CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
From Hobart, your journey takes you north beside the broad Derwent River, by giant poplars and willows, through historic villages, beside hopfields and orchards, and past Mt Field National Park, home to giant trees and Russell Falls, towards Tasmania's mountains and wild heart.
The road leads you into a landscape rich with stories of explorers, convicts, bushrangers, farm families and dam builders - tough pioneers who carved a living from this wild and rugged country. Their stories begin in the historic town of New Norfolk, settled by convicts sent from another penal island Norfolk. Look for the quaint Toll House by the bridge, and the Oast House Museum and market, where the scent of hops still lingers.
Further on are the Salmon Ponds where Australia's first brown trout were hatched in 1864. Today, Tasmania is one of the world's finest fly-fishing spots. Beyond the historic farming settlements of Hamilton and Ouse, the highway climbs towards the Central Plateau, crossing rivers where dams and power stations harness the boundless energy of falling water.
Here the world changes to the stark beauty of boulder fields, deep gorges, sweeping valleys and Australia's deepest high altitude lake - Lake St Clair. Turning north , your route travels through to the lake country, where glaciers once blanketed the land. Today, a myriad of lakes, many teeming with trout, sparkle across the Plateau, and here, unexpectedly, in the hamlet of Bothwell, is Australia's oldest golf course, and names that evoke the original Scottish settlers' highland homes.
New Norfolk can be found , 20 kilometres north-west of Hobart. Settlers from Norfolk Island established this town on the banks of the River Derwent in 1807. Early townspeople planted hundreds of poplar trees, which in autumn turn bright gold.
The town is the centre of the hop-growing area of Tasmania and there are several old oast houses (kilns) left from the early days of hop-processing. The town has many old buildings, including one of Australia's oldest inns, the Bush Inn, and Australia's oldest Anglican church - St Matthews (1823).
The deepest freshwater lake in Australia (190 metres/623 feet), Lake St Clair was scooped during several glaciations over the past two million years. The Lake forms the southern boundary of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park and the finishing point for the Overland Track, one of the world's best multi-day bushwalks.
During summer and autumn, rangers offer a variety of activities such as walks, talks and slide shows for adults and children. There a number of short walks from the Interpretation Centre around the shores of the Lake at Cynthia Bay. Some of the most spectacular walks take three to four hours or overnight, such as the walks to Shadow and Forgotten lakes.
