Having completed a project of visiting every town in Tasmania, is there anything left to do or see in Tassie? Yes, there is – and now that my previous adventure is complete and with the book published and out there, my current project is Tasmania All Over – this time by area, with the first broken into two trips from Launceston covering the east and the west sides of the Tamar Valley.

As a keen happy-snapper photographer, I like to include intended audiences in my thoughts and plans. This is the first of what will hopefully be a series on Tasmania All Over.

The North and South Esk Rivers meet at Launceston to form the spectacular Tamar River, which flows into Bass Strait. You get a good view of this valley from Brady’s Lookout just south of ‘Lonnie’.

Heading north on the eastern side and staying on the main road, you’ll see nothing until you get to George Town. A short detour will have you hugging the river through Windemere with RV parking near the historic St Matthias Church, built in 1842 and which claims to be the oldest continuously-used church in Australia. After Dilston is Hillwood, with a ‘pick-your-own’ berry farm offering fabulous treats in season. Just down the road is Egg Island Reserve with lots of bush parking along the water.

Yachts at George Town

George Town has a delightful waterfront area and Low Head’s pride is the historic pilot station and maritime museum, with a lovely beach thrown in for good measure. There’s plenty of RV parking here and across the road is a delightfully picturesque church built in 1877. Then there’s the Low Head lighthouse, which sentimentally blows its foghorn at midday on Sundays. It would be a rush to explore these two areas in half a day, especially if you include the 14-room museum with its $5 entrance fee.

Swinging east and south to avoid backtracking, you will find an amazing little corrugated iron church built in 1895. Three years in the making, it sports a ceiling in the shape of an inverted ship’s hull.

Beauty Point has working ships and leisure craft too

It was abandoned by the Anglican Church in the early 1950s and left with everything intact, including the original paper scrolls, prayer books, pulpit and pews. Now privately owned by the resident next door, he also owns the grave-site of the man who had the church built: James Atherton (1844-1897).

Next major stop in this delightfully scenic area is a free camp just two kilometres before Lilydale. A ten-minute stroll here is obligatory to enjoy a lovely tree fern walk to two delightful waterfalls where you can get in for a swim if  you’re game. In Tassie, tree ferns are called ‘Man Ferns’. I could never work out why, but their botanical name is Dicksonia Antartica and it’s the most abundant tree fern in south eastern Australia.

From the free camp, a visit to the Bridestowe Lavender Farm is recommended, no matter whether it’s flowering time or not, but mandatory around Christmas and New Year, when at least 100 acres spreads out before you in a richly-scented and deeply-purple panoramic, aromatic vista.

On the way back to Launceston, the Myrtle Park camp ground offers luscious green grass, magnificent trees and a clean, running creek at just ten dollars per night per vehicle, with full facilities included.

The once-abandoned corrugated iron Bangor Church

Heading north along the western side of the Tamar Valley, people generally think of visiting Beaconsfield, Beauty Point and Greens Beach, but if you again get off the main road, you’ll find all sorts of delights right alongside the water of the Tamar at Rosevears, Lanena and Blackwall.

Gravelly Beach offers a free camp spot, Swan Point, where yes, there  are usually many swans to be seen, Paper Beach with another free camp site, Robigana, Deviot and the scenic Marion’s Vineyard with good parking opposite, under the Batman Bridge to Sidmouth. There you’ll see an historic convict-built Auld Kirk dating from 1843, and Kayena with its jetty, sheltered waterside parking and wild plum trees all on the banks of the Tamar.

Doubling back only slightly, you’ll soon be in Beaconsfield, famous for its excellent Mining Museum. Beauty Point has impressive marinas and, of course, Platypus House with two monotremes. At the same wharf location you can visit Sea Horse World. You may get lucky and catch the markets on the wharf when a cruise ship comes in at Beauty Point: there’s lots of local fanfare then.

You’ve probably heard of Reliquaire in Latrobe: Beauty Point has a shop almost as good: it’s called Fanfare. There’s lots of fine seafood dining at Beauty Point and excellent value at the family-run Riviera Pub.

Heading further north, there’s a very peaceful ten-dollar camp at York Town and just a little further on there’s wide-spread parking right on the water at Clarence Point  and Garden Island. Take a detour into Kelso before driving to Greens Beach where there’s a popular caravan park and a magnificent beach. By now you’ve reached Bass Straight and the mouth of the Tamar River. On a clear day, you can even see Melbourne.

If returning to Launceston, treat yourself to the scenic drive through Flowery Gully and Winkleigh (there’s excellent parking at the hall) to re-enter your northbound route at Exeter, which you may have missed on the way up. There’s a lovely information centre there, and Exeter also has possibly the best bakery in the area. Closer to Launceston, take a two-kilometre detour for a look at Grindelwald, a Swiss resort and village built by Dutchman Roelf Vos who made a fortune building a chain of supermarkets throughout Launceston and northern Tasmania, later taken over by Woolworths.

Last but not least, pop in to the Tamar Valley Wetlands and Information Centre if you didn’t do so on your way north. Entry is by gold coin donation.

Maritime Museum

I overnighted nine times on the western journey up the Tamar  Valley, covering about 230 kilometres. On the eastern side, I spent five nights doing just over 200 kilometres but you could do it a lot faster. My advantage is in not having a booked return ticket; please don’t let anyone tell you that you “must” pre-book your return – just book it about a month before you’re ready to leave.

There’s no free camping in Launceston, but Ian at Old Mac’s Farm and Fishery Caravan and RV Farm Stay provides a fabulous and convenient ten-dollar-per-vehicle camp at Sandown Road in Norwood. Just four and a half kilometres from the Launceston CBD, he’s open from the first day of October to the end of May.

When splitting the west and the east of the Tamar Valley journey, you don’t need to return to Launceston. On the east side you can venture to the east coast via Scottsdale and on the west side, a great over-the-mountain drive which includes 17km of dirt road with a fabulous camp spot right on top; this gets you to Bakers Beach and then the Port Sorrell waterside areas before Devonport, or you can head straight to Devonport from Exeter via Frankford.

Many would know that it doesn’t pay to plan too far ahead in this lifestyle. There are just too many opportunities to go exploring which may be missed if you have a rigid agenda and time constraints.

Marion’s Winery offers great views

Meanwhile, the weather: Tassie has a reputation for cold, wet and windy weather. My experience in Tassie (I’m a Queenslander) over the past five years has been wide-ranging. Yes, it is cold, wet and windy at times. We recently had four days of horrendous and damaging winds, followed by a week of superb, mild, sunny days when the night temperatures didn’t fall much, if any, below 10 degrees. It gets cold, very cold, in winter if you go inland, where it is often amazingly beautiful, with snow-capped peaks in the high country, but it’s surprisingly mild along the north coast.

The west coast? Well, that may be a different story.

Grindelwald, Switzerland by the sea

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Written: Mon 01 Oct 2018
Printed: October, 2018
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