The prettiest Tassie towns to visit this autumn
Some days are diamonds, but all days are gold in many Tasmanian towns in autumn. It’s the season when exotic trees – and one showy native species – turn up the contrast, radiating red, russet and yellow to give the towns in which they grow a spark of extra vibrancy.
Ross
The Midlands’ most beautiful town of Ross is the place that proves Tasmania has a heart of gold. A short detour off the Midland Highway and you find yourself in perhaps the state’s most vibrant autumn display, with central Church Street running beneath a parasol of English elms – a line of trees of such note that 47 of them are heritage listed in what the National Trust calls “one of the most significant and spectacular tree-lined avenues in any town in Tasmania”.
In autumn, the street’s leafy canopy all but glows, casting a golden light over the historic town. From this colourful centrepiece, it’s a short stroll to one of Tasmania’s most beautiful bridges – convict-built Ross Bridge, straddling the Macquarie River and decorated with more than 186 carvings said to be representations of residents in the colony when the bridge was completed in 1836.
Autumn is typically shearing season in Tasmania, and Ross sits among some of the state’s best grazing farmland – Eliza Furlong, who introduced merino sheep to Australia, lived on a nearby property. The Tasmanian Wool Centre in Ross has museum displays on the wool industry and the town’s history.
New Norfolk
Tasmania’s third-oldest town looks resplendent in an autumn coat, when the willows, poplars and oaks along the banks of the River Derwent change tones with the season. Take a walk along The Esplanade at dawn (or continue up and over the Derwent cliffs) on a still day and the river reflections make the scene doubly good. For more of an upstairs view of the town’s colourful banks, head across the river and ascend to Pulpit Rock Lookout, peering down onto a wide bend in the river.
New Norfolk takes autumn seriously, playing host to the Derwent Valley Autumn Festival in the middle of April and the month-long Tasmanian Autumn Festival, filled with tours, workshops and more among the autumn shades.
Too much colour not enough? Head out of town to the Salmon Ponds, where autumn’s brush gets busy on the poplars lining the entrance, as well as through the trees in the English-style parklands around the Southern Hemisphere’s oldest trout hatchery.
Round things out with a taste of autumn at the Agrarian Kitchen. Named as Gourmet Traveller’s best restaurant in Australia in 2024, its menu embraces the seasons, with more than 90 percent of its produce coming fresh from its one-acre kitchen garden inside the walls of an old Willow Court mental asylum.
National Park
It’s not so much the tiny town of National Park that runs a strong autumn game; it’s the national park at its back. Mount Field National Park is prime-time fagus country, turning on arguably the state’s most vivid display of Australia’s only native winter deciduous tree species.
Around the shores of the Tarn Shelf and beyond, these deciduous beech trees blush red and yellow, turning the park into a plant pilgrimage in the weeks around Anzac Day. With entire slopes changing their colour, there’s no greater autumn sight in the state, or country.
If autumn rains have fallen, a trio of magnificent waterfalls pour through the thick forest lower down the slopes. Russell Falls, reached by a wheelchair-accessible trail, is the star attraction, but if you’re up for an autumn hike, the Three Falls Circuit – one of the state’s 60 Great Short Walks – adds Horseshoe Falls and Lady Barron Falls to the collection.
For mountain bikers, nearby Maydena Bike Park is riding firm and well before the winter rains set in, while it’s worth a stop at Westerway’s Possum Shed Cafe, 7km down the road from National Park, to scan the Tyenna River for platypus from its rear deck.
Swansea
Autumn has a special quality along Tasmania’s East Coast. It’s the time of year when winds blow lightest, and the sea is almost at its warmest. But those aren’t the only seasonal lures to Swansea.
North of town, clustered around tiny Cranbrook, are more than a dozen vineyards and in autumn they can be as much about the reds and yellows of the leaves than the reds and whites in the bottles. It’s an excellent and scenic time to drop in at cellar doors such as Milton, Spring Vale, Gala Estate and the Freycinet Peninsula views from Devil’s Corner.
March brings festivities to Swansea in the form of ECHO, a three-day harvest festival on the town’s outskirts. It kicks off with the Native Bounty Feast, featuring local and Indigenous produce cooked over the coals, and rolls on through the weekend with bush-food talks, workshops, author talks, an installation of old farm utes, and live music into the night.
Deloraine
Not to be outshone, Deloraine beams in autumn, especially along the tree-lined banks of the Meander River. This arts-minded town has nature as its truest palette, and the clear autumn air crystallises its views to the Great Western Tiers. The colours are just one thing to admire along this stretch of the Meander River, with platypus also regularly sighted.
A major autumn lure to the town is TrailGraze, an April weekend celebration of the food producers along the northwest’s Tasting Trail. This driving route consists of more than 40 farmgate (and other food and drink) stops, with the tightest cluster of them around Deloraine. Stomp the grapes at Meander Valley Vineyard (admiring the autumn colours in the vines as you do so), wander the trails at 41° South Tasmania salmon and ginseng farm, and toast the season with a tasting of Western Tiers Distillery’s special autumn apple and cinnamon spirit.
