The Freycinet Peninsula is noted for its spectacular coastal scenery and its emphasis on fishing, boating, bushwalking and swimming. As the brochure Let’s Talk about Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park declares: ‘Where else would you find granite mountains rising straight from the sea to form a magnificent sheltered waterway?

‘Where else would you find a beach so beautiful and secluded that on its last Royal visit to Australia, the Royal Yacht Britannia anchored to allow the Queen ashore for an Australian-style beach barbecue?’ This latter event is still talked about by the locals and, when you have seen Wineglass Bay where the picnic took place, you can understand the romantic notion of such an activity.

The appealing quality of Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park is that they haven’t really changed in fifty years. Today people still come to the area to get away from it all. They fish in the waters of Great Oyster Bay, which are still rich in trevally, flathead, crayfish and trumpeter. They walk into the park and climb the Hazards or the mountains to the south, both of which offer marvellous views across the bay and out across the Tasman Sea. And they drive on the rough roads through the National Park stopping for a spectacular view or pulling off the road to go swimming in the clear, safe waters of the bay.

Freycinet National Park

In its own way Freycinet National Park is one of Australia’s most interesting wilderness areas – where else in the world do you see red granite cliffs tumbling into the cold ocean? This 10 000 ha park is alive with unusual animals – Tasmanian pademelons, white-breasted sea eagles, red-necked wallabies – and in season offers spectacular displays of rare native flora, notably a wide variety of native orchids. It is fair to say that it is one of the country’s most spectacularly beautiful areas and when the weather is perfect it is hard to imagine a more peaceful and awe-inspiring piece of coastline.