Tasmania's Wilderness Area

Pencil pines stand like sentinels over buttongrass plains where Tasmanian devils scream in the darkness. Nearly 20% of Tasmania hides beneath World Heritage protection, safeguarding forests that remember Gondwana and mountains carved by glaciers long vanished. This vast wilderness shelters creatures found nowhere else - from carnivorous marsupials to trees that live for millennia. Huon pines growing since the pyramids were built line pristine rivers where platypuses hunt crayfish. Quolls with spotted coats hunt through understory while devils - saved from extinction by captive breeding - reclaim their territory. In the canopy, swift parrots nest in hollows older than European settlement while wedge-tailed eagles soar over peaks dusted with snow. Bushwalkers on the Overland Track discover landscapes unchanged since Aboriginal peoples first walked here 40,000 years ago. Franklin River rafters navigate rapids that nearly drowned beneath a dam until the world's first Green political party saved them. Each protected hectare proves that wilderness has value beyond extraction - that some places deserve to remain wild forever.

Water Features

Franklin River, glacial lakes, waterfalls

Ecosystem

This destination features a tropical rainforest ecosystem.