North Coast

Today we drove to Cradle Mountain, and on the way we saw some of the north coast of Tasmania. The waves are much gentler than those on either the west or east coast, and the coastline is not as rugged. 

We went off the highway to see Boat Harbour.

Sisters Beach where we saw the eastern end of Rocky Cape National Park.

We then went back to the western end of Rocky Cape National Park (where Rocky Cape itself is) because we wanted to see some very important sites. There are two caves where Aborigines lived for thousands of years. The first one we visited was the South Cave, where you can see the shell middens and get very close to the cave itself.

The coastline here is very rocky and must be good for shellfish.

Then we visited the North Cave. This appears to be more important from an archeological perspective, as it’s much bigger (at least 80 yards long) and has many shell middens inside it. As a result, the viewing platform for it is much further away, but you can still see the slash in the hillside.

While we were there we saw a flock of yellow tailed black Cockatoos eating the banksias on the hillside.

Rocky Cape is one of the three capes in the area which were grouped in an Aboriginal legend. The Nut and Table Rock are the others, and you can see both from Rocky Cape.

When we reached Bernie, we went inland and visited Group Falls, which are a series of falls cascading down a hill.

Finally, we reached a viewpoint where we could see across to Cradle Mountain and the alpine region.