Hey! You are back! Thank you.
As mentioned in the last blog, we stayed in Queenstown in a motel room to get out of the foul weather. Of course, the weather changed as soon as we checked into our room, and it turned into two beautiful days to explore the town and surroundings.
We wanted to climb Mt Owen, but somehow ended up on Little Mt Owen where the mountain bike trails are. The path is obviously not the best for walking, the view is incredible though.
We visited the Iron Blow Lookout and walked to the Horsetail Falls. Highly recommend the walk to the falls which is on an easy walkway along the side of a mountain with fantastic views. You get to see the small falls from different levels and angles until the path ends on top of the falls.
From the Iron Blow Lookout you can see down into the open cut mine which filled up with water. It was the first major mine at Mt Lyell from 1892-1922. Initially they dug for gold but then discovered that there was way more copper to get.
The afternoon before we left, we had a look around the Queenstown station which contains a museum about the history of the railway. We weren’t aware of the train rides you can book (West Coast Wilderness Railway). There are several different train rides from Queenstown to Strahan or to Lyell. Unfortunately, they were fully booked by the time we found out about them. Would have been a great experience to travel in the ancient train on the old railway (built in 1897, rebuilt in 2002) through the rainforest. The original railway was used to transport copper from the mines around Queenstown to the Port in Strahan.
The next day we headed south of Queenstown to the Mt Jukes Lookout – a lovely view and very interesting information board about the history of the geology around there which includes folding, sedimentation, glaciers, and meteorites.
Then there is the Darwin Dam from where we flew the drone (for some reason I can’t find the footage :-/). It’s a pretty lake and there are some free camps spread out around it.
From there we went to the Franklin-Gordon National Park – home to the Kelly Basin walk (approx. 12km return). The walk takes you to the former town East Pillinger (Macquarie Harbour Historic Site) which was established by North Mount Lyell Copper Company in 1897. You can see Macquarie Head near Strahan (I wrote about that in the last blog) from the end of the hike. The railway (now the Bird River Road and continuing on the hiking trail) was constructed in 1898. Only 5 years later the company merged with a competitor who chose Strahan as the more suitable port for the mine. Despite moving the port works to Strahan, the last settlers of East Pillinger left as late as 1943!!
At the end of the walk – where East Pillinger used to be – you can do a little loop to see the remains of the mining history of the town. The only thing that was left of houses were some random bricks you can spot in the bush.
To get to the Kelly Basin Walk you drive along the Bird River Road (the former railway mentioned above) through lush rainforest. The drive itself is worth doing the trip, its adventurous and beautiful. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t let me upload the video)
The Bird River Road is a dead end. Hence, we had to drive back through Queenstown to get further east. We found a nice little camp at Lake Burbury. The March flies and mozzies were thick, and we finally made use of our mozzie net which we hung from the awning to create an insect free room without losing the view. Highly recommend bringing a box style mozzie net with you on your travels to Australia in general as there is always mozzies, sandflies, or march flies around.
The following day we strolled to the Nelson Falls in the early morning. It’s a rather short walk but through beautiful bush and forest. The falls do not disappoint either!
Along the way to the Great Lakes in the canter of Tasmania we stopped at the Franklin River Swing Bridge which is also the start point for the Frenchman Cap trek (3-5 days). Unfortunately – as mentioned in another blog – we didn’t really have time to do the multiday hikes. We saw quite a few Echidnas on the side of the road and stopped for a few of them. They fascinate me since I was a kid. Echidnas and Platypus are the only two mammals that lay eggs! The Echidna is interesting also because he has sort of a beak instead of a mouth and uses it to suck up ants.
Before retiring at the Liffey Falls Junction for camp, we climbed Projection Bluff. I was hoping to get a view onto the Great Lakes from up there, but we got pretty lost on top as there are so many tracks from humans and wallabies alike. It’s a decent climb and quite fun scrambling over the rocks though.
That night my partner invented a new form of toaster – don’t tell your kids, might be a fire hazard, haha!
On our way south we passed Arthurs Lake – seems to be another holiday house town as most around the Great Lakes.
We missed the actual “Centre” of Tasmania the day before because we turned off to early. The Geographical Centre of Tasmania is in the Bronte Park at the Bronte Lagoon.
We saw more Echidnas and passed through Bushy Park which had us wondering about the plantations they have there – its hops. They also have a little hops museum there.
From there we headed to Mt Field National Park – a huge Heritage area. Will tell you all about it in the next blog.
February 2025