The West Coast or The Wet Coast?
Whatever you call it Tasmania’s West Coast region is definitely a wet area. Filled with spectacular rainforest, huge waterfalls and stunning old mountains. With a history etched deep in feast to famine the stories of its early days are rich and filled with a familiar Tasmanian way of doing things.
The west is a region of World Heritage-listed wilderness: cool-temperate rainforest, alpine plains, mountains and glacial valleys, wild rivers, deep lakes and windswept coasts.
Early observers of the west coast, Flinders, Evans and Hobbs, described it as a waste, a land hostile to settlement. Lt-Governor Sorell saw it as an ideal repository for the worst convicts.
The mountains and forests that resisted explorers and road-builders have now been recognised as its most valuable resource, and much has been included in the World Heritage Area. In a strange reversal, the very features of the west that isolated it and created hardship for its pioneers now draw tourists worldwide and contribute greatly to the island's economy.
