From Burnie, with its industrial heritage and busy port, the Bass Highway follows the coast westward, almost always within sight of Bass Strait. Massive bluffs nudge out into the sea: Table Cape, just beyond Wynyard , flat-topped and fertile, with flowering tulips carpeting its fields in spring; Rocky Cape, with its native orchids, bushwalks and sea cliffs; and Circular Head, where the historic village of Stanley sits leeside of the steep-sided Nut.
At Boat Harbour and Sisters Beach, green fields sweep down to the water.
Overlooking Stanley, is Highfield Historic Site, built in 1832 for the Van Diemen’s Land Company’s chief agent. Continue west to Smithton, centre for the region’s productive agricultural and thriving forestry operations.
From Smithton, the highway begins its last leap westward to Marrawah. Here the last Tasmanian tiger was captured in the wild - it happened long ago, but there have been many intriguing reports of sightings in the same area. On the far north-west tip is the historic property of Woolnorth. Land’s end is Cape Grim, where sea air, tested as the world’s cleanest, sweeps in on the winds of the Roaring Forties.
Southwards from Marrawah - is the entrance of Arthur River and the Tarkine Wilderness Area, where a river cruise takes you to see sea eagles or the elusive Azure kingfisher. At the Edge of the World, if you kept travelling west you would reach South America.
At fishing settlements of Couta Rocks and Temma the sea can rage - fishermen winch their boats out of the water on slips rather than risk them on moorings. The Western Explorer route through the Arthur-Pieman Protected Area penetrates the Tarkine forest wilderness and crosses the lower reaches of the Pieman by vehicular barge on its way to the west coast.
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