There’s something uniquely satisfying about getting to the very end of a destination and knowing that you can’t go any further. When I explored the Northern Territory I made a point of reaching Wyndham — the northernmost town in the Kimberleys. Naturally, matching this with a southern extreme and driving to the bottom of Australia is irresistible.

The southernmost point in Australia accessible by road is Cockle Creek in the wilderness of Tasmania’s south-west, lying on the border of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. At Cockle Creek you are closer to Antarctica than you are to Cairns. How do you get there? Via the Southern Edge driving route. This 120km drive — with many detours along the way — begins in Hobart and follows the Huon Highway.

It takes only 10 minutes before you’re surrounded by forests, fields, and the occasional orchard popping with bright red apples. These orchards become a constant companion on this drive, winding through quaint villages with picturesque cottages, alongside rivers with sailboats mirrored by still waters, past herds of black-headed sheep and fat cows grazing in pastures extending into the distant ranges. Together, these sights make for a ridiculous amount of photo opportunities and flashes of jaw-dropping beauty.

Pick up a souvenir at the Farm Shop

HUON VALLEY

This is the Huon Valley, known for its fresh produce — especially apples — cider, inspiration for creative minds, and access to the wilderness.

My goal is to get to the end of the road, but there’s much to see and do along the way.

You’ll need at least five days to take it all in — more if you really want to soak in the tranquility and take advantage of being so close to a World Heritage Wilderness area. Keep an eye peeled for roadside produce stalls on the way.

Willie Smith’s Cider House

HUONVILLE

Just 30 minutes from Hobart, Huonville is the main town in the Valley. This is where the adventures begin.

One of my first stops is Willie Smith’s Apple Shed.

“I’m just an apple grower,” Andrew Smith says of his role in Willie Smith’s Apple Shed — a site that

includes orchards, a cider house, restaurant, Charles Oates Distillery, and massive distribution network. He is far more than simply an apple grower.

Andrew is the fourth generation of an apple-growing dynasty, the largest organic grower of apples in Australia, and the man behind Willie Smith’s Cider Makers — our first certified organic cidery.

He has his great-grandfather, Willie Smith, to thank for starting it all by planting the first apples in the Huon Valley back in 1888.

Even if you don’t fancy cider, this tricked-up old apple packing shed is the place to be on a Friday night when the music is pumping, or Saturday morning for the Artisan and Produce Market.

2064 Huon Highway, Grove. 

williesmiths.com.au

Friendly pigs at Glen Huon Dairy

GLEN HUON

Push the beer aside, now you can buy milk on tap!

Glen Huon Dairy, the dairy for Bruny Island Cheese, has a new experience which includes farm tours and a shop where you can fill your own bottles with fresh, unhomogenised milk. This is milk like you used to get when you were a child — in a bottle, topped with a thick layer of cream.

Karen and Richard Butler manage the all-organic property.

The ‘girls’ are out feeding on lush green pastures as we start our tour. Their calves are all together in the next paddock.

We check out the pristine dairy where the cows line up once a day to be milked. The pigs come running when they hear Karen’s voice.

Just beyond the homestead are beehives from BE Pure Honey, taking advantage of the surrounding organic goodness.

1092 Glen Huon Road, Glen Huon.

brunyislandcheese.com.au

Waterfront views at Dover

CYGNET

There’s an artist in the creative hub of Cygnet creating quite a stir. Who would have thought making wooden spoons could be so inspiring? But 65,000 Phoenix Creations followers on Instagram are proof that Dave and Michelle Rauenbusch have carved out a special niche in the art world.

Dave has always loved wood, having collected old and abandoned timber for years.

One of his favourite salvaged pieces is the staircase from the harbourmaster’s cottage on Goat Island. It’s now his four-poster bed. 

The call to play with Tassie timber full-time was so great, Dave gave up a career as an engineer  and moved to Cygnet.

Why spoons? Well, that was an accident. Dave started off making furniture but one day Michelle needed a spoon so he made her one — which she still uses — and they soon became the focus.

You can visit the studio which doubles as a gallery and store.

The spoons are for sale (starting at $60), but if you want to try your hand at making one, Dave also runs workshops.

In a few hours he will show you how to turn an ordinary log (or your own piece of timber) into a practical work of art.

31 Golden Valley Road, Cygnet.

phoenixcreationstasmaniashop.bigcartel.com

Michelle and Dave Rauenbusch at Phoenix Creations in Cygnet

WATTLE GROVE

Just up the hill from Cygnet in Wattle Grove is a taste of Tassie hospitality you won’t want to miss at The Farmhouse Kitchen.

Here Giuliana White teaches the love and simplicity of cooking 3000-year-old Italian recipes.

It’s all about fresh ingredients, maximum flavour and keeping it simple.

You can get the whole story in the Detour feature on page 56.

292 Sunday Hill Road, Wattle Grove.

thefarmhousekitchen-tas.com

The Wooden Boat Centre is for boat lovers

FRANKLIN

Franklin has a rich maritime history dating back to the 1860s when it was the centre of shipping and boat building.

Now Franklin is home to the only traditional wooden boat building school in Australia, the Wooden Boat Centre. This is where you can learn how to build a wooden boat, whether that’s a dinghy or something more elaborate.

It’s a not-for-profit organisation which started in 1992 and is now in the hands of the local community through the Franklin Working Waterfront Association Inc.

It takes about eight weeks to build a dinghy. Tuition costs $700 a week plus the cost of raw materials, if it’s your boat.

