8 Great Places to Explore in Tasmania’s North West and Central North Area

There are so many exciting things to do in Tasmania, sometimes it can be hard to choose which places to visit, especially on a short visit. Roz has rounded up nine lesser-known spots to explore next time you’re in the North West and Central North of the Apple Isle.

 

We acknowledge that this adventure is located on the traditional Country of the Palawa people who have occupied and cared for the lands, waters, and their inhabitants for thousands of years. We pay our respects to them as the Traditional Custodians and recognise that sovereignty was never ceded.

If you’re in the mood for adventures that include mountains, rainforests, waterfalls, markets, unique Tassie wildlife, bushwalks, caves, and small towns with interesting escaped Irish convict history, then read on!

1. Hagley

Hagley is a small rural town 29.7km from Launceston and 5km north east of Westbury. There’s a great junk shop at Hagley where you can find real bargains.

The owners of Tasmanian Trash Transformers used to run the tip shop in Deloraine, before moving to Hagley. I asked the owner where he got all his stuff and he said, ‘years of carefully selected junk’.

I bought a large Mountain Designs backpack for $8 and took on a 4-day hike of the Three Capes Track in the state’s south.

I imagined some poor interstate bushwalker got so traumatized by bushwalking in Tasmania and probably having their pack chewed by a wild animal in the mountains they threw it on the tip.

I’ve also seen kayaks there for $30 and good polar fleece jackets for $10 so it’s worth a visit when you’re exploring around the state.

Read more: Remember to leave no trace

How to Get There

You can find the shop at 8 Meander Valley Road, Hagley.

2. Westbury

Westbury is a classic old Georgian village with a fascinating history and lovely views of the Great Western Tiers.

There are great coffee, antique, and ice cream shops, as well as the Western Tiers Distillery, Pearn’s Steam World, Village Green, Fitzpatricks Inn, the town common, and many historic buildings.

Tassie Pickers on Meander Valley Road at Westbury has lots of interesting old collectables, wares, antique bottles, memorabilia, garagenalia, and old tools if you’re into that sort of stuff.

The old town is home to lots of endangered Eastern Barred bandicoots, and if you’re lucky and drive slowly around the streets at night, you can see them feeding on the grass verges before running into the Hawthorn hedges.

The town was founded in 1828. Retired Irish soldiers in the 1840s were given the choice to go back to Ireland or settle on Pensioners Row in Westbury. The Irish soldier settlers from the British Army were unable to return home because of the famine, so they were granted five acres, a house, a well, a cow, and a pear tree.

How to Get There

Westbury is a 25 minute drive (34km) west of Launceston and a 45 minute drive (67km) southeast of Devonport.

3. Deloraine

Deloraine is a beautiful little town on the banks of the Meander River. It’s home to many artists and has great galleries and interesting shops.

There’s a market just outside town on the first Saturday of every month where you can mingle with the locals and find unusual things.

The Empire Hotel in Deloraine does a free platypus tour each evening, and has a great restaurant, bar, and accommodation.

How to Get There

Deloriane is 51km west of Launceston or 231km north of Hobart via the Midland and Bass Highways.

4. Quamby Bluff Climb

If you’re fit and healthy and feel like some exercise why not climb Quamby Bluff? It’s an outlying part of the Great Western Tiers mountain range, and is the northernmost peak in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, providing fantastic views of Northern Tasmania including the Central Plateau and Great Western Tiers.

The climb is 7km return and takes around 4-5 hours. The Bluff is 1,227 metres high with fantastic views in clear weather.

There are a couple of large boulder fields to climb over, so walkers need shoes with good tread, as it would be easy to twist your ankle. The hike could be very challenging in wet, icy or snowy conditions and you’ll need to be prepared with warm clothing and wet weather gear.

How to Get There

Walkers can access the track via the Highlands Lake Road, off the East

Parade Road approximately 21km from Deloraine.

The car park is on the left-hand side of the road 12.4km after turning onto the Highland Lakes Road. The trail starts on the opposite side of the road, 40 metres ahead.

