Roaming securely behind a waist-high wooden fence, the little Tasmanian Devil bore no resemblance to the cartoon version of my youth that whirled around Bugs Bunny like a pint-size tornado. Then it opened its mouth. It was disproportionately large and lined with big serrated teeth. Out came a cross between a growl and a screech. Then the wide-open hinged jaw closed, and the devil ambled off looking more like a disinterested bear cub than a feared predator.
The wee beast was just one of the many surprises encountered on an early fall trip (April to North Americans) to Australia’s island state. Before dropping in on an old friend living in Launceston near the island’s north coast, I joined a small group tour up Tasmania’s scenic east coast and into its favoured national park, Cradle Mountain.
Knowing little about the island before landing at the compact airport near Hobart, Tasmania’s capital in the southeast, I soon learned that “Tassie” is packed with history and beauty. It’s also a foodie’s paradise, boasting many vineyards, aquaculture operations, dairies and aviaries set amidst rolling countryside and along a stunning coastline.
Hobart, a compact city that’s home to over 250,000 (half of Tasmania’s population), was founded in 1804 as a penal colony. Convicts (including children as young as seven) provided free labour to recently arrived settlers. Nearby Port Arthur, for convicts that committed crimes after being shipped to Australia, is a popular day trip. Mostly ruins remain at the once bustling waterfront settlement that treated these double offenders very harshly.
The area adjacent to Hobart’s scenic, and remarkably deep, harbour houses the expansive Saturday Salamanca Market—a great place for hand-crafted souvenirs including woodwork and woollens. It’s also the dock for the catamaran to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), one of Hobart’s best known and controversial attractions. Located a 20-minute ride up river and built into a rocky cliff, it’s the fever dream/brainchild of Tasmania’s David Walsh. Its website describes it as “a temple to secularism, rationalism, and talking crap about stuff you really don’t know very much about.”
It’s nearly impossible to describe MONA with its stairs, ramps, catwalks, pavilions and trampolines above ground and several levels of displays below ground. There are no signs. Visitors need to download an app in advance for exhibit explanations (which still may not enlighten you). You encounter water that spells words, walk through oil, view sexually explicit art (if you want) and ponder creations by more recognizable artists such as Picasso.
Hobart’s more conventional Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery includes everything from taxidermy and art from older and contemporary artists to a display devoted to the rancorous and deadly encounters between settlers and Tasmania’s Aboriginal inhabitants.
Looming over Hobart is Mt. Wellington/kunanyi. Over 1,270 metres high, wind gusts at the summit can reach 170 km/h and a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside can disappear in seconds as clouds blow in and out. The hardy can hike up but the twisty road is best navigated by car or the local Explorer bus — some large coaches can’t navigate it.
Visitors can easily spend several days exploring the sights of Hobart, but the east coast awaits with its charming small towns and stunning coast line. The sheer, rocky cliffs near Port Arthur can rival Ireland’s Cliffs of Moher, where pathways through the coastal forest provide overlooks of arches carved out by the relentless seas. To the north, the seaside town of Bicheno, cradled between two national parks, has squeaky white sand beaches bookended by granite rocks coated in red lichen that glow orange and red in the setting sun. In the evenings, head down to the shore and spot the little penguins emerging from the bushes that line the beach en route to their nighttime burrows.
Nearby Natureworld gives visitors the opportunity to watch the usually laconic Devils loudly munch their way through a dead possum, considered a pest in Tasmania. Its harvested fur winds up in some of the wool products at Salamanca Market.
Lounging throughout the park are kangaroos and wallabies who come to life when they spot visitors cradling food pellets in their hands. They hop over without any encouragement, wrapping their clawed paws around visitors’ wrists to secure a snack.
To the north the aptly named Bay of Fires offers more sugary white sand beaches, whose rust-coloured lichen covered rocks are reflected in astonishingly clear azure waters.
Our tour route to Cradle Mountain went through Launceston, Tasmania’s “second city.” The roads en route cut through scenic hilly countryside with agriculture ranging from dairy farms enticing locavores with cheese and ice cream to heavily regulated fields of opium poppies.
