Tasmania: Around the island
When to go
December to March. The seasons are reversed, and Tasmania is the coolest corner of Australia: summer days are mild, the evenings long, and the walks at Freycinet and Cradle Mountain at their best. The weather in the mountains and on the west coast turns within an hour, and snow can fall at Cradle Mountain in any month. In late April the native beech around Cradle turns gold and red; in winter, June to August, the high roads can be icy and the days are short.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Hobart2 nights
Founded in 1804, it is the second-oldest capital city in Australia, after Sydney. The synagogue on Argyle Street, built in 1845 in the Egyptian style by a congregation that included former convicts, is the oldest synagogue building in Australia and still holds services.
- Eaglehawk Neckstop on the way
The isthmus, less than a hundred metres wide, that joins the Tasman Peninsula to the rest of Tasmania. To stop convicts escaping from Port Arthur it was guarded by a line of chained dogs; on the shore below lies the Tessellated Pavement, a flat rock cracked into near-perfect tiles.
- Tasman Archstop on the way
A natural arch of rock above a sea cave whose roof has fallen in, on the cliffs of the peninsula. Next to it is the Devils Kitchen, a deep cleft where the swell booms in.
- Port Arthur Tasone night
A penal station from 1830 to 1877 for convicts who had reoffended in the colony, now part of the Australian Convict Sites, a World Heritage listing since 2010. Staying the night lets you join the lantern-lit ghost tour of the ruins after dark.
- Denison Canalstop on the way
A short canal cut across the isthmus at Dunalley and opened in 1905, so that boats need not sail round the Tasman Peninsula. Its swing bridge turns open to let them through.
- Richmondstop on the way
A Georgian village of sandstone houses. Its bridge over the Coal River, built by convicts in 1823, is the oldest bridge still in use in Australia.
- Orford Tasone night
A seaside village at the mouth of the Prosser River. From Triabunna, a few minutes north, the ferry crosses to Maria Island, a car-free national park where wombats graze around the convict station of Darlington, one of the Australian Convict Sites on the World Heritage list.
- Spiky Bridgestop on the way
A small bridge built by convicts in the 1840s of field stones, with a parapet of sharp stones set on edge. Nobody is sure why it was made spiky; the usual story is that it was to stop cattle falling over the side.
- Friendly Beachesstop on the way
A long, empty ocean beach of white sand and orange lichen-covered granite at the northern end of Freycinet National Park, a short drive off the road to Coles Bay.
- Coles Bay2 nights
The village at the gate of Freycinet National Park, under the Hazards, a range of pink granite that glows red at sunset. Freycinet and Mount Field, declared in 1916, were the first national parks in Tasmania.
- Wineglass Bay Lookoutstop on the way
A climb of about an hour there and back from the car park, up through the granite saddle between Mount Amos and Mount Mayson, to a view over a perfect curve of white sand. The steep path on down to the beach makes it a walk of about three hours.
- Swanseastop on the way
One of the oldest towns on the east coast, settled in the 1820s on Great Oyster Bay, with a view across the water to the Hazards. The East Coast Heritage Museum, in the old schoolhouse, tells its story.
- Campbell Townstop on the way
A Midlands town on the old convict road between Hobart and Launceston. The Red Bridge over the Elizabeth River, finished by convicts in 1838 of locally made bricks, still carries the main road.
- Ross Tasone night
A sandstone village on the Macquarie River. Its bridge of 1836 is covered with some 186 carvings of faces, animals and symbols by the convict stonemason Daniel Herbert, who was given his freedom for the work; the site of the female factory, where women convicts were held, is at the edge of the village.
- Evandalestop on the way
A Georgian village near Launceston that hosts, every February, the national penny-farthing championships, raced through its streets on high-wheeled bicycles.
- Longfordstop on the way
A farming town between two estates worked by assigned convicts, Brickendon and Woolmers, which are both among the Australian Convict Sites on the World Heritage list; Brickendon is still farmed by the family that founded it.
- Launcestonone night
Founded in 1806, it is the third-oldest city in Australia. Cataract Gorge, a river gorge with a chairlift and a swimming pool, begins fifteen minutes’ walk from the centre, and the synagogue on St John Street, built in the 1840s, is the second-oldest synagogue building in Australia.
- Delorainestop on the way
A river town under the Great Western Tiers. Every November it holds the Tasmanian Craft Fair, which fills the town and is one of the largest craft fairs in Australia.
- Sheffieldstop on the way
A farming town under Mount Roland that began painting murals on its walls in 1986 to bring visitors back after hard times, and now calls itself the Town of Murals, with dozens of them.
- Cradle Mountain2 nights
In 1910 the Austrian-born Gustav Weindorfer stood on the summit and declared that this must be a national park for the people for all time; the reserve was declared in 1922. The Overland Track, the best-known long walk in Australia, starts here and runs some sixty-five kilometres south to Lake St Clair.
