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Huonville

Huonville sits on the banks of the tranquil Huon River, surrounded by the colours of orchards, and the peaks of the World Heritage Area.

What’s special about Huonville?

  • An ideal base for exploring far-south Tasmania.
  • Produces more than half of Tasmania’s apples.
In season, you can test your taste buds on dozens of varieties of apples in Huonville, together with apricots, plums, cherries, pears, mushrooms, honey, wine and seafood. Better still, visit in March when the annual Taste of the Huon brings growers together to celebrate their harvests.

Get your heart racing on a jet boat ride up the Huon River or explore it at a more leisurely pace in a paddleboat. A cruise on the Southern Contessa will take you 30 kilometres (18.5 miles) along the river, into the habitats of pelicans, sandpipers and many other water birds.

Fishing is popular in the valley's many open watercourses, and there are plenty of fishing experts to help you catch a big one.  Farther south are Tasmania's magnificent southern forests, where you can stroll through the canopy of a mature forest high above the confluence of the Picton and Huon rivers on the Tahune Forest AirWalk.

You may even find your own piece of Huon pine on your travels through the valley. Although these slow-growing trees are now protected, timber on the forest floor can be used as craft wood for hundreds of years and pieces are available in stores in Huonville and further down the valley.

Its maximum average daily temperature is approximately 12 degrees Celsius (53.5 degrees Fahrenheit) in June and 21 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) in January. The town today has a population of approximately 1,700.

More things to do:

Home Hill Winery
Huon Apple & Heritage Museum
Horse riding

The story of Huonville:

The area was originally known as Tahune-Linah, named by Tasmanian Aboriginals. The French explorer Bruni D'Entrecasteaux named the Huon River in 1792, after Huon de Kermandec, captain of one of his ships. The first European settlers, William and Thomas Walton, then arrived in 1840.

Travel directions:

Huonville is a 40-minute drive (38 kilometres/24 miles) south of Hobart along the A6 highway.