Things To See And Do

New Norfolk is a central location for tourism in the upper Derwent Valley since it is the last sizeable town heading west until Strahan on the west coast. It is therefore something of a hub for more remote tourist attractions of Mount Field, Lake Pedder, Strathgordon hydroelectric site, and the South West Wilderness. It is a convenient take-off point for the Lyell Highway to the west coast via Hamilton, Ouse, Tarraleah, Derwent Bridge and Queenstown.

St Matthew's Church

There are numerous historic buildings in New Norfolk. These include: St Matthews church is the oldest church in Tasmania. Sections date from 1823; The Methodist Chapel is the oldest church of that denomination in Tasmania (1837); Old Colony Inn, another early hostelry, is now a folk museum; The Toll House, built in 1841, displays and sells Tasmanian produce and local crafts.

Bush Inn is claimed to be the oldest licensed hotel in Australia (1825). Dame Nellie Melba once sang on its balcony, Lady Franklin (wife of Governor) planted the pear tree in the garden.

The Oast House Hop Museum was a working oast house from 1867 to 1969. It has now been converted into a museum, gift shop, craft market and tea room.

Willow Court is a superb old stone building which was erected as a military hospital in 1830-31 by Major Roger Kelsall.

Rosedown Cottage Gardens features hundreds of roses in this four and a half acre garden, which was transformed from orchards and hopfields into a series of delightful gardens.

Magra

A town of just under 1,000 people, situated in the Derwent Valley a few kilometres north of new Norfolk. It consists mainly of dwelling houses and farmland. Accommodation is also available as the area is popular with tourists. Notable features of Magra itself include the surrounding hills and the plantation of Lombardy Poplars. In the graveyard of the Methodist Church at Magra (22km south east) is the grave of Betty King, the first white woman to set foot on Australian soil.

Surrounding Area

Bushy Park

Bushy Park is a quaint town of old houses, deciduous trees, moral fervour, and hop fields which seem to envelop every building and road. The tall wooden and metal frames holding up the hop vines are broken by lines of Lombardy Poplars, with neat and unusually shaped oast houses scattered in the fields away from the road.

Mt Field National Park

Mt Field National Park (16km west) is one of Tasmania’s most loved national parks. The park has a wide variety of scenic features and wildlife and offers a great range of facilities for day visitors. Few other national parks in Australia offer such a diversity in vegetation, ranging from tall swamp gum forests and massive tree ferns at the base of the mountain, through rainforest along the Lake Dobson Road, to alpine vegetation at the higher elevations.

Features: Russell Falls, Marriotts Falls; Lady Barron Falls; Horseshoe Falls; Lake Dobson, Tarn Shelf walk, Wylds Craig walk; Florentine Valley walk; Tall Trees walk.

Plenty

Plenty (11km south east), situated on the main road between New Norfolk and Bushy Park, is a small village, formely a location of hop growing. Plenty Salmon Ponds is the oldest trout hatchery in the Southern Hemisphere - in operation since 1864. It includes Museum of Trout Fishing and Hall of Fame.

Redlands Estate

Redlands, on the banks of the Plenty River alongside the plenty Salmon Ponds, is one of Tasmania’s most well-known rural estates. Once a thriving hop and grain farm, the estate contains an astonishing collection of heritage buildings and magnificent gardens featuring some of Australia’s oldest European trees.
The property has a remarkable history, with many overlays of stories from its convict past to modern times. There are intriguing links to the royal family and the emergence of colonial Tasmania’s new-landed elite, our first banks, the development of trout fisheries and irrigation, and the property also holds a primary place in Tasmania’s hop farming history.
At its peak the farm employed as many as 200 hop pickers with their families living on the estate, and many Tasmanians still hold fond memories of working at picking hops. In those days there were pickers’ huts, a bakehouse, general store and even a butcher’s shop. Only one of the pickers’ huts has survived but most of the other buildings are intact, though in disrepair. Now, after years of decline and neglect, the property is undergoing a modern transformation as a family residence, working farm, whisky distillery and tourism development. Website