Australia Guide
Tasmania
There's an otherworldly quality to TASMANIA, with its gothic landscape of rain clouds and brooding mountains. This was a prison island whose name, Van Diemen's Land, was so redolent with brutality that when convict transport ended in 1852 it was changed immediately. These days, the island is a far friendlier place. With distances comprehensible to a European traveller – it's roughly the size of Ireland – and resonant echoes of England, Tasmania has a homespun, small-town charm. In winter, when the grass is green, the gentle and cultivated midlands, with their rolling hills, dry-stone walls and old stone villages, are reminiscent of England's West Country. Town names, too, invariably invoke the British Isles – Perth, Swansea, Brighton and Somerset among them. It's a "mainlander's" joke that Tasmania is twenty years behind, and it's true that in some ways it is old-fashioned, a trait that is charming and frustrating by turns. However, things are changing fast. Tasmania now has the fastest-growing tourism sector in Australia, powered by the rise of its cool-climate wine industry, accolades for the superb cuisine of a newly sophisticated café and restaurant scene, booming real estate and immigration, and cheaper and more frequent flights, prompting an increase in luxury accommodation that dares to ditch the chintzy heritage clichés. Recent years have also seen Tasmania re-evaluate its pristine wilderness regions to rebrand itself from heritage island to adventure destination; a sort of New Zealand in the mainland's backyard.
Highlights
1 Salamanca Market Lined with old stone warehouses and characterful old pubs, Hobart's Salamanca Place comes alive for its colourful open-air Saturday market.
2 Port Arthur The infamous old penal settlement, the biggest draw on the wild Tasman Peninsula, is more haunting than ever after the opening of the Model Prison in 2008.
3 Freycinet National Park The hike to exquisite Wineglass Bay is one of the finest walks in the glorious Freycinet National Park.
4 Corinna This isolated former goldrush settlement is a launchpad from which to experience the Tarkine, whether by kayak, cruise or foot.
5 Gordon River cruise A cruise up the Gordon River is the easiest way to get a glimpse of the World Heritage-listed rainforest.
6 Cradle Mountain– Lake St Clair National Park Famed for the six-day Overland Track bushwalk, yet rewarding dayhikes abound in this Tassie icon, one of the most glaciated areas in Australia.
7 Franklin River Raft one of the world's most thrilling white-water roller-coasters – or see it from above on a seaplane flight.
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