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Tasmania (Eastern Region) |
| Swansea | |
| Swansea is situated at the head of Great Oyster Bay overlooking the Freycinet National Park. Settled in 1827 as a military outpost the town is the administrative centre of Australia's oldest municipality, Glamorgan, proclaimed in 1860. There are many buildings of historical interest as well as the unique Prisoners Bridge, built by convicts in 1843 also named Spiky Bridge because of its stone spikes designed to prevent cattle falling over the side. Swansea has safe sheltered beaches with great places for swimming and fishing in the river and bay. | |
| From
Triabunna it’s a fairly uneventful drive north to SWANSEA,
overlooking Great Oyster Bay. If you’re lucky, you might see
dolphins frolicking in the bay from Franklin Street, the main street that
runs along the waterfront. One of Tasmania’s oldest settlements, this is
an administrative centre, fishing port and seaside resort, with
well-preserved architecture dating from the 1830s to the 1880s.
The focus of town has always been Morris’s General Store, on Franklin Street, run by seven generations of the family since 1868. Further evidence of Swansea’s past can be found at the Community Centre (Mon–Sat 8.30am–5.30pm; $2), also on Franklin Street, a former school whose miscellaneous collection includes a billiard table built from a single log of blackwood ($2 for a game), and at the restored Swansea Bark Mill, 96 Tasman Highway (daily 9am–5pm; $5), once used to produce leather tanning agents from native blackwattle bark. Accommodation options include the Swansea Motor Inn, at 1 Franklin St, a fine old hotel with a red-brick motel addition and a bistro, an antique-filled guesthouse on a hill overlooking the bay. As for food, Swansea has a wide choice. The Shy Albatross Restaurant (tel 03/6257 8110; licensed; daily from 7pm, plus lunch in summer), downstairs at the Oyster Bay Guest House, serves reasonably priced, Italian food and local seafood. There’s a very smart, award-winning restaurant specializing in seafood and game in the atmospheric 1846 Schouten House, 1 Waterloo Rd (tel 03/6257 8564). Just Maggies, a relaxed café at 26 Franklin St (daily 9am–5pm), is a prime spot for dolphin-watching, while Kabuki By the Sea (open daily for morning and afternoon tea and lunch; May–Nov Fri & Sat dinner, Dec–April Tues–Sat dinner; bookings essential on tel 03/6257 8588) is a fine Japanese-style restaurant 12km south on the Tasman Highway with stunning views that also has Japanese-style guest cottages ($95–124). |
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