Hastings Caves in Tasmania include Newdegate Cave, the largest tourism cave in Australia.

The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service conducts 45-minute tours through Newdegate's large, highly decorated cavern. Formations in the cave are spectacular and include flowstone, stalactites, columns, shawls, straws, stalagmites and the unusual helictites - tendrils of calcite that grow in all directions in tiny filaments.

The caves of this region started to form approximately 40 million years ago and remained unseen until 1917, when timber workers discovered an entrance. They named their magnificent find after the governor of the time, Sir Francis Newdegate.

Newdegate Cave is spacious and well lit, with no narrow passages. There are around 240 stairs but these are traversed in small sections. It is one of the few caves in Australia to have formed in dolomite, which is harder and heavier than limestone. (Dolomite is characterised by pearly white and pinkish crystal, and should not be confused with that famous Tasmanian rock, dolerite, which weathers into tall grey flutes such as those you see on Mt Wellington and Cradle Mountain.) The underground temperate is naturally maintained at nine degrees Celsius (48 degrees Fahrenheit) all year round.

You can buy your tickets for the cave tour, at the Hastings Cave Visitor Centre, which is about five kilometres (three miles) from the cave entrance. Here you'll find modern, well equipped facilities including interpretation, souvenirs and a licensed cafe.

The thermal pool is surrounded by forest and ferns and has a large picnic area equipped with change rooms, showers and toilets, electric barbecues, shelters and forest walks. The pool is fed from a spring that supplies spring water at around 28 degrees Celsius (82.5 degrees Fahrenheit) all year round. It is hygienically controlled and has a paddling pool for children.

A walk along the Hot Springs Track will take you to the convergence of two streams. If you put your hand in the water here, you'll be able to feel the warm current from one stream meeting the cold current from the other.

Tasmania's Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs are 90 minutes' drive south of Hobart and just one hour from Huonville. Take the A6 all the way to the C635 turnoff just north of Southport and follow the signs.