Tasmania's West Coast is wild and rain-swept, a place where thunderous seas pound against shores that rise toward a jumble of forested valleys and broken peaks. The gothic atmosphere seeps into everything — the grey skies, the ruined mine buildings, the tangled rainforest closing in on the road. The communities here are mainly old mining towns that tap the rich ore bodies beneath the volcanic ranges.
You do not come to the West Coast for the townships alone, but as part of a larger tour — either circumnavigating the island or exploring one of the great wilderness areas that border the coast on every side. The most visitor-oriented town is Strahan, at the mouth of the Gordon River, where boat cruises head upstream through ancient Huon pine forest. North of Strahan lie Rosebery, Zeehan, and Savage River. Queenstown, connected to Hobart via the Lyell Highway, is a striking place — its bare, eroded hills, stripped by a century of mining and smelter fumes, look like a moonscape.
The West Coast can also be reached from the north, either by an inland road skirting Cradle Mountain–Lake St Clair National Park or by a newer coastal road through the Tarkine region — Australia's largest single tract of temperate rainforest. A short trip to Tasmania might miss this side of the island, but a longer stay should include it.
