Strahan

Tasmania's west coast is still wild and rugged. As you travel west along the Lyell Highway through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, part of the World Heritage Area, or south from Devonport you know you are entering an ancient landscape.

Dense forests line the highway, dark rivers tumble through steep gorges, deep and wide lakes open up before you.
Tiny towns, such as Rosebery and Tullah that once housed hundreds of miners are now quiet and peaceful. Look out for Montezuma Falls near Rosebery, our tallest waterfall.

If you are travelling from Hobart, you enter the stark landscape of Queenstown, following the road as it spirals for more than 90 bends down into what remains of the world's richest gold and copper mine. It would have been a difficult life in those days, and when you meet the people of Queenstown, you hear their deep pride in their town and its history.

From Devonport the road takes you through Zeehan, once a wealthy silver town. Make sure you stop into the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum to learn of the town's once rollicking mining past.

These are journeys you will always remember.

Strahan, for many this name evokes a place with the true spirit of independence, of 19th century piners and miners, and 20th century protesters who stopped the damming of the wild Franklin River.

Strahan is the major harbour town on Tasmania's west coast, and the place to go if you want to explore the wild and beautiful World Heritage Area.

It has a permanent population of about 900 and sits on the harbour's northern edge.

From Strahan you can take a cruise across the 50 kilometre (31 mile) length of Macquarie Harbour and along the wide Gordon River. The West Coast Wilderness Railway takes you across a mountain range to Queenstown, or board a seaplane to search out some of the remaining 1,000 year-old Huon pine and myrtle trees. Another way to explore the area is by four-wheel drive or jet boat on the King River.

You can kayak the rivers and waterways, walk the long expanse of Ocean Beach, slide down a sand dune, or explore the forests by all-terrain vehicle.

Huon pine is one the the prime reasons the area was opened up, and in the local craft shops you can see elegant artefacts made from this resilient aromatic buttery yellow timber, as well as fishing and mining copper.

In 1815, Captain James Kelly was the first European to navigate the 200 metre opening to Macquarie Harbour, named Hell's Gates by Sarah Island convicts. By 1822, Sarah Island was operating as a convict station. While it operated, until 1833, it had the dubious reputation as being the worst convict prison in Australia. Strahan was founded in 1877.

Be prepared with all-weather gear because Strahan is all about wild weather.

Strahan is a 4.5 hour drive from Hobart along the Lyell Highway (A 10), or three hours from Devonport.

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