TAKE A WALK ON THE WESTERN WILD SIDE

TASMANIA’S MIST-SHROUDED WESTERN WILDS OFFER A SENSE OF REMOTENESS – AND WILDNESS – UNLIKE ANYWHERE ELSE IN AUSTRALIA. IT’S THE PERFECT PLACE TO ESCAPE CIVILISATION FOR A FEW DAYS

Awilderness that fewer dare to wander spans almost a third of Tasmania’s heart-shaped imprint. mythical place where thousand-year-old trees tower, temperate rainforests tangle, tannin stained rivers sculpt their way to the sea while glacial lakes etch deeper into the earth than anywhere else in Australia. An area known simply as The Western Wilds.

Our first night is spent nestled in a small campground beside Leeawuleena (Lake St Clair), its name translates as Sleeping Waters by traditional Palawa people and it hovers on the southernmost tip of Cradle Mountain National Park.

While Australia’s deepest lake at 160m, its also arguably one of Tasmania’s more breathtaking; reflective water mirroring the craggy spires of mountains capped in snow during winter and home to arduous hikes found within it’s creases including the six-day Overland Track which culminates here.

As soft adventurists, we meander more moderately via the 5km Watersmeet walk to the confluence of the Cuvier and Hugel rivers and on to Platypus Bay before looping back.

Cabins, a lodge, cafe, restaurant and visitor centre are also located within the park grounds.

Across the water, which can be explored by a scenic cruise, the adults-only Pump House gleams.

It makes our list for next time – when kids and aspirational wild camping goals are to be left behind.

From the verdant ancient forests surrounding Lake St Clair, a serpentine road weaves us past waterfalls and beside mountain vistas cloaked in emerald rainforest and onwards towards civilisation via the road known as 99 bends.

It’s a rude shock to stumble upon the alien landscape that awaits though – devoid of any vegetation in ghostly Gormanston and on reaching Queenstown, the rivers have turned the colour of chartreuse after carrying 80 years of mining waste.

Both towns traded lush landscapes for liberal livelihoods when the mining boom of the late 1800s came to town – underpinned by the Mt Lyell Mining Company, an offshoot of savvy Broken Hill Proprietary Co Ltd and more colloquially known today as BHP.

The impetus to get copper to port over the steepest railway climb in the Southern Hemisphere has transcended into a nostalgic tourist attraction.

The West Coast Railway pays homage to pioneers past while the ingenious ABT rack and pinion rail system they carved through western wilds terrain that pin dropped Tassie on the global resources map remains an icon.

It’s a delightful half or full day adventure from Queenstown or Strahan and includes panning for gold, traversing King River Gorge and sipping tea and nibbling on scones while admiring clouds of steam billowing from vintage engines drifting across the rainforest. B ut it’s not just the interior that forges the west as wild.

The Southern Ocean seethes along its coast, giant swells whipped up by winds known as the “roaring 40s” tear across 14,000km of landless void from South America.

The topography has been shaped by force; sand dunes travel as deep as 15m inland and scale almost 30m creating a formidable backdrop to some of Tasmania’s longest stretches of beach between Strahan and Zeehan.

Our destination of Corinna marks the beginning of the mythical Tarkine, a place of great cultural significance to the Palawa and one of Australia’s most dense sub temperate rainforests.

It’s home to the most mysterious of creatures – platypus, echidnas, wombats, bandicoots and possum plus the more famous Tasmanian devil and predatory spotted-tailed and eastern quolls.

Corinna (coorinna) is what the Palawa people called Thylacines, which before extinction were said to roam here too.

But first, we need to cross the Pieman River’s northern bank where the road ends and the Fatman Barge awaits.

We float across our final stretch staring at the dark tannin stained waterways littered by giant Huon and celery top pines, blackwood and myrtle, its inky hue casting mesmerising reflections on its mirror like surface.

To appreciate its wild beauty further, we joined the tour aboard Arcadia II, a vintage 1939 Huon pine cruiser that punches out a pleasant nine-knot pace towards the turbulent waters of the Southern Ocean.

Once at the river mouth, the final few kilometres is a walk to the beach to picnic atop giant logs tossed like twigs onto the beach by the herculean strength of the ocean. It’s a place few boats dare to venture and a watery graveyard to some who’ve tried. The Arcadia II remains moored at a safe distance.

Back at the small tin mining settlement of Corinna, the owners have taken a sustainable approach, re-purposing buildings into an eco

inspired and mostly solar powered wilderness camp.

You can choose to stay in The Roadman’s cottage, Butcher’s shop, General store or popular Old Pub as accommodation while campsites are veritable caves carved into a cosy thicket of Tarkine.

There’s also a restaurant, reception, bathrooms and basic provisions store sitting at the campgrounds core. And while it would be easy to simply do nothing but enjoy this quiet, timeless place, we steal away to take long walks into the remote wilderness and kayak 5km to Lovers Falls.

While a decent paddle, we find a fairytale like staircase disappearing among the ferns and Sassafras to reward us and beyond the climb a 40 metre rain fed drop waterfall gently tumbles. Not another soul is here.

From Corinna, we weave back towards Cradle Mountain National Park which sits at the very heart of the Tasmanian World Heritage Area.

It’s a fitting finale to arrive at luxurious Peppers Cradle Mountain Lodge, welcomed with a warm blanket like embrace to find modern rooms and decadent suites eponymously named after the pine trees that surround them.

The kids (two of whom are young adults) had their own Pencil Pine Cabin.

A flurry of texts on check-in reveal they had spotted a platypus in the lagoon from their bedroom window and wombats romping on the grass.

The next few days held many similar moments as we wandered designated walking trails to be surprised by babbling creeks, spectacular alpine landscapes and plenty of scampering wildlife.

For us, the indulgence of time (mostly) alone cocooned in the King Billy Suite was a holiday highlight.

A central fireplace provided warmth and ambience shared by both the lounge and bedroom and outside on the balcony shrouded by conifers, a hot tub where many hours were spent sipping wine, supping on cheese and giggling like children being tickled by the very finest of things.

Scoring near perfect weather for our final day, the challenge to tackle the three-hour hike to Marions Peak was made as a family over a hearty breakfast.

It may have taken us five hours, two of which were spent cajoling our youngest to keep going; but we did eventually make it.

Standing atop the peak overlooking the famous cradle of which the park is named after was a defining family moment.

This landscape shaped by glaciers, weathered by nature and with capacious bowls of azure blue waters captured over two millions years left us gasping – and not just from lack of fitness, but also in awe.

A celebratory spa session afterwards soothed the muscles and the soul as we sunk deeply into the Waldheim Alpine Spa’s dedicated Sanctuary.

Overlooking Pencil Pine Creek, the room is a private oasis of warming and cooling pools beside steam treatment rooms that form a delightful entree to a massage or facial therapy afterwards.

Dinner followed at Highland Restaurant, the menu peppered with hearty local produce including a delicious wallaby scaloppine which is sustainably farmed in Tasmania and a sprinkling of native bush ingredients beside a selection of the finest Tasmanian wines.

It was a delicious denouement to time spent revelling in the untamed beauty and bounty the Western Wilds has to offer – and found on every front.