TasWeekend: Flinders Island offers tourists a dream escape
In the tempestuous remoteness of Bass Strait lives a vibrant and friendly community reaching out to the world.
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YOU can’t help but be impressed by young businesswoman Jo Youl’s plans for her home on the beautiful Bass Strait outpost of Flinders Island.
Together with her beef farmer husband Tom, they are two of the main drivers behind a new push in adventure tourism for Flinders, which is the largest island in Furneaux Group, located north-east of mainland Tasmania and half an hour’s flight from Launceston.
The day we arrive on Flinders, my husband and I are instantly blown away by the 1333 sq km island’s stunning scenery. From the pink and grey granite cliffs and rocky ridges of Mt Killiecrankie and Mt Strzelecki which rise up out of the sea and tower over the island to the crystal clear, turquoise waters that lap around the many bays and white sandy beaches covered in orange-lichen covered rocks, the entire island is breathtaking.
On picking up the hire car we make our way into Whitemark, the island’s main town, where the friendly locals all give us a wave as they pass by in their utes and 4WDs.
We then meet Jo Youl at her new venue Flinders Wharf, which includes a classy restaurant, cafe, bar, distillery and providore as well as office spaces. The two-storey structure, built on the Whitemark foreshore opened in April, and was inspired by the site’s original freight shed and designed to take in the spectacular sea views and outer islands surrounding the town.
Jo says the idea behind the $1.5 million Flinders Wharf development was to provide a showcase of the island’s bounty.
“We also wanted to give people a place to go when the weather was bad, grab a coffee, sample some of the local flavours or do tasting of the local gin or single malt whisky,” she says.
Aside from being a great place to eat and drink, the wharf has provided jobs for locals and visiting hospitality workers, as well as new investment and export opportunities. Jo tells us the ultimate aim is to not only contribute to the local economy but also to encourage population retention and growth of the island, which is currently home to about 900 residents.
The food on offer at the high-end restaurant is cooked beautifully by head chef Mikey Yeo, who hails from Brisbane and previously worked at Matt Moran’s famed Aria restaurant. Dishes on Mikey’s seasonal menu include everything from fresh crayfish to local vegies, wild wallaby, mutton birds, Cape Barren geese and organically produced, grass-fed lamb and beef.
Some of the beef used in the restaurant is sourced from the Youl’s Angus herd, which is farmed on their property Quoin Farm, at Killiecrankie. The farm has been in Jo’s family since the 1930s and was originally owned by her great-grandfather.
What is so impressive about Jo and Tom is that not only are they running Flinders Wharf, and their 1300ha farm, but they are also parents to three small children Alice, Billy and Georgie, aged from six years old to eight months. And if this isn’t enough to keep them busy, they also tell me they are interested in making life better for the locals in the community and continually improving the tourism experience.
“We have three kids and one day hopefully we want them to be able to find employment on this island,” Jo says. “Yes we want people to come here and visit but we also want them to stay … so for us this is about the long term, the big picture, not just our little family and one business.”
With this in mind, Jo tells us she operates several accommodation businesses on the island through Flinders Wharf, including the Cray Shack, on the beach at Killiecrankie, as well as Dwarf Cottage on their property at Quoin Farm and has plans to open another farm stay, Wombat Lodge, also at Quoin later this year.
Jo says they plan to buy some e-bikes so farm-stay visitors at Quoin have the option of making the 1km trek to Killiecrankie beach without having to get in the car. Part of Jo’s broader, long-term aim for tourism on the island is to pitch Flinders to more adventurous types of visitors.
“We are really hoping to attract adventure tourists, in the 30-60 year age bracket,” she says.
However, Jo believes the type of traveller who is expecting a five-star resort type of holiday probably isn’t going to fully appreciate the Flinders’ experience.
“We think the island will best appeal to people who are up for outdoor types of adventures, people who want to climb mountains, go kayaking and diving that sort of thing … travellers who want to go with the flow a bit, get off the beaten track,” she says. “And when it comes to food for instance we are about seasonal experiences — people need to be mindful of that … they can’t expect to turn up in winter and get served a big meal of crayfish, I think some people seem to think that there are crayfish walking down the street here all the time,” she laughs.
Although they only moved to Flinders eight years ago, and are probably seen by some as “newcomers”, Jo has been coming to the island for family holidays her entire life. “As a kid I can remember coming here, we’d go out floundering, fishing for wild prawns, or fossicking for Killiecrankie diamonds [a precious form of topaz only found on Flinders],” she says. “We’d pretend we were mermaids, we’d go rock hopping it was such a fun time ... just a free existence.”
Now they’ve got three kids, businesses and a farm to run I ask her what’s life on Flinders like these days. “We just love living here … it’s really enabled us to get the balance between work and life right … and although it’s busy we are still having the best time. My daughter Alice eats crayfish by the handful, “ she says. “We enjoy picnics on the beach, camping, jumping in the Landy [the family’s old reliable 1970s Land Rover troop carrier] heading out to North-East River, to Palana Beach for a swim or to collect shells. It’s just stunning.”
After lunch at the wharf with Jo and her offsider Nicole Kennedy we head off for our own adventures at the Cray Shack where we’ll be spending the next couple of nights.
The Cray Shack offers cosy accommodation with a comfy bed and everything you need for a memorable self-contained stay including wood for the outdoor fire pots, a well-stocked fridge, outdoor barbecue cooking and a deck to take in the views. And what a view it is … when they tell you this is “waterfront accommodation at its best” this is no exaggeration. The property is just metres from white sandy Killiecrankie beach, and enjoys one of the most beautiful views you’ll get anywhere in Australia.
As my husband astutely observes: “It’s just like Coles Bay, without all the people”. That is probably an apt description for the entire island and one of the most appealing things. For almost the entire time we were there we did not see a single another person on any of the many beaches we visited, and it wasn’t unusual to drive 20km and not see another car.
From Killiecrankie and North East River in the north, to the Strzelecki National Park, Trousers Point and Lady Barron in the south, Flinders is a rare beautiful natural paradise.
If Jo Youl’s dream goes to plan and more tourists accept her invitation to “get amongst it” more people will get to enjoy just what we were lucky enough to, that magic weekend in November.
The author was a guest of Flinders Wharf
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