8 Most Breathtaking Towns In Tasmania

Tasmania holds a string of small towns built around oddly specific histories. Richmond's stone bridge over the Coal River, built by convicts between 1823 and 1825, is the oldest stone bridge in Australia. Sheffield's outdoor walls hold around 200 murals across the town. Corinna runs the last cable-driven vehicle barge on the island across the Pieman River. Bothwell built the first golf course in Australia. Eight towns. Eight reasons to make the trip.

Deloraine

The Tasmanian Craft Fair is the largest craft festival in Australia, and Deloraine has hosted it every November since 1981. The fair fits the town because the downtown already runs on local art and crafts year-round. The Great Western Tiers Sculpture Trail loops around town and along the Meander River, with works by Tasmanian artists set into the landscape. Deloraine's Georgian and Victorian buildings sit at the foot of the Great Western Tiers mountain range, with the Meander running through the center of town. Drumreagh Cabins on a working farm just outside town offers comfortable rooms with mountain views and free Wi-Fi.

Richmond

The Richmond Bridge, built by convict labor between 1823 and 1825, is the oldest stone bridge in Australia and still carries traffic across the Coal River. The bridge is the headline reason most visitors come to Richmond, and the immediate area around it is well-suited to a picnic or a slow walk. The town also holds more than 50 surviving Georgian buildings, the Old Hobart Town Model Village (a faithful scale replica of 1820s Hobart), and the Amaze garden maze with its on-site restaurant. Visitors finish a day exploring Richmond at Pooley Wines on the village edge, with award-winning cool-climate wines and woodfired pizza.

Corinna

The Fatman Barge, the last cable-driven vehicle barge on the island, is the only way to drive south out of Corinna across the Pieman River. The barge runs on a steel cable strung across the water and is the kind of mechanism almost no one expects to encounter in the 21st century. Corinna itself is a former mining town now operating as the Corinna Wilderness Village, set inside the cool-temperate rainforest along the Pieman. Kayaking trips run upriver to a hidden staircase in the forest banks that leads to Lover's Falls, a waterfall that drops nearly 40 meters into clear water. On the return, paddlers can pull into the Savage River to see the wreck of the S.S. Croydon, a steamer that has sat in the water since 1919. The 1-kilometer Huon Pine Walk runs from the village down a marked path and boardwalk to ancient huon pines, some over 1,000 years old.

Sheffield

Around 200 murals cover the outdoor walls of Sheffield, and the town hosts the International Mural Fest as a live painting competition every year. The result is a downtown that reads as an outdoor gallery, sitting in the foothills of Mount Roland. Visitors can take a self-guided mural walk by downloading the Kentish Walking Tour App and stop by the Sheffield Arts Center gallery to see work from local artists. The Sheffield Trail starts in the Badger Ranges and runs cross-country for cyclists, and the climb to the top of Mount Roland delivers a view from the Bass Strait across to Cradle Mountain. On dark, clear winter nights, Aurora Australis is visible from town.

New Norfolk

The Bush Inn, on the bank of the Derwent River in New Norfolk, has held a continuous license since 1815 and is one of the oldest pubs in Australia. The town's other anchor is St Matthew's Anglican Church, consecrated in 1825 and the oldest Anglican church in Tasmania. New Norfolk is one of the better fall destinations on the island, with the trees and gardens turning gold, copper, and orange through April and May. Fall is also when the Tasmanian Autumn Festival runs, a month-long event covering the culture and natural features of the Derwent Valley and its small towns. The Esplanade along the river is the local picnic spot, and the Cliffs Walk to Tynwald Park climbs the famous 99 steps for a long view back over the valley.

Bothwell

Ratho Farm, just outside Bothwell, is the oldest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere. The course was laid out in the 1830s by Scottish settlers and still plays nine holes over the original sheep paddocks. The Australasian Golf Museum sits on the same property. The Scottish heritage runs deeper than the golf, including Gaelic-language church services and tartan street signs running between buildings downtown. Bothwell holds 52 officially recognized historic buildings, including St Luke's Uniting Church, built in 1830 and one of the oldest in Australia. The Clyde Mill Distillery on the former Nant Estate produces single malt whisky and gin alongside meals at the on-site restaurant. Sealy's Cafe and Gifts on Alexander Street, in another historic building, serves homemade pies and soups alongside a small local crafts shop.

Swansea

The pink granite peaks of the Hazards range rise across Great Oyster Bay from Swansea, and the view is the most-photographed scene on the east coast. Swansea sits along the Great Eastern Drive directly across from Freycinet National Park, with Wineglass Bay's clear water just over the headland on the park side. Swansea is also the closest town to Maria Island, a 40-minute ferry to the north, where the Painted Cliffs hold mineral patterns that read like brushstrokes and the wombats, wallabies, and Forester kangaroos run unbothered through the open paddocks of the abandoned 1825 settlement. Back in town, the Swansea Maritime Museum holds a small but solid collection of shipwreck artifacts, and Kate's Berry Farm on the road out of town pours local red and white wines alongside its berry products.

St Helens

The Bay of Fires, with its bright orange lichen-covered granite boulders against white sand and turquoise water, sits about 10 miles north of St Helens and is the most-photographed coastline on the island. St Helens is the largest town on Tasmania's northeast coast and the practical base for the Bay of Fires. The town runs as a fishing port, and the coastal walk from St Helens Point Lighthouse looks across the open Tasman Sea. Surfers find consistent swells at Scamander and Beaumaris beaches, and surfboard rentals are available in town. For families, the Serpentarium handles reptile programming with lizards and pythons. Just outside town, the Peron Dunes are big enough to sandboard on. Around the area, the Bay of Fires Conservation Area runs along the coast for beachcombing, snorkeling, and walking.

Why These Eight

The common thread is specificity. Each town has at least one thing it does that no other Tasmanian town quite matches: the oldest stone bridge, the densest concentration of murals, the cable-drawn river barge, the oldest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere, the longest-running pub, the foothills view of Mount Roland, the headland view across to the Hazards, the Bay of Fires immediately to the north. None of these places require an hour of explanation to justify. They are what they are, and they reward a slower visit on their own terms.