Wilderness

Historically Significant and Nature Rich
Bruny Island is a historically significant and nature-rich island off the south-east coast of Tasmania. The island lies in the Tasman Sea, separated from mainland Tasmania by the D’Entrecasteaux Channel.
Bruny Island is a popular day-trip from Hobart, lying just 37 kilometres south of the state capital.

Tasmania’s fourth largest island (36,210 hectares) is actually two islands joined by a narrow isthmus called ‘The Neck’. The vehicular ferry the Mirambeena departs from the fishing town of Kettering for Roberts Point on North Bruny Island. The journey takes about 15 minutes and takes place ten times daily.

The island’s vegetation and topography varies considerably, with the northern section being flat grazing land and the southern section being hilly and heavily timbered. Proclaimed a national reserve in 1996, the South Bruny National Park covers about 5,149 hectares (12,718 acres) and features spectacular dolerite cliffs on its eastern coastline, broken occasionally by sandy bays.  

Tasman, Cook and Bligh stopped here
Bruny Island was inhabited for thousands of years by Aborigines – the most famous being Truganini – long before the first European in the region, Abel Tasman, sailed along its shore in 1642. Captain James Cook anchored in Adventure Bay on the island in January 1777 to gather supplies, as did British Lieutenant William Bligh, on the infamous Bounty in 1788 and later in 1792 on the Providence and the Assistant. The island was named in 1792 by French Admiral Bruni d’Entrecasteaux. In 1918 the spelling was changed from Bruni to Bruny Island. [Read about the European explorers].

The settlement of Van Diemen’s Land by the British in 1804 brought whalers and sealers to Bruny Island. This had devastating effects on the indigenous population of the island. [Read about Aboriginal Heritage]
From the 1830s until recent times the island was used variously for timber, apple orchards, and sheep and cattle grazing.

Nature's Playground
Today, Bruny is home to about 600 permanent residents, but this number doubles during the peak summer holiday season.

There is an abundance of wildlife on the island, including pademelons, potoroos, wallabies, wombats, brush-tail and ring-tail possums, and Tasmanian devils. There are many land and sea birds including the short-tailed shearwater (or mutton-bird) and little (or fairy) penguin.

Southern right whales, humpback whales and dolphins are often seen off the coastline, an incredible sight considering the proximity to the capital city of Hobart.