The distance between farm and fork is never far in northern and north-west Tasmania. Here’s an insider’s guide to Launceston, the Tamar Valley and the stunning swathe of hinterland and coast of Tasmania’s north-west.
It wasn’t family or friends that brought us to northern Tasmania from Sydney. Or jobs or real estate. It was nothing more than a feeling.
We came via Hobart, where we waited out the Covid years. Northern Tasmania held the promise of something greener, sweeter, gentler, but also an entrepreneurial energy I missed in the southern city with its public-service enclaves. It felt like good people with good ideas could do good things in the north.
Two years later, I still have that feeling. We didn’t find the little vineyard we fantasised about, but we didfind a home in Launceston with a century-old garden, and good people with goodideas. I love the little city’s intact streetscapes, like an architectural textbook in places.
I love living so close to the Tamar Valley, Tasmania’s oldest winegrowing area. I love the city’s un-cheffy love of good food and wine. Launceston was named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2021,which has very little to do with fine dining and everything to do with the network of people who make, grow and feed us.
We’re a two-hour drive from Cradle Mountain and Freycinet Peninsula, a proximity that still astonishes me, and I’ve fallen heavily for north-west Tasmania: a region so diverse, so beautiful, it demands repeat visits.
Here are a few of my favourite things.
Words Helen Anderson
*All of these opinions are our own, and what follows is a collection of the places we love the most. We'll update the guide every few months. And if there are things we need to know about, please email us info@galahpress.com
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Black Cow Bistro
“Sexy” and “steakhouse” are usually oxymoronic concepts, yet here we are lounging on a banquette in a low-lit, glamorous little bistro behind an Art Deco facade, ordering martinis and oysters and warming up with Tamar Valley pinot noir for the best-in-show beef produced in Tasmania. The cuts are dry-aged, grass-fed and sourced from farms mainly in the island’s north-west, then chargrilled with precision. A mighty rib eye on the bone from Cape Grim arrives, aged for 40 days, perfectly charred and well rested, with a brick of potato galette that demands some house-made kimchi. Or ask for grated fresh wasabi, grown locally. Also ask for the price of cuts sold by weight to avoid surprises, and wear your sexiest eating pants. Now, there’s an oxymoron.
Stillwater
This destination restaurant was flying the flag of northern Tasmania’s exceptional produce long before “seasonal” and “regional” became household words. Ahead of its time 20 years ago, its style of unpretentious but refined dining seems spot-on right now...
There are country drives, and then there’s the Tamar Valley Wine Trail, through a star-studded valley of vineyards, farms, forest and the constant presence of the river that sustains it all. Tasmania’s oldest winegrowing area spans 32 vineyards within easy driving distance of Launceston. Choose a cellar door, any cellar door, for a quick tasting, or join the dots between vineyards along both banks of the Tamar. With a cool climate and conditions that resemble the French region of Champagne, the valley’s stellar sparkling wines and pinot noir are the ones to watch. A few of our favourite cellar doors: Stoney Rise, Clover Hill, Bay of Fires, and Holm Oak. Increasingly, cellar doors offer tastings for a fee, typically $15-$20, and some need pre-booking. Book a tour or a private driver so no-one need draw the short straw.
Every Saturday morning, no matter the weather, about 50 farmers, brewers, butchers, bakers and cheesemakers come to town, setup stalls and do brisk business in an inner-city carpark. This is Launceston’s meeting place and a true taste of northern Tasmanian produce and life. Harvest, as the locals call it, is a community initiative staffed by volunteers...
The very definition of aromantic hotel, this 1840s sailors’ tavern sits above the north-west harbour of Stanley, itself a wildly romantic fishing village with a faraway air. Former Hobartians Kerry and Alastair Houston have transformed the old inn into a hotel of rare charm and character, with nine suites and apartments themed on local stories and featuring drop-dead gorgeous styling. Alastair, a stonemason, has terraced and planted a quirky garden that marches steeply up The Nut, the 143-metre volcanic plug that towers over the village. Follow a self-guided heritage walk around the village or head out on the Tasting Trail (see above),then mix aperitifs and recline on velvet sofas in Ship Inn’s guest lounge, a richly styled former billiard hall and mortuary. The night-time soundtrack comes from a colony of little penguins, which can be viewed safely from a beachfront boardwalk nearby.
Not everyone is a happy camper, and not everyone wants to blow the holiday budget on hotels. So the new deluxe cabins and upgrades at Discovery Parks-Cradle Mountain are quite the discovery. The location couldn’t be better...
BREAKFAST at Harvest Market on Saturdays is an essential weekly ritual. There are so many excellent producers, and all the locals come. My No. 1 stop is Delicious Little Things, where Raelene Bates makes the best canelés I’ve ever had, and also lots of other delicious little things. I usually swing by the Tasmanian Juice Press guys and poke around for new-season produce.
Then I’ll walk around the corner to Prince’s Square Bar, a tiny place and such a local hang-out...
