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| Looking from
Coles Bay across to the Hazards in
Freycinet National Park
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Coles Bay (including Freycinet National
Park)
Entry point for those eager to explore the
beautiful Freycinet National Park.
Coles Bay is situated at the northern edge of
the Freycinet National Park. As such it is the
site favoured by visitors wishing to explore the
Freycinet Peninsula and thus is well served by
caravan sites and camping facilities. Located
202 km north east of Hobart and 218 km south
east of Launceston it is one of the justifiably
famous wilderness beauty spots on Tasmania's
east coast.
The Coles Bay-Freycinet National Park area is
noted for its spectacular coastal scenery and
its emphasis on fishing, boating, bushwalking
and swimming. As the excellent brochure Let's
Talk about Coles Bay and Freycinet National Park
declares: 'Where else would you find granite
mountains rising straight from the sea to form a
magnificent sheltered waterway?
'Where else would you find a beach so
beautiful and secluded that on the last Royal
visit to Australia, the Royal Yacht Britannia
anchored to allow the Queen ashore for an
Australian-style beach barbecue?' This latter
event is still talked about by the locals and,
when you have seen Wineglass Bay where the
picnic took place, you can understand the
romantic notion of such an activity.
Before the arrival of European sealers and
whalers the area was popular with Aborigines and
there are many shell middens along the coast
suggesting that it was a popular retreat from
the coldness of the Tasmanian winter.
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| Richardsons
Bay in front of Freycinet Lodge
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By the early nineteenth century whalers and
sealers were well established on both Freycinet
Peninsula and Schouten Island. From this time
the settlement of the area was largely
restricted to adventurers and near-hermits. It
was Silas Cole, a lonely lime burner who
collected the shells from the Aboriginal middens
and burnt them for lime, who gave the town its
name. He loved the area and often described its
beauty to his friends when he took his lime
across Great Oyster Bay to Swansea.
It wasn't until 1934, when a retired
auctioneer named Harry Parsons purchased 5 ha of
land at Coles Bay, that any kind of settlement
developed. Parsons' purchase became the land for
the town - and the town became a popular haunt
for fishermen and bushwalkers. It was a retreat
from modern life. A true escape to a small
community of shanties on the edge of a beautiful
bay. A rough road was hewn around the coast but
most of the building materials for the town
arrived on the SS Koomeela which made regular
journeys across the bay.
The appealing quality of Coles Bay and
Freycinet National Park is that they haven't
really changed in fifty years. Today people
still come to the area to get away from it all.
They fish in the waters of Great Oyster Bay,
which are still rich in trevally, flathead,
crayfish and trumpeter. They walk into the park
and climb the Hazards or the mountains to the
south, both of which offer marvellous views
across the bay and out across the Tasman Sea.
And they drive on the rough roads through the
National Park stopping for a spectacular view or
pulling off the road to go swimming in the
clear, safe waters of the bay.
Things to see:
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| Sleepy Bay in
Freycinet National Park
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Freycinet National Park
In its own way Freycinet National Park is one of
Australia's most interesting wilderness areas -
where else in the world do you see red granite
cliffs tumbling into the cold ocean? This 10 000
ha park is alive with unusual animals -
Tasmanian pademelons, white-breasted sea eagles,
red-necked wallabies - and in season offers
spectacular displays of rare native flora,
notably a wide variety of native orchids. It is
fair to say that it is one of the country's most
spectacularly beautiful areas and when the
weather is perfect it is hard to imagine a more
peaceful and awe-inspiring piece of coastline.
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| Looking south
from Cape Tourville |
Freycinet National Park Activities
Cape Tourville
The most popular activities in Freycinet
National Park are bushwalking and scenic views.
A good starting point is to drive to Cape
Tourville. The 6.4 km dirt road, while hardly
amazing, is perfectly adequate for conventional
vehicles. The views are spectacular. Although
Wineglass Bay is hidden by Mount Parsons there
is a dramatic view across Thouin Bay to Lemon
Rock and Cape Forestier.
Day Walks
When you enter Freycinet there is a brochure
which provides a map and advice on a series of
walks. These walks include an easy ten minute
walk to the beach and rocks around Sleepy Bay.
The Bay is on the route to Cape Tourville and
the walk down to the rocks is easy and
enjoyable. The kelp on the rocks is particularly
impressive.
There is also a walk to Little Gravelly
Beach, a tiny beach nestled between two craggy
headlands. This is a 30 minute walk with the
final stretch - from the top of the cliffs to
the beach - being quite steep.
There are a number of ways to see Wineglass
Bay. There is a medium walk of 1 1/2-2 hours
which takes the walker to the lookout above
Wineglass Bay. There is a 3-4 hour walk which
goes to the lookout then continues on to the
beach. It returns by the same route. The final
route is 5 hours and is a circuit via the
lookout and the beach and back to the main
carpark.
There are many more walks of varying
difficulty in the park. It is hard to imagine a
more attractive option than staying for a week
in the outstanding, award-winning Freycinet
Lodge and spending each day attempting a
different walk.
