Stanley & North West Overview

• Summary
• Weather for Stanley & North West Overview

From Burnie the highway follows the coast westward, between Bass Strait and green, fertile farmland. Butting out to sea there are massive bluffs - Table Cape, Rocky Cape and Circular Head.

The sturdy stone cottages of Stanley, established around 1826, and the graceful facade of Highfield homestead, reflect the towns fishing and farming history. Smithton is in the farming and forestry area further west, and a road loops south through dairylands and thick forests before returning to the coast. The highway passes through remote farmlands and forests towards Marrawah. Tasmanian Tigers, once common here, are now believed to be extinct but there have been reports of sightings. Perhaps in some dark forest ...

The historic property of Woolnorth covers Tasmanias north-west tip, Cape Grim, where air from the Southern Ocean is tested as the worlds cleanest. At Marrawah the ocean crashes endlessly onto the beach and at the Arthur River, south of here, cruise boats takes visitors upriver.

At Couta Rocks and Temma the seas rage tears boats from their moorings unless fishermen winch them out of the water to safety. The Western Explorer road through the Arthur-Pieman Protected Area is an alternative return route north through forest wilderness. On its way to the west coast it crosses the Pieman River by barge - the Fatman.