Five shipwrights are employed to  lead the way. And if a boat seems too difficult, you can start by making an oar. Then you’ll be up the creek, with a paddle!

3333 Huon Highway, Franklin.

woodenboatcentre.com

Just across the road from the Wooden Boat Centre is Frank’s Ciderhouse and Cafe.

Drop in for lunch, a cider tasting, and to soak up some of Franklin’s agricultural history.

Frank’s Cider was established in 2012 by Naomie Clark-Port and her husband Tony.

Frank was her grandfather, the man who established the Woodside family orchard in 1850.

She is the fifth generation of the Clark family to farm at Woodside and the ciders are made from 100 per cent Tasmanian fruit.

The Cider house building used to be the Sunday School for the St John’s Church, just up the hill.

She has renovated it and added her own touches and brought that rich history back to life with a museum room and historic photos all over the walls.

3328 Huon Highway, Franklin.

frankscider.com.au

Frank’s Cider House is a popular stop

GEEVESTON

If I had to pick a favourite town in the Huon Valley, it would be Geeveston.

It’s a good base if you want to explore surrounding forests, Hartz Mountains National Park and there’s even a Platypus Walk at Heritage Park and wooden life-size sculptures of local identities dotted all over town. Plus, there are shops — and lots of them.

Don’t miss The Wall of Lollies, Arte Zans (cakes, pastries), Aurora Fae (art studio), The Dusty Mermaid (collectibles) and the Town Hall Visitor Centre which doubles as a gallery, wood turning, and line printing exhibition centre. It also showcases local produce.

Then spend a few hours at Harvest & Light, the local picklery!

Harvest & Light, a gallery where you can get great coffee and pickles, is the brainchild of photographer and scientist Cassy Faux.

Cassy has a Bachelor of Applied Science in Photography, a Masters in Microbiology, and has worked on projects in the Antarctic such as penguin diet analysis. But her first love is photography.

“I needed a gallery space,” she says.

“Galleries are daunting for some people so I decided to offer coffee so people can relax when they browse.

“And then I started to make pickles because there is so much produce in the valley going to waste.”

“And then the locals started bringing me fruit and vegetables that they couldn’t use but didn’t want to throw out. And I haven’t stopped.”

There are hundreds of jars of pickles and preserves for sale, or to try on a Pickle Platter.

6 Church Street, Geeveston.

harvestandlight.com.au

Cassy Faux at Harvest & Light

TAHUNE FOREST RESERVE

Our next adventure takes us to the edge of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area.

Tahune Adventures is where you get to walk (or wheel) 50m above the forest floor.

The Airwalk is 600m long and there are 101 steps to get to the top, but the cantilever section is wheelchair friendly, as is the whole park.

At the culmination of the walk, you can see where the Picton and Huon rivers meet. Just beyond that is the world heritage area.

Surrounded by some of the Southern Hemisphere’s tallest forests, you’re also in one of very few spots where you can find giant eucalyptus trees, ancient Huon pines, and cool-temperate rainforest growing together.

If you need more of an adrenaline rush, try the eagle hang gliding, swing bridges or kayak on the twin rivers adventure.

Lodge or cabin accommodation is available and RV owners can stay overnight for small fee (with Airwalk admission).

Take Arve Road (C631) from Geeveston.

tahuneadventures.com.au

Hastings Caves is for adventurers

FURTHER SOUTH

The Southern Edge drive continues south through Dover, once a convict probation station, towards Southport. Take the detour to Hastings Cave & Thermal Springs.

These dolomite caves were found in 1916 by loggers and, at more than 40 million years old, are believed to pre-date most limestone caves.

Underneath the dense forest and up and down a lot of stairs are chambers with elaborate displays of stalagmites and stalactites.

Back on the surface, take the hot spring circuit walk and platypus walk and swim in the warm mineralrich thermal springs.

54 Hastings Caves Road, Hastings.

parks.tas.gov.au/explore-ourparks/hastings-caves-state-reserve

The Wall of Lollies

END OF THE ROAD

From Hastings, there’s 6.5km of sealed road to the tiny settlement of Ida Bay, the last place with phone reception. Then a 19km dirt stretch around Recherche Bay to Cockle Creek and the end of the road!

What’s at Cockle Creek? Lots of camping sites (see Where to Stay), a Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Interpretative station with volunteers offering information about the area, its history, and what you can see and do.

It’s also the start of the South Cape Bay Track and entry point to the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

At the very end of the road is a statue of a southern right whale calf — a reminder of the whaling industry that dominated here from  1830–50s. Stories tell of the water turning red with the blood from the whales caught and killed.

Interpretive signs talk about the Lyluequonny Aboriginal people who lived here for thousands of years before white settlement.

French explorer, Bruni D’Entrecasteaux sailed into Recherche Bay in 1792 on a botanical expedition.

A year later, they returned and documented a cultural exchange with the lyluequonny people.

Sadly though, they brought European diseases with them and within 30 years the Lyluequonny people had perished.

Cockle Creek was also the site of a convict escape plan and where coal was mined before the timber industry took over.

Cockle Creek

CAN WE GO FURTHER?

If you really want to get Australia’s most southern edge, you’ll need to hike the rest of the way.

The 4-5-hour, 15.4km return South Cape Bay Track goes through ferny forest, woodlands and across duck boarded marshlands, emerging at the edge of a cliff looking out across South Cape Bay.

Next stop is Antarctica.

Category: Destinations
Written: Sat 01 May 2021
Printed: May, 2021
Published By: