DESTINATION: Burnie

Tasmania's fourth largest city is on the North Coast 148km NW of Launceston. Its deepwater port has long served the silver mines of the west coast, but its recent prosperity is partially due to its location for Australian Paper, one of the state's largest enterprises.

Main Attractions

The Civic Centre is the hub of tourist activity with an information centre, art gallery and Burnie Pioneer Village, a museum with a re-creation of Burnie as it was a century ago. The information centre books free guided tours of the huge Amcor paper mill. Lactos Cheese Factory welcomes visitors to its cheese-tasting centre in Old Surrey Rd. Views over the city are available from lookouts on Mount St and Round Hill. There is a loop walk around Burnie that includes a waterfront boardwalk, the Romaine Track, and Fernglade Recreation Reserve on the Emu River, a good place to see platypus.

Nearby attractions

Emu Valley Rhododendron Gardens, 6km south off Cascade Rd, will delight garden lovers, as will the English-style Annsleigh Gardens, 9km south on Mount Rd (closed in winter). Guide Falls are the best known of several waterfalls near Ridgley, 17km south. Guide Falls Alpaca Farm is close by. Upper Natone Forest Reserve, 20km to the south, is a favourite picnic spot.

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Region: North West

by JB

North West Tasmania, from Burnie with its industrial heritage and busy port, the Bass Highway follows the coast westward, almost always within sight of Bass Strait Massive bluffs nudge out into the sea. Table Cape, just beyond Wynyard, flat-topped and fertile, with flowering tulips carpeting its fields in spring; Rocky Cape, with its native orchids, bushwalks and sea cliffs; and Circular Head, where the historic village of Stanley snuggles up against the steep-sided Nut. more

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Civic Centre precinct, Little Alexander St, Ph: (03) 6434 6111

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