Twelve Nights in Tasmania (Part 2)

From the Cradle Visitor Centre, you can catch a shuttle bus to various locations for walks and activities. Our first stop was Cradle Mountain Interpretation Centre, where we did a few short walks. The Enchanted Walk, Rainforest Walk and King Billy Walk. While each track was relatively short, the wet snow gave me a run for my money and slowed the pace down a bit. Out and about around the Interpretation Centre and along the walks, we saw a number of wombats; one up very close meandered along in front of us, before diverting off into the grass for a feed.

There were a few options for lunch, but we chose the Tavern Bar & Bistro. The food was great but what we really enjoyed was the mulled wine to warm us up.

Onwards from the Interpretation Centre, you can catch the shuttle bus to the Dove Lake area for walks around the lake and surrounding terrain; as well as for the start of the Overland Track, a 65km (one way!) 6-day trek.

The next morning, we left our accommodation and on our way to our next location, we stopped for the morning back at Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre, where we hitched the shuttle back to Dove Lake. We did the 6km Dove Lake Circuit. The circuit apparently usually takes about 1.5-2.5 hours – I believe it took us around 2-2.5 and that included stops for photos and to generally just pick our jaws up off the ground.

We started off the morning having breakfast at Queenstown Station. The West Coast Wilderness Railway is a reconstruction of an historical railway line that stretches between the towns of Queenstown and Strahan, and you can experience this journey through the terrain. We didn’t do this train trip, however, did check out the museum and wandered around the station.

After exploring the town, we took a drive out to Strahan, which today was very quiet. Although this was reflective of much of our trip and was likely due to many Australian states only very recently coming out of a period of COVID lockdown. Anyway, we were not complaining, the quieter the better! And Strahan was picture perfect, sitting quietly on the water.

We next visited the Iron Blow Lookout, in Gormanston. The area is a testament to overmining, leaving a bizarre – but similarly magnificent landscape. The winding road into and out of the lookout area was a sight! But standing on the lookout walkway was nerve-wracking at times, with the blasting wind that creates a very eerie sound, also feels like it will push you over the edge.

On the way back down the winding road to Queenstown, we stopped for glorious sunset views at the Welcome to Queenstown sign, overlooking the valley.

We arrived in Richmond, a town rich in Tasmanian history and only about half an hour drive from Hobart. We first wandered around, under and over, the Richmond Bridge. This bridge is the oldest still-used bridge in Australia, built by convicts in the 1820s. From my very thorough structural assessment (a wall slap, a walk underneath and a solid stare up), it seemed like it was still doing well.

Richmond is also home of Australia’s oldest remaining Catholic church, St. John’s, which was built in 1836.

Finally, and something I had been very keen for, we went to the oldest intact jail (gaol… sorry mum), in Australia. The Richmond Gaol dates to 1825 and the site is now an attraction open for public viewing. Thick with history and stories surrounding the building itself, who lived there, who worked there and history of the town, we definitely loitered more than the recommended 45 minutes. Entry was $10 at the time, but I can see from the website it might be now $12.

Richmond is well worth the visit, and we would have liked to have spent more time exploring the shops and cafes around the town. However, we had to head off for our accommodation in Port Arthur, on the Tasman Peninsula.

We spent pretty much the whole day at the site. The two-day pass costs $40 each and if you had two days, you would probably USE two days there. Well, we would have anyway.

The number of recovered structures on the site, and the depth that historians, archaeologists and other site staff have gone to in order to recreate these structures and retell their story is staggering.

Read more about the Port Arthur historical site here. Or, if you’re interested, and even if you’re not, I will likely talk more about the Port Arthur site another time.

An interesting addition to the site, towards the end of the visit as you near the exit, is an information section. The interesting addition, aside from the information and history, is a small section dedicated to those who have returned taken artifacts from the site in the past. People had returned bricks, rocks and other pieces taken from the site, and often, these were accompanied by a letter or note. A “sorry” that a family member had taken this home; or describing weird or unlucky occurrences sine the item came to their possession.

After we left the Port Arthur site, we went to explore the (free to visit) Coal Mines walks. Coal was discovered at Plunkett Point in 1833, and some lucky convicts got to work these bad boys. There are a number of walks around the various spots of interest, inclusive of ruined buildings of barracks and cells and other structures. Part of the site is perched overlooking the water, and when we were there, near sunset, it was a pretty cool sight.

For dinner, we looped back to the 1830 Restaurant and Bar, right near the Port Arthur site. Actually, you can see down onto the sight. 

We did make a few stops on our way, though, including to the Blow Hole and nearby Fossil Bay Lookout. A very short trip on and we came to a short stroll leading to a couple of cool sights, Tasmans Arch and Devils Kitchen. These natural sites have been carved out by the the Tasman Sea, and especially during more wild weather, make for a breathtaking site.

Continuing a short way, we came to Eaglehawk Neck, which we actually drove through on our way in towards Port Arthur, however the dark had shielded us from seeing.

The isthmus was used as a place to stop convicts from attempting to leave Port Arthur. Reportedly a line of chained dogs, referred to as the Dog Line, were stationed across the strip of land to alert officers should anyone attempt to cross. Dogs were also stationed on platforms out over the water, to prevent those swimming across – brutal.

We stopped here to learn more about the site and the history of the area at the Officers’ Quarters Museum.

Our last stop along this short space of interesting sites was the Tessellated Pavement. This geological beauty was likely formed over 300 million years ago, with the rocks fractured by movements of the earth and the beautiful outer appearance from ongoing erosion and salt crystallization.

You can view the rocks from the car park and there is also a short walk down.

Once back in Hobart, we spent some time at Salamanca Market – an outdoor market held on Saturdays. We followed that up with a couple of afternoon drinks at one of the trendy-looking spots in the area.

Finally, we took an afternoon stroll around the historic suburb of Battery Point, the location of our accommodation (which by the way, is itself an historic feature of the area). Finishing the night off with dinner an drinks at a very trendy bar, called Preachers, which even had a bus parked in the yard for seating.