Why Bruny Island is a perfect Aussie getaway
DESPITE being only an hour’s drive from one of Australia’s capital cities, this place feels like a world away.
AS THE car ferry arrives on Bruny Island, out the window my partner Stephen and I spy an island that has impossibly white beaches and robin eggshell blue waters. Wait, did my boat just take a detour to the South Pacific?
Sitting just 15 minutes by boat off Tasmania’s southeast coast, this island could be one of the most beautiful places in Australia.
With a population of just over 600 spread over the 50km long island, Bruny feels incredibly remote and isolated: no tourist office or open top bus tours here.
If you had a bird’s-eye view, you’d see the island is a gorgeous hourglass shape connected by a narrow strip of sand called The Neck. The northern part of the island, where the ferry lands, is covered by flat grazing land, while the southern half is more rugged and home to the South Bruny National Park.
Nature, gourmet food and history make this island a draw card for tourists. You’ll need at least two or three days on the island — a week would be perfect — to explore the beaches, walking tracks, forests and bays. One of the best walks is the hike up the timber steps at The Neck, where you’ll get 360-degree views of the island and see the memorial to the Nuenonne people, who originally inhabited the island.
Truganini, probably the best known Tasmanian Aboriginal women of the colonial era, was born on Bruny Island. Her treatment at the hands of the Europeans is emblematic of the treatment of Tasmanian Aborigines. By the time she was 17 she’d been raped, her sisters had been enslaved by sealers, and her betrothed and her mother had been murdered.
One of the best tours on the island is Bruny Island Cruises’ three-hour boat trip that leaves from Adventure Bay near The Neck. On this trip you’ll blast your hairdo to smithereens as you speed in a high-powered boat past hidden beaches, blow holes and dolerite cliffs that tower 200m above sea level.
Several ships have sunk to their watery graves near the island, including the colonial trading ship ‘Hope’, which in 1827 was wrecked opposite Bruny Island on the beach, which now bears its name. It soon became legendary as stories of the lost treasure on-board spread far and wide. It was believed the ship contained the quarterly pay for the Hobart garrison, estimated to be between 5000 and 30,000 pounds.
Other ships wrecked off Cape Bruny include the Enchantress, with the loss of 17 lives and the convict transport ship George III, with 134 lives lost.
There are only a handful of general stores on the island, so you need to bring most provisions with you. But forget packing the wine, cheese, fudge, berries or oysters because you can get these on the island. Get Shucked will sell you a just-opened Pacific oysters, while down the road, Bruny Island Cheese Company, which sells some of the finest artisan cheeses made in Australia. You can pick up your wine from Bruny Island Premium Wines, Australia’s southernmost vineyard, and ice cream from Bruny Island Berry Farm.
FAST FACTS
Getting there: From Hobart, drive about 40 minutes south to Kettering, where a daily car-ferry service plies the 20-minute journey across the D’Entrecasteaux Channel to Roberts Point on Bruny’s north. See brunyislandferry.com.au.
Staying there: Bruny Island has a wide range of holiday houses. See discovertasmania.com.au
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