Smithton & The Tarkine Forest


On Tuesday the 10th April, after checking out Highfield House we moved on to Smithton where we pulled  in to the Tall Timbers Hotel which is a free camp for fully self contained RVs. It is a big pub which is well appointed and has cabins, pool, spa and gym. It is a great complex really and has large grounds which they allow RVs to park on. There are ponds and there are a bunch of ducks that wander around all day going from one RV to the next hoping to get a handout. The grounds are all beautiful green grass.










After unhitching we took a drive around the town. We were surprised how big a town it was. There was a lookout but it was very hazy and did not bother getting a photo as it would not turn out well. That night we went into the pub for dinner. We had not been eating out to much and this was our last week in Tazzie so it was a case of a splurge to mark the occasion. The food was great.

On Wednesday we drove from Smithton to Marrawah. The road took us through green rolling hills where Cape Grim beef are raised. We skipped the northern point of Woolnorth as we had the benefit of our friend’s (Col and Di) notes when they were here. You don’t get to go to the most northern point anyway as it is private property and the only thing there is a windfarm which we have seen.

Drove out to West Point which was the most westerly point of Tazzie. Next stop Africa. The waves here are usually huge but they were not that big on this day. It must have been the wind flattening out the surf. It is a very rugged coastline.






We then moved on to Bluff Hill Point and then to Arthur River. At the mouth of the Arthur River there is a park which has information boards which teach about the aboriginies existence in the area. There is a plaque which has a poem called by Brian Inder, ‘The Edge of the World’. Apparently people throw a stone for luck?





We had lunch in the pergola there as it was a good place to get out of the wind. The mouth of the river and the ocean.





We did not bother driving right down to the southern part of the drive as they are button grass plains and we had already seen plenty of that. So we headed back to camp. We had already had a full day and we were doing the Tarkine Drive over two days.

After grabbing some water to replenish our tanks we went back to camp. Linda cooked up some beautiful pizza that night.

On Thursday we headed out to do the next part of the Tarkine Forest Drive. From the Kanunnah Bridge we headed up to the Sumac Lookout. There was a huge amount of leaf and bark litter all over the road as the night before the winds were huge. Even though we were parked quite a distance from a willow tree the winds kept picking up the willow branches and slapping them into the van. It kept me awake a bit.

View from Sumac Lookout.




We moved on to Lake Chisholm. The lake is actually a sink hole. Most sink holes allow the water to drain underground to the water table but this one has a blocked drain. It is quite nice but the great thing for us was that we finally got to see platypus. They had eluded us on this trip so far so it was great to see one. I got a video so will put that on facebook and upload it to the blog when I work out the trick  to it. But here a photos of the lake.






There is another smaller sinkhole near the road which we had a look at.





We then moved on to the Trowutta Arch. Again this arch is created by the action of sinkhole. The sinkholes are created when the rock in the area dissolved when combining with water.








There are caves and crevasses around the arch.






We then headed back to Smithton where we had some shopping and other things to do. One thing I wanted to do was to buy Cape Grim steak for dinner that night. I expected the butcher at Smithton would sell Cape Grim steak but apparently that is the only steak they sell.

We then went back to camp and hooked back up ready to leave the next morning. I pulled the van forward away from the willow tree in case we had high winds again. After the fiddling around we settle in to have a good evening and I enjoyed cooking our steak which was tender and delicious.

The Tarkine Forest was nice but not our favourite, certainly not Linda’s.

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