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The rim of Wineglass Bay has long been regarded as Tassie’s finest stretch of white sand. But that is about to change writes Greg Clarke.

It’s time for Tasmania’s Wineglass Bay to step aside. With its perfect curve of white sand Wineglass has collected as many ‘best beach’ accolades as any of its colleagues on remote Pacific islands.

This partly comes about because of the view from a lookout that has been crafted into a nearby granite range. The lookout offers up oh-my-lord views of the curve of sand and the various shades of blue in the water. That there is not a building anywhere adds to the length of time you spend muttering superlatives and filling your camera’s memory card.

Well, on a fine day the view of Riedlé Bay and the almost co-joined Shoal Bay – the waters are only prevented from kissing by an isthmus as narrow as a catwalk model –from the highest point of Maria Island, an island off the mid-east coast of Tassie, is just as gobsmacking. Bring a second memory card for the Nikon.

Mount Maria (703 metres) is Maria Island’s tallest feature. From the island’s peak the two beaches along the Riedlé and Shoal bays appear to be dressed by the designer who crafted Wineglass Bay. The colour schemes, the blues and whites, are almost a facsimile of each other – but the beaches’ curves and all the other accessories are so appealing their creator can be forgiven for a lack of originality.

Wildlife Sanctuary
Maria (the ‘i’ is pronounced the same as the ‘i’ in island) Island is approximately 20km long and, at its extremes, 12km wide. All of it is national park. There are no paved roads or access for private vehicles. Since every visitor to the island either walks or rides a bicycle, except the parks rangers who have exclusive access to the only two vehicles on the island, the wombats and wallabies are as safe as Barack Obama, guarded by 5 billion or so security folks, was on his inauguration day.

This is good news also for the large families of Cape Barren geese and kangaroos. Endangered birds including the forty-spotted pardalote and wedge tailed eagles have also taken quite a liking to the safety of island life. So chuffed are the wombats about the lack of predators, ones with or without motors, they are readily seen during the day.

Our summiting of Mount Maria and arrival at the island’s only settlement at Darlington involved about six hours of walking. The final push to the peak had involved climbing over great chunks of splintered dolerite. And the sun had some of the fierceness which melted Icarus’s wings. We were both jubilant and weary at the end of the day.

Cold Beer, Wine and Cheese
Now for a declaration: my memories of that view may have been enhanced by cold beer, some of Tasmania’s first class wines, plates of cheeses, strawberries and grapes, a thick salmon steak on a bed of mashed potatoes, and the wonderful bonhomie of my fellow walkers in Darlington later that evening.

The Maria Island Walk is one of the finest eco-tourism operations in Australia: the muttering isn’t mine alone. In 2008 Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine awarded the walk the best eco-tourism experience in Australia. This easy four day walk (summiting Mount Maria is optional) mixes wildlife, beaches, little visited pockets of the island and fantastically personable guides who do a fine line as historians and, each evening, as chefs who cook and serve gourmet fare on candlelit dining tables.

Accommodation during the Maria Island Walk is in private beachfront standing camps but the final night is spent in the heritage-listed, beautifully appointed Bernacchi House at Darlington (solar panels provide power and are discretely hidden).

Italian Connection
While the island is a wildlife refuge it has a rollicking history that includes convicts tales as well as the follied dreams and brio of Italian entrepreneur Diego Bernacchi and his wife and three children arrived at Darlington in 1884. Bernacchi set about putting the fortune from a silk enterprise into establishing vineyards and a cement works complete with tramway.

The grapes proved unsuitable for wine and the cement was not of a uniform grade. Despite the man’s gumption both pursuits ultimately failed. The Maria Island Walk is also a family run business but it’s infinitely more sustainable than the Bernacchi enterprises.

With the fall in the Aussie dollar and the global credit crisis now might be an ideal time to reprise what those sustainable-loving hippies did in Kathmandu in the ‘60s and ‘70s and burn the passport. Put all that money you saved on international airfares and fast-way-to-the-poor house exchange rates into making a long, long weekend of the Maria Island Walk. Or at the very least, a summiting of the island’s highest mountain for the two-for -one beach deal that bests Wineglass.

More information

www.mariaislandwalk.com

For independent travellers a ferry operates from Triabunna, on the Tasmanian ‘mainland’, to Darlington on Maria Island.
www.mariaislandferry.com.au

A National Parks Pass is required for entry to all national parks in Tasmania.
www.parks.tas.gov.au

www.discovertasmania.com is a comprehensive guide to the island

The information was correct when published in 2009. Prices and information may have changed.