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| FREYCINET WAY - Hobart to Coles Bay
Freycinet Way is the name given on these pages to the road which leads north from Hobart to Richmond where it joins the Tasman Highway to Bicheno and Freycinet National Park. Byways connect east to Coles Bay and Freycinet Lodge and west to Campbell Town. By choosing the Freycinet Way to drive between Launceston and Hobart, travellers experience a gorgeous, engaging scenic landscape imbued with romantic colonial history provided by the British and the French expeditioners (who arrived some 150 years after the Dutch explorer, Abel Tasman). Progressing northward from Richmond to Great Oyster Bay, place names redolent of the British Isles give way to French nomenclature for geographic features such as Ile des Phoque, Cape Bouganville, Ile du Nord.... French exploration and Napoleonic imperial intentions precipitated the British settlement of Hobart in 1803. Freycinet Peninsula (Presqu’ile Freycinet) was named in 1802 by Pierre Ange Faure, a geographer aboard the Naturaliste, one of the French expeditioner Nicolas Baudin’s two ships, in honour of Louis Desaules de Freycinet, a sub-lieutenant aboard the other vessel, the Geographe. It was 22nd June, 2002, before Mt. Baudin - a prominent feature on the Peninsula - was gazetted by the State Nomenclature Board on the occasion of the Bicentenary of Baudin’s 1800-4 expedition. Freycinet Peninsula, with Schouten Island and other smaller islands, was declared a National Park in August 1916. Nature has been kind to Bicheno, population approx. 700, which explains why it’s one of Tasmania’s top tourist resorts. The average summer temperature, and hours of sunshine, is higher than in southern Victoria. The miles of pristine white beaches attract locals and holidaymakers alike. . BICHENO The town was named after James Ebenezer Bicheno, Tasmanian Colonial Secretary 1843-51. A visit to the Bich-o-Rama display at Crohill Gallery will reward history seekers. Waubs Harbour was used by sealers and whalers who found it ideal as a shelter for their boats. Today the local fishing fleet return catches for processing, including crayfish and abalone. Waubs Bay and Waubs Harbour was named after an aboriginal woman, Waubadebar, who was enslaved by sealers in the early 19th Century. A strong swimmer, she rescued two sealers when their boat was wrecked 1km offshore. In 1854 the town became a coalmin-ing port, but most of the population departed for the Victorian gold rush and the town almost expired. In the 1940’s the village started developing into the holiday destination it is today and taking on a prosperous air. The 3km Bicheno Foreshore Footway was constructed for the 1988 Bicentennial celebrations. Walkers on the Footway may enjoy a bracing seabreeze as the vista of beaches and headland extends north and south into the sea mist, take in the unique formations of Waubs Gulch and the blowhole. Picnic areas and table dot the Footway perimeter. Return along footpaths with panoramic views over town. Activities might include night-time penguin rookery tours, adventure scuba diving, water skiing, swimming and surfing, wine tasting, tours of sealife displays. There are several good restaurants and accommodation facilities in Bicheno. Bicheno Information Centre is located in Burgess Street Tel. 6375 1500. . WIELANGTA FOREST Some day the gravelled link road between the Tasman Highway at Orford and the Tasman Peninsula, Wielangta Forest Drive, will be sealed to become a boon for East Coast tourism. Meanwhile, the road is well maintained by Tasmanian Forestry, well and regularly graded and widened to render it safe for tourists from the armada of log trucks plying their way to the woodchip mill at Triabunna. Thumbs Lookout is only 6km from Orford off the Drive . A rough, boulder littered side road leads to a picnic ground and lookout giving expansive views of Maria Island and Great Oyster Bay. A sheltered picnic area, with water and toilet facilities, is maintained on the lookout area. Several plaques and story-boards inform visitors about the region, the forest and history of Maria Island. The Drive continues on through regrowth forest approx. 40 kilometres to join the Arthur Highway. |
SWANSEA (population approx. 500) is a magnet for holidaymakers
and a convenient stopover for visitors to the Great Oyster Bay and Freycinet
region. Swansea views to the east are filled with the vast expanse of Great
Oyster Bay rimmed by the rocky red peaks of the Freycinet Peninsula, The
Hazards and Schouten Island. At night, the lights of Swanick, Coles Bay
and Freycinet Lodge twinkle across the bay, small outposts of human settlement
in a vista of sea and sky.
