Tarkine Drive

 22nd Feb 2023

Today we plan to see the section of the Tarkine Drive that was not possible yesterday. It involves a backtrack of around 30 km south of Smithton to pick up the Eastern part of the drive. 

The drive takes up South through Irishtown and Edith Creek before we reach the turnoff to the tourist drive, which runs through mountainous country, through rainforests and on sealed roads. The key feature of this drive is the Trowutta Arch, which we look forward to seeing.

It is an easy walk through some incredibly old Myrtle Beech forests with giant tree ferns.

The free ferns are obviously very old and huge

There are very old myrtles along the track

Soon we reach the feature of this walk, Trowatta Arch, formed by one of two sinkholes in the area.  Amazingly on our trip up the Western Coast we have seen huge areas of volcanic rock formations and basaltic deposits, which are now interspersed with sedimentary dolomite formations. 

Trowutta Arch

The pathways are incredibly well maintained and signposted.

One standout feature of this Northwest is the scale of farming and grazing. Cattle are definitely the favoured species for both beef and dairy. The conditions appear to be ideal, and grazing is quite intensive.

There are many lookouts and short walk along this very windy stretch of road. We did not stop at all of them, but here are the few that we did. One thing you do notice in 

Tayatea Bridge was the next highlighted spot on the drive and was another single lane bridge across a gorge through which water must really rush through in heavy rain judging by the build up of dead trees on the bank near the bridge.

The river is relatively tame at the moment

Next stop is the oddly named Milkshake Hills, which requires a short dirt road access off the main road.

We undertook the 15 min forest walk, where the forest had been badly damaged by a fire 7 years ago and many of the very old trees destroyed. There was a nice picnic area with BBQ's but the walk itself was  not that great.

The remains of one of many old trees destroyed

The highlight was the BBQ Area

Another sinkhole was next highlightd on the map. It was on the main road, so we stopped to have a look and found a pond which obviously has a sinkhole underneath it.

Dempster Plains was next, a reasonable diversion off the main road along a very ordinary heavily potholed dirt track. At the end of the road was a short walk to an elevated lookout where you could look out over Button Grass plains. These plains of Button Grass were apparently created by the Aboriginals burning  off the area at regular intervals leaving regenerated rich grasslands that animals would come to feed on and were easy pray for the hunters. Had this practise not taken place, apparently these plains would today be forests.

A couple of more stops and we will complete the Tarkine Drive. First up is Sumac Lookout, giving a great view of the Arthur River below.

A few km down the road we reach the Kannunah Bridge, crossing the river for the last time before heading back to Smithton.

Back in Smithton by 1.30pm, we head straight for the Tarkine Oyster outlet, attached to the lease, which promises some of Tassies best oysters and is famous for its seafood chowder. We arrive there soon after, are lucky enough to find one empty table in the cafe, and approach the counter to order. To our great surprise, we are told that the have decided to stop offering cooked food and only takeaway is available as they "have got a bit behind", whatever that means. There is a fridge by the counter with pretty lean pickings of what is available for takeaway, but we do manage to get 2 dozen oysters and head back thjrough town to our room to eat them. On the way we picked up some other hot seafood to complete our lunch.

We have found on our trip that opening hours for cafes / restaurants are indicative only, and the customer service ethic is a bit thin on the ground.

Nevertheless, we ate our oysters, which were almost as good as the Bruny Island ones, and after a bit of a break went for an afternoon walk along the Duck River.

It is high tide in the Duck River, with tidal differences ranging around the 3m mark, it looks a bit different from this morning (photo below)

It is a pretty short walk along the riverside and we are soon in the middle of town. There is a small "port" on the riverside with a few charter and large fishing boats tied alongside.

For dinner tonight we opted for local Chinese take away, which was pretty good.