Audley in Tasmania
Compact and unspoilt, Tasmania is often overlooked by travellers but offers stunning landscapes, diverse wildlife and some of Australia’s finest trekking.
The main city, Hobart, is a sleepy place, rich in convict settler history and Victorian architecture, but bursts into life for the December yacht race from Sydney before subsiding again into a somnolent charm. From here it is easy to reach superb national parks including Freycinet, Cradle Mountain, the Bay of Fires and Maria Island, with terrain ranging from glaciated mountains to dense forest teeming with wallabies, echidnas, Tasmanian devils and quolls, while seals and dolphins frolic offshore. Small settler towns are ideal hubs to explore the natural world, with heritage cruises or four- and eight-day guided walks for breaths of Tasmania’s cool clear air.
The best - but busiest - time to visit is through the Austral summer: the climate is almost British, so spring and autumn can be beautiful but winter days are short and chilly.