TASMANIA 10 - THE NORTH-WEST

Having left Queenstown mid-afternoon we decided to travel just up the road to Zeehan and stay at the caravan park which was nothing flash but pleasant enough. The weather was damp and cold so we decided to take a look at Zeehan before we continued on next morning. There are some lovely old buildings in Zeehan but few shops.

However, we found the locals to be really friendly and helpful. There is a little gem shop in the main street and the owner gave us lots of information about the local area including Trial Harbour. The road out there is OK until you are almost there. The last corner is so sharp I doubt we would get the van around it so we were glad that we had been advised to just drive out to take a look. There isn’t really anywhere to camp anyway so it was a good move. It is worth a visit as the coastline is quite spectacular and there is a lovely little museum there. Why they call it a harbour though I’ll never know. Apparently this was the original landing place for the early explorers until they discovered Macquarie Harbour.

Trial Harbour

Whale's Head

The landscape into Trial Harbour is really interesting.

After returning to Zeehan we packed up the van and headed out to Granville Harbour where we found a lovely campsite overlooking the bay on the northern side of the town. Again there are no shops or anything - just lots of fishing huts and several new houses. Apparently a block of land can cost well over $90 000 here. Honestly, I can’t see why anyone would want to live there permanently. It was windy and cold enough while we were there and it was late December. Obviously the crayfish and abalone are plentiful.

Our camp at Granville Harbour

On a nice day the scenery at Granville is fantastic.

And the sunsets stunning!

There is a 4WD track right up the coast from Granville Harbour to the mouth of the Pieman River and it was well used by both the locals on their quad bikes and others coming in to camp all along the coast. The drive along the track is quite interesting, with lots of inlets and bays. We did quite a bit of exploring and saw small abalone in the rock pools so John took a quick dive but didn’t find anything. It was so cold he couldn’t stay in for long and of course the more accessible places would be picked over pretty well. We also saw plenty of cray pot buoys scattered along the bays.

One of the many sheltered bays north of Granville. Note the road, top centre.

Most of the coastline is rocky and inhospitable.

The cattle here have excellent sea views. This is the hill about 2 klms back that you went to for mobile coverage.

After a few days at Granville Harbour we decided to move on as the weather hadn’t improved and we had seen all we could. We had planned to drive from here up to the Pieman River and take the ferry across to Corinna but they couldn’t take anything over 9 metres so we decided to go across Reece Dam to the little town of Tullah. We met a lovely local bloke half-way across the dam wall and again he told us lots of info about the area.

Reece Dam. The campground is at top right.



Looking downstream from Reece Dam.

There is quite a nice camping spot on the eastern side of the dam, but we decided to keep going. At Tullah, we discovered that the caravan park which was signposted never actually eventuated. It looked like there had been great plans for a little village with shops etc but then the money ran out and most was never done. There are a few shops but it looked like the place was far from thriving. I think only the mine in Rosebery provides some income from rentals for mine workers.

Eventually we ended up at Lake Mackintosh, north-east of Tullah. Again we found a lovely campsite and also met some more travellers to enjoy a drink and a chat with of an afternoon. The best camp is down the track which veers left as you approach the boat ramp but we went to the old boat ramp first and settled in there.

Mackintosh Dam

Sunrise

Mackintosh Dam, like Reece and many others in Tassie are also part of the hydro-electric scheme.

We took a drive into Rosebery while we were close and also did the walk into Montezuma Falls which starts just south of there. Little did we realise that it was a 10 klm round trip. It took about 3 hours and we were pretty buggered by the time we got back to the car. It was worth it though as the falls are quite spectacular and the walk covers some lovely terrain. The suspension bridge at the falls themselves is also quite impressive but a little unnerving if you aren’t fond of heights. The walk actually follows the route of the tramline which was used by the miners in Williamsford to transport their ore down to Zeehan. You actually drive through the area where Williamsford once was but there is little left there now but a couple of little shelters and an informative plaque about the history of the place. On the way back into Rosebery we could also see the remains of the flying fox setup which was also used to transport the ore from Williamsford into Rosebery. Some of the towers are still standing with wheels and cables intact.

The track to Montezuma Falls had plenty of beautiful spots.

The remains of the old rail bridge.

This little tunnel ran off to the side of the track.

The base of the falls.

Montezuma Falls

The diversity of fungi down here is amazing.