- Dove Lakestop on the way
The lake under the jagged peaks of Cradle Mountain, with a circuit walk of about six kilometres round its shore. In the busy months private cars may not drive the last road in; leave the car at the visitor centre and take the park shuttle bus.
- Zeehanstop on the way
A silver-mining town that boomed in the 1890s, when it was among the largest towns in Tasmania. The West Coast Heritage Centre, in the old School of Mines, tells the story of the mines of the west.
- Henty Dunesstop on the way
High dunes of pale sand behind Ocean Beach, a beach that faces the open Southern Ocean with no land between it and South America. Climb to the top for the view, and take care in the sea, which is wild here.
- Strahan2 nights
The only town on Macquarie Harbour, a harbour larger than Sydney’s, entered from the ocean through a narrow mouth the convicts called Hells Gates. Since 1994 the town has staged The Ship That Never Was, about convicts who built a ship and sailed away in it, the longest-running play in Australia.
- Sarah Islandstop on the way
From 1822 to 1833 the harshest penal station in the colony stood on this small island in Macquarie Harbour, for convicts who had reoffended. The cruises from Strahan land here on the way up the Gordon River into the World Heritage rainforest.
- Queenstownstop on the way
A copper-mining town in a valley of bare, coloured hills, stripped of their forest by the fumes of the smelters, by fires and by the cutting of wood to feed them. The town’s football ground is gravel, not grass, and the West Coast Wilderness Railway runs from here down to Strahan.
- Nelson Fallsstop on the way
A waterfall in the rainforest of the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, a flat walk of about twenty minutes there and back from the highway, among tree ferns and myrtle beech.
- Lake St Clair Tasone night
More than 160 metres deep, it is the deepest lake in Australia, carved out by glaciers. The Overland Track from Cradle Mountain ends at Cynthia Bay, on its southern shore, beside the visitor centre.
- Tarraleahstop on the way
A village built in the 1930s for the workers of the Tarraleah hydro-electric power station, whose great pipelines run down the side of the gorge below it.
- Hamiltonstop on the way
A village of Georgian sandstone buildings on the Clyde River, laid out in the 1830s, when it lay on the road from Hobart to the farms of the central highlands.
- Mount Fieldone night
One of the two first national parks in Tasmania, declared in 1916. From the visitor centre a short walk leads through forest of swamp gums, the tallest flowering plants in the world, to Russell Falls, which drops in two tiers.
- New Norfolkstop on the way
A town on the Derwent settled from 1807 by families moved here from Norfolk Island, whose settlement was being closed, and named after it.
- MONAstop on the way
The Museum of Old and New Art, opened in 2011 by David Walsh, who made his fortune from gambling systems, and dug mostly underground into a sandstone cliff on the Derwent. It lies on the road into Hobart, at Berriedale.
- Hobartone night
A road climbs from the city to the summit of kunanyi, Mount Wellington, 1,271 metres above the harbour. Every Saturday since 1972 the Salamanca Market has filled the square in front of the sandstone warehouses of the old port.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The car and the fuel are yours, and Tasmania has no toll roads. The route starts and ends in Hobart, so there is no one-way fee. Two extras to budget: the National Parks pass, bought once per car, and the paid tickets on the way, the Port Arthur Historic Site and the cruise from Strahan up the Gordon River to Sarah Island. Fuel costs more on the west coast, and there are few stations there.
What to know
Three things. One, and above all: the animals. Tasmania kills more wildlife on its roads than almost anywhere in the world; wallabies, pademelons, wombats, possums and Tasmanian devils come out on to the roads from dusk, and hitting a wombat stops a car. Do not drive after dark outside the towns; if you must, drive slowly. Two: the National Parks pass. Every national park on this route, Freycinet, Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair among them, needs one; the Holiday Pass covers one car for up to eight weeks, is bought online or at a visitor centre, and is shown on the dashboard. Three: the roads. Away from the Midland Highway they are narrow, winding and steep, with logging trucks and no shoulder, and on the west coast they turn and climb for hours; an hour on the map is often an hour and a half.
Roads, tolls and rules
Tasmania drives on the left. Most travellers fly to Hobart and rent there. The other way in is the Spirit of Tasmania, the car ferry across Bass Strait from Geelong, near Melbourne, to Devonport, a crossing of about ten hours, often overnight; but many rental companies do not allow their cars on the ferry, so check before you book. The distances are short but the roads are slow, so the route sleeps every 100 to 140 kilometres: down to Port Arthur, up the east coast, through the Midlands to Launceston, across to Cradle Mountain and the west coast, and back over the central highlands. No day is longer than about two hours of driving.
Travel Tasmania: Around the island
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.