Wherever you travel on our Island - at the edge of the world - you will discover stories of the founding of modern Tasmania, when sailing ships took months to carry settlers, soldiers and convicts from Britain; when convicts laboured in shipyards to build vessels in which they would never sail; and oarsmen in tiny whaleboats battled the wild oceans.
The coasts are rocky - on stormy nights before lighthouses were built many a sailing ship came to grief on treacherous uncharted rocks. Present-day divers, especially around King and Flinders islands, find hulls, cargo and fittings lying sadly on the seabed.
Tasmania’s maritime heritage is also celebrated every two years with the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, when Hobart’s waterfront is awash with traditional craft, nautical buskers, choirs singing songs of the sea, bands playing folk music, theatre, and experts demonstrating age-old skills from splicing and adzing to shaping half models.
As you wander Hobart’s historic docks area look out for the elegant lines of two fine sailing ships – The Lady Nelson and the May Queen.
The Maritime Museum of Tasmania, in Hobart, is dedicated to Tasmania’s rich maritime heritage.
Attraction Hobart and Surrounds Hobart
Tasmania's longest running play based on a real event in 1834.
Attraction Western Wilderness Strahan
The Bass and Flinders Centre is centrally located in George Town on Tasmania’s Tamar River.
Attraction Launceston, Tamar and the North George Town
Kangaroo Bluff Historic Site at Bellerive is a gun emplacement and fort built in 1880.
Attraction Hobart and Surrounds Hobart
Once a feared penal settlement where convicts laboured under harsh conditions in the rainforest now accessed on cruises from Strahan
Attraction Western Wilderness Strahan
Floating in Constitution Dock in Hobart is Australia’s oldest sail trading vessel SV May Queen.
Attraction Hobart and Surrounds Hobart
The George Town to Low Head Walking and Cycling Trail follows the River Tamar.
Attraction Launceston, Tamar and the North George Town
The Wooden Boat Centre is a boat building school at Franklin, in Tasmania’s south.
Attraction Hobart and Surrounds Franklin
The museum is attractively and aptly situated at the Pilot Station, in the residence built for the Devonport Harbour Master in 1920.
Attraction North West Coast Devonport
The Pilot Station and Maritime Museum (c.1805) is located at Low Head in northern Tasmania.
Open