An untouched and other-worldly landscape awaits those who explore Tassie’s rugged Tarkine region, as Sue Turner discovered.
Early autumn, a wonderful time to go travelling. For that matter though, any time is a great time to go travelling, especially in the company of friends. We were still ironing out our new RV, a 2014 Jayco Conquest on a Fiat Ducato chassis, when we headed off towards the Tarkine Wilderness. This trip we had a new outdoor cooking stove to break in, and great friends for company.
After an early start and lunch at Peggs Beach, we stopped for a break in the centre of Smithton, on Tasmania’s far north west coast, at a beautiful little spot on the banks of the Duck River. It wasn’t the designated overnight stop area, and even though it was still early afternoon, we decided to stay. After walking around town we set off for the lookout and quite a while later we reached the end of the road, and a breathtaking view over the mouth of the Duck River awaited us. It was low tide and more of a meandering estuary than a river mouth, but by following the markers and the passage of a small boat, we could just make out the distant channel.
It was a beautiful and calm evening back at the river. Our two campers became four, and by morning there were seven. The others must have snuck in after dark. Maybe it was safety in numbers. It is so interesting to be in the company of other travellers, to hear their varied stories, see the infinite variation of rigs, and swap information.
We awoke to another lovely day with the river looking truly picturesque at full tide. It wasn’t that bad at low tide, just a little muddy. Heading west, the plan was to have a look at Marrawah, and the famous Greens Beach on Tasmania’s west coast.
We had seen it years ago, with a westerly wind blowing up a wild surf. This time a light breeze from the north-east gave it an entirely different look. The sea was calm and the beach peaceful on a receding tide. I remember a rather large snake making its presence felt on the walkway to the beach last trip, so this time, as ever, we were cautious. With kilometres of wide, flat beach at our beck and call, we walked most of its length. There was an interesting patch of freshwater springs bubbling out of the sand below the high tide mark, along with rare hooded plovers running in the sand, beautiful hinterland as far as the eye can see, and distant wind farms.
After an energetic morning it was time to sit and relax. We stayed at Greens Beach overnight, in the camping area just behind the beach. By nightfall it was nearly full, a prelude to the weekend ahead when a surf competition was scheduled.
Stanley and the Tarkine Coast
EDGE OF THE WORLD
Next morning saw us heading south to the small town of Arthur River, and one of the most iconic places in the region: ‘The Edge of the World’, located near the mouth of the river. I love the poem on the plaque, I think it demonstrates how insignificant we really are in the grand scheme of things. We each cast a stone over the edge. At the mouth of the Arthur River, tons of driftwood brought down in times of flood, have been cast up on the rocks in the wild seas. From Arthur River there are day trips available up the river into the wilderness, one for our next trip.
Moving south we paused at the rugged little cove of Couta Rocks, before heading inland to Sumac Lookout to admire the view down the Arthur River valley. We counted at least seven kayaks on the distant river, then travelled deeper into the Tarkine Wilderness to the free camp at Julius River Forest Reserve.
It was a beautiful little campsite with tall trees and the sound of the water tinkling in the stream behind the RV. Walks through the bush were like stepping into another world full of tall trees, lichens, tree ferns, unusual fungi, and evidence of something sharpening its teeth on logs or perhaps searching for grubs.
The Lake Chisholm Forest Reserve walk was a different sort of bush again, with tall trees, and a thick layer of ferns in the undergrowth. The lake is one of a series of sinkholes in the area, this one filled with water. In the early morning stillness, the water was dead calm, with only the little frogs making a ruckus to disturb the peace.
The whole Tarkine Forest Drive was just beautiful, the road all sealed and open after years being closed due to floods taking out the bridges. The scenery varied from pristine bush and old regrowth forest, to areas that had been burnt out in the fires a couple of years ago - the vibrant green leaves on the recovering trees standing out among the stark dead tree trunks. We crossed Arthur River at the new Tayatea Bridge, a deep gorge with evidence where past floods have gouged into the bank and left behind rows of tangled dead trees right up to bridge level.
Further on, Trowutta Arch, a few kilometres off the main drive, made for another interesting stop. The arch is the result of a sinkhole partly filled with water at the end of another interesting bush walk. We were in awe of the height of the trees right through the area. From Trowutta Arch we drove through rich dairy farming land, past Irishtown towards Smithton.
The bridge across Authur River
A VAST WILDERNESS
Tasmania’s Tarkine region actually extends way beyond the area we travelled. Its true boundaries are roughly Arthur River in the north, the Pieman River in the south, the Murchison Highway in the east, and the coast to the west, and consists of a huge area of temperate rainforest, coastal heathland, sand dunes, buttongrass moorlands, wild river and cave systems, and a rugged coastline with white sand beaches.
The area is inhabited by the endangered Tasmanian devil among other indigenous Tasmanian animals. Rumble strips have been installed on some of the roads to either slow the traffic down or scare the animals away from the road. I am not sure which, but there was a distinct lack of roadkill in the area. Maybe that was due to slower traffic or maybe the resident devils are doing their job as scavengers.
We didn’t see any live devils in our travels, but sadly spotted a dead one on the road. We did see a family of kookaburras and a little wallaby hopping through our camp at Julius River, much to the delight of a pair of European backpackers camping nearby. There was also one large snake that tried to tango with our tyres, and the tiniest little fawn frog at Lake Chisholm.
But back to one of the reasons for the trip - to test out the new outdoor cooking stove. It is a low pressure LPG Companion Single Burner Stove. It passed the test with flying colours. It is light, easy to stow away, and plugs into the onboard gas bottles via its own plug. It proved its worth on the trip and is a permanent addition to our new RV.
We had a night at Peggs Beach on the way home and enjoyed one last walk on the wide, sandy beach complete with views of The Nut at Stanley in the distance. It was a great few days with good company, gourmet meals, and beautiful bushwalks thrown in, but we really only explored a small portion of the Tarkine, a widely varied landscape in Tasmania’s beautiful far north west.