Launceston, almost as old as Hobart, has preserved many of its stately, older buildings, and waterfront multi-use walkways take advantage of the city’s location at the confluence of three rivers. One path leads to the entrance of Cataract Gorge, a park on the lip of the downtown core, giving walkers the chance to leave the city behind and follow the rocky, narrow Gorge to an open area between two cataracts with a seasonal swimming pool, restaurant and a tiny, short chairlift running above.
Like Hobart, Launceston has its own prolific art collector. Eye surgeon Dr. Brendan Vote chose a historically significant but unassuming, restored Launceston warehouse to house his collection of Salvador Dali’s works on paper — the largest in Australia. dAda mUse offers guided tours to explain the surrealist painter’s reoccurring themes and their meanings. Some of the collection’s most significant pieces are housed in a tin-lined room where merchants once protected precious cargo from rampaging rodents.
It’s possible to visit Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park as a day trip from Launceston, but with much to see en route and in the park, it’s worth an overnight stay in one of the lodges on the park’s boundary. The road to the park passes through several scenic country towns offering more delights to foodies. Down a country lane, 41 degrees South Salmon Farm raises its fish in cement tanks and serves them up in tasty sandwiches in its small café and gift shop. Melita Honey Farm sells a multitude of flavoured honey (visitors can taste them all) and offers a staggering number of honey-based products. At R. Stephens Honey Factory only honey is on the shelves in a very unassuming barn. The operation produces 35 per cent of Tasmania’s honey, transporting its hives via truck and wilderness railway to the island’s north west and remote west coast to give bees access to the flowering leatherwood tree, sought after for the distinctive nectar it produces.
Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park is located in the heart of the Tasmania World Wilderness Heritage Area. While serious hikers can climb to its summit (weather permitting) on a strenuous day hike, the park offers several walks on trails and boardwalks that offer even modestly fit visitors a chance to view the park’s wide range of flora and fauna.
Shuttle buses transport visitors to trails that range from 20-minute strolls through forests and past waterfalls to the six kilometre Dove Lake circuit. Overlooking the lake is the recently completed stark, angular interpretation centre acknowledging the area’s original Aboriginal inhabitants and its ancient geological history when Tasmania and mainland Australia were part of a super continent.
The path to the Waldheim Chalet, the replica cabin home of Gustav and Kate Wiendorfer who played a pivotal role in establishing the park, is only a short stroll but the adjacent forest loop walk reveals more of Tasmania’s secrets. Nestled in the woods, its fall leaves gloriously golden in stark contrast to the multi shades of evergreens surrounding it, is Australia’s only native deciduous tree, the fagus (a beech tree). Tasmania’s early British settlers were more intent on introducing species from home than appreciating the unique ecosystem that surrounded them.
One native species that continues to survive and thrive in Tasmania is the roly-poly wombat. The genial short-legged marsupial is easy to spot grazing by the park’s roads and pathways. The animal poops prodigiously and leaves vast quantities of cube-like souvenirs everywhere. Apparently wombats use these to mark territory and attract mates.
Tasmania is a compact state and it’s possible to drive between Hobart and Launceston in under three hours on an efficient highway. But it’s worth taking the roads less travelled to truly discover and appreciate Tassie’s beauty and secrets.
Getting there
Car/passenger ferries travel between Geelong (near Melbourne) and Devonport (near Launceston) daily, sometimes twice a day depending on the season.
Quantas operates multiple flights a day between Melbourne and Launceston and Hobart.
Accommodation
There’s a wide range of accommodation in the major cities of Launceston and Hobart. In the smaller centres and in the countryside accommodation ranges from rooms in pubs and basic motels to holiday homes and luxury resorts.
Eating
Fresh seafood is always on the menu, be it in a vineyard dining room, a waterfront restaurant in Hobart or a country pub. Like the rest of Australia, Tasmanians love their coffee and cafés are everywhere.
Patty Pitts is a Victoria freelance writer.
