Tasmania’s west coast is wild, wondrous and well worth the journey.
It doesn’t matter where in Tasmania you are coming from – Strahan is a long way from anywhere. Indeed, even a trip from the closest neighbouring suburb of Queenstown is a winding hour-long drive that can unsettle the most concrete of stomachs.
“What do you want to go to Strahan for?” one Tasmanian asked me, as I set out on the five-hour drive from Hobart.
Before I could answer, he went on to add: “It’s got the worst roads, terrible weather and expensive food. You won’t meet a single Tasmanian there.”
Most of these sentiments I was already prepared for. The town of Strahan (pronounced “strawn”), inhabited by just over 600 people, is located on Tasmania’s west coast. It isn’t called the wild west for nothing – the area receives an average annual rainfall of 57.7 inches. In the lead up to my trip, I found myself checking the weather on Google at least twice a day in nervous anticipation, wondering whether a day goes by without any rain at all. I’m still not sure if it does.
And Strahan certainly is a tourist town. If it wasn’t for tourism, I imagine that the local who drives a supped-up blue car up and down the Esplanade all evening, annoying and persistent as a mosquito, would be one of the few signs of life in the town as the sun sets.
In spite of an abundance of merchandise, from tacky key rings to tasty local produce that can be found in many of the stores, Strahan still has the feel of a port town used for both fishing and mining, and I hope that it stays this way.
That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing to do. Each day, the amphitheatre hosts Tasmania’s longest-running play, The Ship That Never Was. Based on a real event in 1834, when the last ship built at the Macquarie Harbour convict settlement was hijacked by 10 convict shopwrights before it could set sail for the new prison at Port Arthur, the play has been performed daily in Strahan since 1993.
The town’s two biggest attractions are undoubtedly the West Coast Railway and the Gordon River cruise. I chose to do the former, and despite everyone insisting that the cruise is better, it is hard to be disappointed.
The journey begins at 10 am from the train station at Regatta Point, where passengers are welcomed into exquisite carriages crafted from Huon pine.
The next four hours are a feast for both the eyes and stomach: ferns large as meteorites, waterfalls that spout pure as crystal, and an assortment of food, from chicken and camembert pies to an exquisite fruit and cheese platter, an more. But the real highlight is gaining an appreciation – and amazement – for the railway line built by courageous pioneers, as well as learning about and seeing firsthand the destruction caused by copper mining.
Contrast the healthy beaches and streams to the murky King River, muddied by the past, and the eerie Queenstown where the journey finishes, and you almost feel like this is Mordor from Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I challenge anyone to do this train trip and not be at least a little affected by the end.
Another must-see is Ocean Beach – surely one of the most rugged landscapes in Australia and only a short drive Strahan’s town centre. At 40 kilometres long, the desolate and windswept beach looks as though it has never seen or encountered human life. Not entirely surprising, given that swimming is off-limits and a few years ago, a giant 2-metre squid was washed ashore. It’s the perfect place to sit for hours, if the wind doesn’t drive you away.
Like most holidays, my trip was not long enough. I did not imagine how much I would miss this town in the weeks after my trip, or how I would find myself still checking the weather online and staring longingly at the one photo of the main street and harbour which appears whenever a photo of Strahan is needed. I can look at it now and name each of the shops. Were I ever to return to Strahan again, I know that I wouldn’t need a map.
And I do plan on returning. But for now, my stomach needs a bit of time to recover from those winding roads.
Mitchell Jordan is a Sydney-based writer with an interest in the arts, culture and travel.
