Freycinet & Wineglass Bay
This 38km long promontory of wild, pristine coast is a land of sugar-white beaches, clear blue seas, ancient forests and heathlands scattered with rare wildflowers. The entire Peninsula, including Friendly Beaches, Wineglass Bay and Schouten Island, is encompassed in the Freycinet National Park. Established in 1916, this is Tasmania’s oldest national park.
Wineglass Bay, a perfect arc of blond sand and ice-blue water, is the jewel of the Freycinet Peninsula and recognised as one of the world’s best beaches. On the peninsula’s eastern side, soaring sea cliffs, sculptured boulders splashed with bright orange lichen and The Hazards’ pink granite peaks are a spectacular sight. To the south lies the mysterious, uninhabited Schouten Island.
Numerous ancient shell middens and remnants of seafood meals are found throughout the Peninsula and especially at Friendly Beaches. These were left by the original inhabitants, the Oyster Bay Tribe, the largest of nine Tasmanian Aboriginal tribes that made the island their home for over 20,000 years, before Europeans arrived in 1802.