The next day was Christmas Eve so we wanted to be somewhere where we would have mobile phone coverage on Christmas Day. Waratah was the next town on our route so we drove up there, planning to stay at the little campsite behind their council chambers. It is right beside a lovely lake and has good facilities. However, we met a couple who we’d seen in Strahan and they had just come back from Hellyer Gorge out on the edge of The Tarkine, one of Tassies famous wilderness areas. They said it was lovely and since the camps book said it had mobile coverage we decided to go up there instead. It is about 25 klms north of Waratah so it wasn’t far to come back on our way down to Corinna.

Hellyer Gorge

As you might imagine we were not impressed when we discovered that contrary to what the Camps 6 book says, there was no mobile coverage at Hellyer Gorge. Although the Gorge itself is very pretty, camping space there is pretty limited. Fortunately, I had noticed that we had mobile coverage about 10 klms back so we drove back to a lovely spot beside some huge pine trees at the entrance to a blue gum plantation. There were old logs everywhere so John got out the chain saw and axe and filled up all our firewood bags. We were really happy to be able to ring everyone on Christmas morning despite the remoteness of the spot.

Our Christmas Eve camp.

On Christmas Day, we thought it might be nice to go to the pub in Waratah and have lunch before continuing down to Corinna on the Pieman River. Unfortunately, the pub was closed so we had toasted ham and cheese sandwiches beside the lake, topped up our water tanks and headed off.

This waterfall is right in the middle of the town of Waratah.

When we got to Corinna we discovered that the bush campsites which some people use were very small and since we couldn’t stay at Corinna itself because of Leo, we decided to keep going up the C249 to the top end of the Arthur-Pieman Conservation area. We were a bit disappointed as we were quite keen to put the tinny in and go for a run down to the mouth of the Pieman River.

There are some very steep hills on the C249 and although the worst are bitumened, we still had to go into low range  to get up a few of them. The going on this road is slow and while there were a few points of interest like the mine camps, it is generally pretty bleak countryside with little to see. I don’t think I would bother doing it again and we were thinking that perhaps we might have been better off looking for a camp on the south side of the river adjacent to Corinna and putting the tinny in there. Maybe next time! Anyway we arrived on the coast and at Couta Rocks and took a left turn down to take a look at Temma. This turned out to be a little fishing village with quite a small sheltered harbour where the cray boats take shelter. They have even built long slips over the rocks which they can haul their boats onto for when the weather turns really bad and for maintenance etc.

Camping is not allowed along any of the coast in this area now until you get just south of Arthur River itself at Prickly Wattles Campground. The only people allowed at Nelson Bay and Couta Rocks are locals who have permanent huts. There are plenty of options near Arthur River though and we decided that Manuka suited us best as there is plenty of room and the toilet blocks are plentiful. You have to have your own fire drum though if you want a fire. We managed to “find” one and we were glad to be able to have a fire as the evenings could be quite cool.

On our first morning here, we went out to “The Edge of the World”, a lookout on the south side of the river mouth. There were two guys pulling in heaps of cocky salmon(small salmon) off the rocks there so we decided we’d go down and try ourselves.



The "lucky" fishermen at the End of the World, Arthur River. We threw lures from the exact same spot and got nothing.

We went there three times, threw hundreds of lures and caught NOTHING. The local shopkeeper informed us that they were either not there, or there in abundance and it was anybody’s guess when to try. Anyway, the day we put the tinny in was warm and sunny and we went right up the river to the junction of the Arthur and Frankland Rivers. We did have a bit of a troll for some trout but again no luck. We aren’t destined to get amongst the fishies over here. The boat ride was pleasant though and I did manage to catch one small salmon in the mouth when we got back. Sent him back to his mummy though. Again, some friendly locals took pity on us at the boat ramp and gave us a feed of cocky salmon which were lovely.

The Arthur River

You MUST have life-jackets on here even in the creeks.

This lovely old boat does tourist cruises up the river.

Looking across to Arthur River township from the mouth.

While at Arthur River we decided to take a drive up to Marrawah, and check out the campsite at Green Point. We had been told it was a great spot but it is really only  a bitumen carpark with some grass around it and was pretty crowded. The beach nearby is very nice and obviously popular with local surfers but there isn’t much else around there so we thought we might skip it and go further north next day. We were really happy that we made that decision as we ended up on the north coast at Montagu Park, 20 klms north-west of Smithton.