DEVONPORT
When you head south west from the northern port town of Devonport, you enter a landscape bordered to the south and west by jagged mountains, chocolate brown soil and rolling green hills dotted with herds of Friesen dairy cows, and Bass Strait with its picturesque seaside towns to the north. For those travelling on the Spirit of Tasmania, Devonport is your gateway to the Island.
The region is known for potato and onion growing, creamy milk and cheese, quirky place names such as Promised Land, Paradise, Penguin and the Walls of Jerusalem. It is also a landscape of towering Eucalypt forests, looming mountains and deep ancient caves that honeycomb the foothills beside the Great Western Tiers. Some believe the Tasmanian Tiger still roams the area.
This region also has some of the best walking trails and when you enter Cradle Valley you will find Tasmania's most recognisable landmark, the ragged profile of Cradle Mountain reflected in Dove Lake below. This is your entry to a walk through a World Heritage Area protected because of its rare cool temperate rainforests, Aboriginal history, towering mountains and buttongrass plains.
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is home to the world famous Overland Track linking Cradle Valley by a six-day walk south to Lake St Clair. There are many superb short walks from the Valley, including the most popular around Dove Lake. The Great Western Tiers form an ancient backdrop to the lush valleys where you can find artist studios, berry farms, the caves of the Mole Creek Karst National Park, and learn about our unique animals : Tasmanian devils, potaroos, pademelons, spotted quolls and much more.
From the city of Devonport to the rugged country towards Cradle Mountain, this is a region of interest and variety - charming towns and historic buildings, beaches, forests and craggy peaks, fine flavours, fertile farmland and friendly people.
Visit The Great Western Tiers, known to the Aboriginal people as Kooparoona Niara, a timeless landscape of mountains and valleys, forest and open plains. Beneath the surface are extensive limestone caves in the Mole Creek Karst National Park.
This is a creative region - Deloraine holds the southern hemisphere's largest working craft fair. In Westbury, Deloraine and Latrobe there are well-preserved reminders of earlier days. In the antique shops you can search out treasures - the glow of cedar, the patterning of birds-eye Huon pine or the shine of silver.
Latrobe's Axeman's Hall of Fame and Timberworks, celebrates the timber industry heritage, while on the land, farms harvest the bounty of rich soils. This is a land of milk and honey, and of sweet berries and fresh vegetables, grass-fed beef and superb farm cheeses. Inland, Mt Roland overlooks fertile pastures around Sheffield, the town of murals.
Nearby is the international rowing course at Lake Barrington. Now the road winds into the wilderness. From Dove Lake, the craggy profile of Cradle Mountain beckons. Returning to the coast, roads pass through Wilmot's dairy country and croplands towards the Leven Canyon and Gunns Plains Caves. On Bass Strait's shores, there's a bright welcome in Ulverstone and Penguin.
