The northwest coast of Tasmania is one of the least spoiled areas on earth. The air is so clean there, that its rainwater is said to be the purest in the world and is actually bottled and sold as drinking water because of its purity. If you’re thinking of visiting “the edge of the world,” as this part of Tasmania is called, Stanley will be your “base of operations.”
Stanley’s European heritage extends as far back as 1825 and within 20 years of its founding it already had a school and a post office. Fishing has always been a primary industry in Stanley, but today, fishing vies with tourism as its major industry. What’s the attraction of Stanley to tourists? Aside from the many local attractions, Stanley is your jumping off point to the Tarkine Wilderness and the unsurpassed natural beauty of the rugged northwest coast of Tasmania.
The Nut, a 470 foot (143m) tall volcanic plug that stands like a sentinel on the tip of the peninsula, is Stanley’s most famous landmark. There are two ways to get to the top of the Nut: the hard way and the easy way. The hard way is to climb to the top. The easy way is to take the chairlift up. Once there, you are greeted by breathtaking vistas, all the way “to the edge of the world” and beyond.
Most of the main tourist attractions in Stanley have something to do with the sea. The most popular tours in town are the platypus, seal and penguin tours and at the Seaquarium, you can get to see and even touch many exotic sea creatures you may never have the opportunity to see elsewhere.
The Tarkine Wilderness emcompasses 350,000 hectares of some of the most breathtaking and often inaccessible landscape you will ever see. Because so much of it is inaccessible, the Tarkine wilderness is the perfect natural habitat for many birds and animals that are becoming scarce in other parts of Australia. Some of them, like the graceful Wedge-tail eagle, you can see soaring in the skies. Others you may be lucky enough to stumble across as you hike on trails in the more accessible regions of the wilderness.
One of the most popular ways to get a bird’s eye view of the Tarkine Wilderness is to descend into Dismal Swamp. As uninviting as its name sounds, Dismal Swamp, a natural sinkhole, is anything but a dismal experience. You can get to it on foot on the trail provided for visitors or you can take the safe but thrilling enclosed slide to the base. Once there, you explore the wilderness without doing it any environmental damage as you walk out the cantilevered walkway at the Visitor Center and look down at the magnificent Blackwood trees beneath you.
After exploring the Tarkine Wilderness, you’ll appreciate the opportunity to go back to Stanley and get refreshed and recharged. Your Stanley accommodation will be just what the doctor ordered and you’ll wake up refreshed and ready for another amazing day of exploration.