Plan Book Travel Australia

If there’s a single keynote for Tasmania’s North East, perhaps it’s colour - travelling through this part of the State, you’ll be aware of the changing tones and hues of the land, the sky, the sea. In Scottsdale’s green and fertile valley, beyond the dark green of tall pines, dairy herds graze rich pastures and the fertile red soil nourishes wonderful vegetables - onions and peas, carrots and potatoes. In summer fields of poppies splash the landscape, and lavender bushes grow in tidy, purple stripes.

Through the old tin mining towns of Derby and Weldborough, slopes of grey gravel nudge up against dark forest - in spring, there ’s a sprouting of new red growth on the myrtles and eucalypts.

On the coast at Bridport and Tomahawk, there’s the white gold of long sandy beaches, the bright orange of lichen-splashed granite and the clean, clear turquoise of the sea. Safe inside Georges Bay at St Helens, the fishing fleet sits snugly against the pier. Beyond the sand bar, the ocean teems with game fish. North of the town is the pristine coast of the Bay of Fires.

This is a region of surprising variety - from neat croplands of Scottsdale and Ringarooma to the natural habitats of Mt William, where forester kangaroos graze; from tall, tumbling waterfalls in deep rain-forest to warm sunshine on white sand; from the rugged summits of Ben Lomond and Mt Barrow to the dairy pastures of Winnaleah; from the exciting offshore fishing at Bridport and St Helens to the rows of green-blossoming hops in Tonganah and Springfield.

Each place has its own surprises - sapphires panned from old mines near Branxholm and Derby; farm cheese at Pyengana; skiing and walks on Ben Lomond’s craggy heights; echoes of a mining heritage at Derby and the Blue Tier; a desert of golden sand dunes at St Helens; rough-cut local granite in the towering Eddystone Point lighthouse; sweeping views of forests and farmlands as the Mathinna road descends to Fingal Valley.