Must-see attractions in The East Coast

Framed by some of the state's finest beaches and rising into spectacular low mountains, Freycinet incorporates the southern end of Freycinet Peninsula,…

Wine comes with a wide-screen view at this cutting-edge cellar door (eyesore or delight? You decide) overlooking Moulting Lagoon and the Hazards mountains…

Take a break from all those curvy little bays further down the peninsula and wander the sands of this windswept ocean beach, signposted from the main road…

About 7km south of Swansea is the rather amazing Spiky Bridge, built by convicts in the early 1840s using thousands of local fieldstones (yes, they're…

Further into the Pyengana Valley from the cheese factory and the pub you'll find St Columba Falls, Tasmania's highest. Here the South George River takes a…

One of those rare blowholes that still plies its trade, even on fairly benign days, with geysers of white water surging up through a crack in the coastal…

Near Nabowla, 22km west of Scottsdale, is the southern hemisphere's largest lavender farm. In the flowering season (mid-December to late January), the…

Lucky twitchers might spot the endangered forty-spotted pardalote on Maria, or perhaps the aptly named swift parrot. You’ll certainly see Cape Barren…

With its chequered history, car-free Maria Island has some interesting World Heritage–listed convict and industrial ruins among exquisite natural features…

This fabulous lookout looks out (as they do) over the famous bay from 'the Saddle' – the dip between Mt Amos and Mt Mayson, aka the Hazards. It's a steep…

Little-known, isolated Mt William National Park features long sandy beaches, prolific wildlife and the eponymous wukalina/Mt William, reached on a one…

The township of Darlington (officially the World Heritage–listed Darlington Probation Station) is where you’ll start your time on the island. Close to the…

Out the back of the town visitor centre is this unexpected little museum, with more than 1000 items cataloguing the town's social and natural history…

Andrew Quin got his first Honda at age four, and has been hooked on motorbikes ever since. You don’t have to know your Benellis from your Bultacos to…

There’s an easy 20-minute, wheelchair-accessible circuit here for beautiful panoramas of Freycinet Peninsula’s eastern coastline. Along the way you can…

A chapel and cemetery are about all that remain of this misguided settlement, built to ‘care for’ relocated mainland Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Between…

Out the back of the Bark Mill Tavern & Bakery, this museum explains the processing of black wattle bark to obtain tannin for tanning leathers. The mill…

Get thirsty on the beach? Quench yourself 16km south of Scamander at Iron House, a craft brewery producing flavoursome pale ale, lager, wheat beer, stout,…

Inside Swansea’s original schoolhouse, this engaging little museum covers Aboriginal artefacts, colonial and convict history, whaling and the plight of…

From Darlington it’s a one-hour return walk to the Painted Cliffs, at the southern end of Hopground Beach. From the beach you can clamber along the…