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Tasmania is the smallest of Australia's states, but it is also the most diverse. Dense forests, unexplored wilderness, alpine moors, rich agricultural land, gentle valleys with historic towns and villages, hundreds of lakes and sweeping white beaches.
Tasmania has a convict past and splendid Georgian architecture as the major lure for visitors.
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Tasmania boasts numerous wild flowers and tree species such as Huon, King William, and Celery-top pines which are unique, as is the honey-producing leatherwood tree.
Tasmania also has a reputation for gourmet food, which includes Atlantic salmon, trout, oysters, abalone, lobster, game, berry fruits, fine cheeses, prime quality lamb and beef, and a large range of fresh vegetables.
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Hobart the capital is the second oldest city in Australia and convicts constituted the majority of the population in the early 19th century. Many of the early buildings built by the convicts can be seen this day. Tasmania's best snow skiing is on the Ben Lomond Range with magnificent scenery.
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Once visited, everyone loves Tasmania.
Strahan, a small town on the west coast, is best known as the departure point for cruises on the Macquarie Harbour and to the Franklin - Gordon Wild Rivers National Park.
It is also a departure point for the tourist wilderness train which goes to Queenstown, a reconstructed rail line that served from 1830 - 1840 to transport silver, copper and gold ore to ships waiting in Macquarie Harbour.
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Traveller's Notes
My wife and I traveled to Tasmania last April.
We drove our car to Melbourne from the Central Coast of New South Wales and were away from home a little more than 4 weeks.
Melbourne is about 800 kilometers south from Sydney via the coast road so we stopped twice on the way at Narooma on the south coast of NSW and at Metung in Victoria before boarding the overnight car ferry to Tasmania. We had a top class cabin and great steak meal in the first class restaurant that night.
Next morning we drove off the ferry and then around the island of Tasmania in the following weeks.
We stayed in various types of accommodation all very clean and comfortable. Five star hotels in Launceston, Hobart and Cradle Mountain, top class motels and bed and breakfast places and some self contained cabins.
We varied our eating places- restaurants, clubs and hotels as well as cooking our own meal in our motel or cabin. We carry a small electric saucepan for such occasions when we don't want to go out for a meal. For breakfasts, if not part of the accommodation package, we cook toast with marmalade jam and a cup of tea or coffee. Most motels and cabins have cooking facilities. We usually had picnic lunches. We had many highlights on this trip. The weather was good and sunny most of the time. The roads were very good and quiet and the whole trip is now in our book of memories. This is our second trip to Tasmania and we would like to go again. Tasmania boasts the purest water in the world and is famous for its vast wilderness areas.
Highlights
- Three days at Beauty Point, in a beautiful self contained cottage on a property of 10 acres with magnificent views of the Tamar River.(you can see forever) There's a lot more to this story and more highlights.
- The cities of Launceston and Hobart
- The air-walk through the massive sized trees of the forest, south of Hobart.
- the 2 days we stayed at Cradle Mountain in a 5 star new Hotel in the wilderness.
- Our visit to Queenstown and Strahan
- The wilderness train trip of 4.5 hours between Strahan and Queenstown - and the comfortable ferry around Macquarie Harbour taking 8 hours. The weather that day was perfect.
- We returned via the overnight ferry to Melbourne and traveled north on the Olympic Way with one overnight stay at Bathurst, over the Blue Mountains then home.
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Tourism Links
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