Tasmania (Hobart Region)
Dover
Situated 81km south of Hobart and 21km from Geeveston, Dover is a popular tourist resort which offers safe beaches and sheltered waters for yachts. The town was originally named Port Esperance, after one of the ships of French Admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux in 1792. This is the name now given to the Bay, and the three islands in the bay are called Faith, Hope, and Clarity. Originally servicing the timber industry the main industries today are Atlantic salmon fishing farms, fruit growing and fishing. There are good amenities including a boat ramp, supermarkets and a large range of accommodation.
DOVER is a scenic fishing village on a large, lovely bay – Port Esperance. There are trees everywhere, and lush hills surround the village, backed by the clear, virtually triangular, outline of Adamsons Peak (1226m), snowcapped in winter. Boats moor off a picturesque jetty in the bay, where two tiny tree-covered islets are silhouetted against the sky at dusk. Between November and May you can arrange cruises around the bay looking at points of interest such as salmon farms on the vintage 1880 cutter Olive May with Southwest Passage Cruising Co (tel 03/6298 1062; daily 10.30am; 2hr; $35; morning tea with tasting of cold smoked salmon included). From October to March there are well-recommended twilight cruises (7.30pm; 2hr; $35) with an astronomer who has worked with Aboriginal elders; he explains the southern skies the right way up, as it were, using Aboriginal mythology. A platter of local seafood and some home-brewed beer are on hand as refreshments.

The hub of Dover is the Dover Hotel, on the Huon Highway, which has an old-fashioned dining room overlooking the water, and plans to reopen a backpackers’ lodge at the back beside an apple orchard and rolling fields. Although you can find fuel and supplies 20km further south at Southport (the last place to get either), you’re better off stocking up in Dover, where there’s more choice and better value.

Thirty-one kilometres from Dover are the Hastings Caves, in the foothills of Adamsons Peak, with the Thermal Springs State Reserve en route. The springs (daily 10am–4pm, in Jan until 6pm; $2.50) are in a lush setting, and there are several walks in the grounds, one through a fern glade. The pool itself is very disappointing, though – small, shallow and tepid (ranging from 20°C to 30°C), and not the steaming waters you might have imagined. Hastings Caves, a few kilometres further on, are more worthwhile: Newdegate Cave, the best, is open daily for tours (11am, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm, with extra tours Oct–March; 45min; $10); it’s always wet and cold inside, so bring something warm to wear.

Other attractions in the immediate area include the Ida Bay Railway, the most southerly railway in the world, (Sun noon, 2pm & 4pm, with extra services Wed & Sat in warmer months; 1hr 20min; $12; tel 03/6223 5893 for details), a vintage, narrow-gauge bush railway, in operation since 1914, whose trains travel 16km along the southern edge of Southport to the beautiful beach at Deep Hole Bay. The trains pause for twenty minutes here before returning, or you can take a later service back and perhaps walk to the Southport Lagoon Wildlife Sanctuary. Lune River itself isn’t a town but rather a collection of houses and a post office, with a river that’s popular with gem fossickers.

Hobart Coaches (tel 03/6234 4077) has a weekday service from Hobart to Dover (5–7 daily); the Tasmanian Wilderness Travel (tel 03/6334 4442) “Wilderness” service to Cockle Creek stops at Lune River (Nov–April Mon, Wed & Fri).