rack section starts from this side

Cheap eats in Strahan

Strahan eats from Macquarie Harbour, where ocean trout and salmon are farmed in the dark tannin water, and fish and chips on the wharf is the town's signature meal. The west coast is remote and quiet, so places close early and some shut in winter. Queenstown, 40 minutes away, has the pubs and the cheaper counter meals of a mining town.

The Bay Fish Co. · Fish and chips by the water, about A$15-25
Hamer's Hotel · Pub lunch on the Esplanade, mains about A$22-35
Bushman's · Café by day on the waterfront; a sandwich or soup about A$10-20
Regatta Point Tavern · Counter meals by the station, about A$20-32
Grand Hotel, Zeehan · Pub lunch next to the Gaiety Theatre on the coast day, about A$20-30
Empire Hotel, Queenstown · Mining-town pub meals in Queenstown, about A$20-30

Museums in Strahan

West Coast Heritage Centre · The big mining museum of the west coast; two hours at least
Galley Museum · Old photographs of Queenstown's mining days
Strahan Customs House · The port's grandest building, from its busy mining years
West Coast Visitor Centre · Displays on the harbour's convict and piner history; home of the play
Sarah Island · The penal-station ruins, on the cruise only

Nature and day trips near Strahan

Montezuma Falls · 104 metres of falling water at the end of a flat forest track
Henty Dunes · Huge moving dunes; climb for the view of the ocean
Ocean Beach · Sunset over the Southern Ocean; no swimming
Nelson Falls · Short rainforest walk on the Lyell Highway
Horsetail Falls · A boardwalk above Queenstown to a long, thin fall
Hogarth Falls · Rainforest walk from the edge of town

Things to do in Strahan with kids

Sandboarding at Henty Dunes · Slide down the big dunes on a board; hire one in Strahan
The Ship That Never Was · A comedy where the audience plays the convicts
West Coast Wilderness Railway · A steam train through the rainforest
Morrison's Huon Pine Sawmill · Watch the big saw cut ancient wood
Platypus at Hogarth Falls · Sit quietly by the creek at dusk

Where to eat in Strahan

Risby Cove · Dinner on the water at the edge of town; book in summer
Bushman's Bar · Harbour fish and Tasmanian wine on the waterfront
Hamer's Hotel · The pub opposite the wharf; seafood and steaks
Regatta Point Tavern · Locals' pub dinner by the railway station
Strahan Village · Hotel restaurant on the hill with a view over the harbour

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Frequently asked questions about Strahan

What is there to see in Strahan?

The top sights in Strahan are Gordon River cruise wharf, Sarah Island and Hells Gates. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Strahan?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Strahan without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Strahan?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Strahan, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The convict harbour.

How do you get to Strahan and get around?

The main ways are Strahan Airport, Regatta Point Station and Queenstown Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Strahan, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Strahan that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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