Plan Book Travel Australia

From Granton where the Bridgewater Bridge crosses the Derwent north of Hobart, explore the Lyell Highway as it follows the course of the river past poplars and willows, hopfields and orchards, towards Tasmania ’s mountains and wilderness.

As you journey on, you’ll discover explorers, bushmen, farmers and dam builders - tough pioneers who carved a living from this wild and rugged country.

Their stories begin in the historic town of New Norfolk, with its fine collection of heritage Buildings. Look for Australia’s oldest Anglican church, the quaint toll house by the bridge, and the Oast House museum, where the scent of hops still lingers on. Further on are the Salmon Ponds where the first brown trout were hatched in the late 1800s. Today, their descendants provide some of the world ’s finest fly fishing in Tasmania ’s many lakes, rivers and streams.

Beyond historic farming settlements of Hamilton and Ouse, the highway climbs into the highlands, crossing rivers where power stations harness the boundless energy of falling water. It reaches the stark beauty of the Central Plateau where 10,000 years ago glaciers scraped the rocks bare, carving the cliffs and digging out the bed of Lake St Clair, Australia’s deepest lake.

Turning off the westward highway, your route travels through to the lake country, where once a thick ice cap blanketed the land. Today, a myriad of lakes, all teeming with trout, sparkle across the plateau. Largest of all, the Great Lake stretches from the fishing settlement of Miena to Breona in the north, where the partially unsealed road begins to descend through tall forests with cascading waterfalls.

Descending south-eastwards from Miena, the landscape gradually softens, and the place names reflect a European heritage - Nant, Cluny, Dennistoun - and Bothwell, a stately town on the edge of the wild country.

Content for this region: Tourism Tasmania