5. Trowunna Wildlife Sanctuary

Trowunna is a privately owned wildlife sanctuary where native Tasmanian fauna and flora thrive. The Sanctuary has 70 acres of natural habitat to wander around.

It’s home to Tasmanian Devils, wombats, quolls, echidnas, Eastern grey kangaroos and lots of birds, ducks, and Cape Barren geese.

Photo thanks to Trowunna Wildlife Park

They have daily interactive guided tours where visitors can see and learn about unique Tasmanian animals.

How to Get There

The Sanctuary is at 1892 Mole Creek Road, about 12 minutes west of Deloraine.

6. Mole Creek Caves

The Mole Creek Karst National Park protects 1,345 hectares which contains limestone caves with beautiful stalactites and stalagmites.

The two main caves are King Solomon’s Cave and Marakoopa Cave. Marakoopa Cave has a creek running through it and amazing glowworms.

You can go on guided tours to visit these caves which depart several times each day. The tours take about 45 minutes each and are suitable for all fitness levels and ages.

It takes about 15 minutes to drive between the two caves so you need to factor that in and book ahead.

How to Get There

The caves are at 330 Mayberry Road, Mayberry, Tasmania.

7. Westmoreland Falls

Westmoreland Falls is a little know beautiful waterfall near Mole Creek.

The walk to the waterfall was severely damaged during storms, which caused flooding, and mudslides in 2011 and again in 2016, but is back in operation now.

It’s a fairly easy walk, which is very beautiful and would be suitable for most people of average fitness, including families. The track is well marked with a few gentle hilly sections and some stone steps. The 3.5km track takes around two hours return.

Walkers pass some small cascades before getting to the main waterfall.  You can then walk across the rocks to the base of the falls and look for fossilized shells.

How to Get There

The walk to Westmoreland Falls starts from a track on Wet Caves Road near Mole Creek. The road is unsealed but suitable for 2WDs. There’s a small car park with a sign ‘Mole Creek Karst Conservation Area’ and ‘Westmoreland Falls’.

8. Devils Gullet

The short walk to the Devil’ Gullet lookout provides amazing views over the Central Highlands of Tasmania.

The walk is suitable for most people, including children and reasonably fit older people, but you’ll need to watch young children very carefully as there are very long drops of 230 metres down into the Devils Gullet gorge.

The start of the track passes through burnt trees from a bush fire several years ago. The track has a hardened or compacted surface with a few gentle uphill sections and some occasional steps.

It must’ve been very beautiful before the fires, but hopefully the forests will recover over time.  It’s a bit eerie walking through the tree skeletons.

After a short walk, you come to the lookout platform, with signs showing all the mountain peaks in the distance. It’s a long way looking down into the ancient gorge carved out by glaciers.

It’d have been great to see it roaring with water as it used to be before the Hydro diverted the Fisher River in the 1970s.

The area’s on the edge of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair World Heritage Area, so on a clear day you can see Tasmania’s highest mountain, Mount Ossa and Cradle Mountain. Mount Ossa is 1,617 metres high and 35km ‘as the crow flies’ from the Devils Gullet lookout.

It’s a wonderful view looking over the alpine areas in winter with snow covering the peaks and the views from Devil’s Gullet are absolutely spectacular.

However if visiting in winter, you’ll need to be very careful driving up the road as it could be covered in ice and snow.

There are no facilities there, so take some water and snacks with you. A sign says the return walk is 45 minutes, but it seemed much shorter than that.

How to Get There

The Devil’s Gullet lookout is about 35 minutes from Mole Creek. Drive west out of town on B12/C138 past the Marakoopa and King Solomons Caves to take a left onto Mercy Forest Road.

Get onto Lake MacKenzie Road and follow the signs to the lookout. In winter, the road may be closed to 2WDs due to ice and snow. At the end of the road, there’s a small car park.

Next time you’re visiting Tassie on a big adventure, don’t forget to check out some of the smaller, lesser-known hikes, towns, and sites. You may just be surprised by what you find!