Most services are available in Swansea including several accommodation house, caravan and cabin parks, hotel, restaurants, service stations, social and sporting clubs, museums, supermarkets and a variety of shops. The village is popular with boating enthusiasts - the Swansea Jetty boat ramp in the centre of town offering an important launching facility and parking area for boating and fishing enthusiasts. Bream Fishing Championships are held on the Swan River and are of special importance to sporting fishermen and women from around the state. Other sports well-catered for in Swansea are golf on a picturesque course in the centre of town, bowling, tennis and a great variety of watersports facilitated by the broad expanse of Great Oyster Bay. By the 1820s, the reaches of white settlement were being pushed further up Tasmania’s East Coast. Settlers were drawn to the area by the prospects of farming and whaling. A military outpost and township reserve were established at Waterloo Point (Swansea) in 1826. The latest edition of Lonely Planet Tasmania says: Swansea has retained a laid-back friendliness and still ranks as one of the nicest towns on the East Coast. . ORFORD, population approx. 460, was once a seaport for whalers and a supply base for Maria Island. Sheltered coves and beaches provide good fishing and water sports and idyllic Spring Beach is a favourite of families and casual surfers. The Prosser River was named after a recaptured convict in hiding on its banks. The incompleted convict-built road on the northern banks today provides a pleasant riverside walk into Paradise Gorge. Orford village contains an excellent hotel/motel with recently refurbished accommodation, shops, a service station, clubs and restaurants. . TRIABUNNA, population approx. 770, is an aboriginal name for a species of local native hen. Located in Spring Bay, a sheltered harbour within Great Oyster Bay, the town is becoming the commercial and administrative hub of the Glamorgan - Spring Bay municipality (the first rural municipality in Australia). Originally a whaling station, Triabunna serviced the garrison and prisoners on Maria Island. Today, the busy marina is home to the Maria Island ferry and a prosperous fishing fleet. All services are available here including hotels, shops, caravan park and Information Centre. The Tasmanian Seafarer’s Memorial, adjacent to the visitors centre and marina, is dedicated to all who have died in Tasmanian waters. . The small settlement of Buckland is 64km from Hobart. It was once a staging post for coaches plying the East Coast. Buckland’s principal attraction is the controversial stained glass window of the Church of St John the Baptist. The church is a superb example of English colonial architecture built in 1846. The window has an interesting history, although disputed by some, which is related in a leaflet available in the church (60 cents). The author proposes that the beautifully stained glass dates from the late 14th Century and that it has a legendary link with William the Conqueror having once been installed in Battle Abbey, England, on the site of the Battle of Hastings. The window made its mysterious way to Buckland and was installed in the church around 1850. But its been claimed elsewhere that the window is, in fact, of Victorian descent and was probably made by a London-based artisan in the mid-19th Century. |
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Buckland - historic St John's Church is open to public | Maria Island seascape |
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| Swansea jetty and Jubilee Beach | Swansea - Glamorgan Museum | Triabunna - Seafarers memorial | Cressy Beach - Rocky Hills - Tasman Highway pasture |
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| Dolphin Sands - Swan River - opposite Swanwick | Freycinet National Park -
Wineglass Bay |
Wineglass Bay Freycinet National Park - Bennetts wallaby | Great Oyster Bay - Dolphin Sands - Swan River estuary |
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| The Hazards, Freycinet Peninsula - from Coles Bay | Freycinet National Park information centre, Coles Bay | Iluka Village shops and Iluka Tavern, Coles Bay | Cape Toureville lighthose and boardwalk - magnificent views |
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