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Natural State News
Issue 2 2007
TARRALEAH: OPEN FOR BUSINESS
A new $10 million tourist redevelopment has opened at Tarraleah in the Central Highlands.
This is a resort-styled destination offering luxury accommodation, quality produce, wilderness and wildlife.
The village, with its origins as a 1930s Hydro village, now has a renewed life and will become a sought-after base for nature-based tourism activities, such as bushwalking and fly-fishing.
The development combines history, luxury, hospitality and the unrivalled natural beauty of Tasmania's Central Highlands. The lodge is set on a 600-metre cliff top, borders two national parks and is near to the World Heritage Area.
TEN DAYS ON THE ISLAND
It's now just a few weeks until the sensational biennial arts festival, Ten Days on the Island (23 March to 1 April ) returns to light up Australia's island state.
Nearly 1000 artists and community participants from across Tasmania, interstate and from islands around the globe are in final preparations for their roles in a packed program of dance, contemporary and classical music, circus, visual arts, literature, talks, and spectacular free outdoor performances. Fifty locations around the state will host performances.
Artistic Director, Elizabeth Walsh, who will lead a team of nearly 100 Ten Days' staff from around Tasmania and interstate, said just weeks from opening it was "incredibly exciting to see all the work and planning over a two year period coming to fruition. I'd encourage everybody to not just think about getting organised, but to get organised, grab a program, buy their tickets, plan to get out and about this beautiful island and make the best of what will be a fantastic Ten Days on the Island".
Festival information line: 1300 882 283
DERWENT VALLEY AUTUMN FESTIVAL
The Derwent Valley festival has free entertainment, over 80 stalls, with food, wine, produce and crafts. The Esplanade along the Derwent River provides wonderful vistas through the autumn toning of the trees lining the riverbanks.
Autumn is a special time in Tassie. The Esplanade along the Derwent River provides wonderful vistas through the autumn toning of the trees lining the riverbanks. The aquatic program provides another dimension to the Festival with Masters Rowing events, water skiing demonstrations, steamboats and spectacular passes along the river from some of Australia's fastest speedboats.
Over the past six years the event, held on April 1, has grown from approximately 6000 to last year's record attendance of 12,000.
AUTUMN GOLD
One of Tasmania's oldest and best loved national parks is near the Derwent Valley. Mt Field has a delightful waterfall and there is plenty of wildlife about including wallabies (If you should miss out on the wildlife here a nearby sanctuary, Something Wild, is home to the Tasmanian devil and other animals and the nearby Tyenna River is a good place for a chance encounter with the elusive platypus).
Around Mt Field a deciduous beech (Nothofagus gunnii) is Australia's only winter-deciduous tree. You will find it nowhere else in the world except Tasmania. And its autumn display is superb. This humble tree, it is often less than two metres, turns a spectacular range of colours, from rust red through to brilliant gold, during late April and May, depending on temperatures, and can be easily found on ventures about Mt Field.
www.parks.tas.gov.au/veg/fagus/fagus.html
AWARD WINNERS
Two Tasmanian businesses have been honoured at the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards, held in Sydney in February.
The Henry Jones Art Hotel won the Unique Accommodation award, and Pure Tasmania pocketed the Tourism Product Marketing category.
The Henry Jones Art Hotel has consistently received tourism accommodation, training, restaurant and architecture awards since it opened for business in September 2004.
Pure Tasmania reflects the brand essence of the Federal Group's properties and tourism experiences in Strahan, Freycinet and Cradle Mountain.
Check the Events Tasmania website for upcoming events
For further information:
travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au
www.discovertasmania.com
www.eventstasmania.com