Macquarie Harbour is the second-largest natural harbour in Australia
after Port Phillip Bay in Victoria; it is six times the size of Sydney
Harbour. However, the real glory of Macquarie Harbour and the town of
Strahan on its shores is not the harbour's size but its setting; the
surrounding wilderness and the Gordon River that flows through it are
other-worldly, and in recent years have attracted local and
international visitors to what is one of the last easily-accessible
pristine wilderness areas left in the world.
Macquarie Harbour is fed by many rivers, not the least is the Gordon
River. Appearing to stand silent within Tasmania's pristine World
Heritage Area, this majestic river winds its way from deep in the
South-West to the mouth of Macquarie Harbour. The Gordon which would
have been damned many years ago had not the Federal Government
intervened and saved it in 1984. The Franklin River flows into the
Gordon.
The dense, temperate rainforest is dark, gloomy and teeming with life.
It is through this wild environment that Australia's most stunningly
picturesque tourist railway, the the West Coast Wilderness Railway,
winds its way from Strahan to Queenstown on tracks laid down more than
a century ago to carry ore from Queenstown's mines to port facilities
on Macquarie Harbour. The 40km-long Ocean Beach receives waves
unimpaired since they left Patagonia on the southern tip of South
America. The Henty Dunes just to the north are sand, but at certain
times look like snow, providing a lunar-like landscape.
Macquarie Harbour is steeped in history. It was on its southern shore
that Tasmania's first penal settlement was established in 1822 on Sarah
Island (Port Arthur was established in 1834, after Sarah Island was
declared unsatisfactory). Mining and forestry operations based around
the magnificent Huon pine, famous for its oily shipbuilding qualities,
commenced in the 1880s, making Strahan, the small fishing village now
the centre of activities on Macquarie Harbour, the second-busiest port
in Tasmania a century ago.
How to get there
Drive south along Lyell Highway from the north-west, or north from Hobart to Queenstown; follow the signs to Strahan.
Strahan
Set on a quiet bay at the northern end of Macquarie Harbour, Strahan
is a small, picturesque frontier-style town with an abundance of
character and a variety of stories to tell of the West Coast's
pioneering days. From its beginnings as the location for bushmen
seeking precious Huon pine, Strahan became the railway port for a rich
copper mine inland. Those days are long gone, and the only reminders of
the copper boom days are an impressive post office and steamship
offices.
What everyone come to Strahan to see these days is Macquarie Harbour,
on whose shores the town stands, and the Gordon River, which flows
through ancient Tasmanian rainforests, emptying its water - browned by
the oils of the huon pine - into Macquarie Harbour south of Strahan.
Unlike many other Tasmanian destinations, Strahan's landscapes, waves
and weather are wild and elemental - typical of the south west
Tasmanian World Heritage Wilderness in which it is located.
Surprisingly accessible by road, Strahan has become an eco-tourism
mecca without sacrificing any of its waterfront charm. Coaches move in
and out of the town each day, bringing wide-eyed visitors eager to
taste the fresh lobster caught earlier that morning, take a steam train
ride through the untouched forest wilderness, or cruise the ancient,
mirror-like waters of the Gordon River. This cruise takes in waterfalls
deep in the World Heritage listed rainforests, Tasmania's
world-renowned salmon farms, and the notorious Sarah Island penal
settlement ruins. Visitors who prefer to keep their feet on the ground
can enjoy one the most intimate rainforest experiences possible - a
stroll through pristine forests of 2,000 year-old Huon Pine.