The Bay of Fires – such an evocative name for a very special coastal string of bays and beaches on the Tasmanian coast. From now on this name will immediately bring to mind an amazing combination of pure white sand, turquoise seas and thunderous waves, and the bright orange lichen on the rocks. A brilliant combination. We were based at St Helens so we also explored the beautiful St Helens Point.
We visited St Helens and the Bay of Fires on 12 &13 October 2019
Getting There
Shearwater > Launceston (100kms) > Scottsdale > (67kms) > Derby (33kms) > St Helens (66kms) ~ a total of 266kms
Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia
History
A short history of Tasmania, from pre-colonial times, to the arrival and growth of English colonial development, to the decimation of the First Nation Tasmanians, can be read here.
This unusual name of The Bay of Fires was given to the area by Captain Tobias Furneaux, in 1773, when he noticed numerous fires along the coast. This led him to believe that the country was densely populated. Abundant evidence of the occupation by Aboriginal people can be seen along the coast today. Furneaux named the southern point of Georges Bay, St Helens Point.
By the 1830s Georges Bay was being used by whalers and sealers. The first official land grant was provided in 1830 and in 1835 the small village was renamed St Helens, after St Helens on the Isle of Wight. It would have continued to be an inconsequential port had not tin been discovered at Blue Tier in 1874. Suddenly the port, and the routes to the tin mines, were awash with miners. Over 1,000 Chinese moved through the port. From 1874 until the turn of the century the tin mines prospered.
Georges Bay Post Office opened on 1 April 1869 and was renamed St Helen’s in 1882. When the mines closed the miners moved to the coast and many of them settled in St Helens. Slowly the port changed so that today it has a major fishing fleet which is supported by boat building, ships chandlery and other ancillary activities. In recent times tourism, driven by access to the Bay of Fires, fishing and the town’s mild climate, has become important.
Day 1 – Sat 12 October – To St Helens
We left Shearwater at 7.45 and drove straight up to the A1 and to Launceston. It was a clear but very cold morning – we thought we saw frost out on the golf course. There was very little traffic and we were soon skirting the southern suburbs to get around Launceston and heading towards Scottsdale.
Initially we were driving through a forested area, but soon we were in lovely farmlands with substantial homesteads and heaps of full farm-dams (something we haven’t seen for a long time). At one point, we saw frost along the shaded parts of the road and stopped to take a photo.
The mix of forests and farms continued but then we came to an 8km section of tight windy road. On the eastern side, we came to an excellent lookout called “The Sideling” lookout. It had great facilities and, of course, great views down towards Scottsdale.
After the lookout, it was a really lovely drive down to Scottsdale with lush pastures and green hills and substantial farmhouses. Thank heavens for no more bendy corners for a short while.
Scottsdale is a really nice town and had some of the more beautiful rhododendrons we have come across. There were a couple of really nice homes on the way in and then we came to one house that had a massive wall of deep pink rhododendrons As well as a couple of enormous prunus in full bloom … amazing.
The local church looked cute, as did the pub.
Post-Scottsdale, we were again driving through a pleasent mix of farmlands and forested areas. Then Kerry suddenly noticed a little Wombat on the side of the road – so we stopped to take some pictures and to get it off the road. It scurried across the road and into the bushes on the other side. With me wildly waving my arms around to stop the only car that came tearing up the hill.
The next town we came to was Derby – a town which has had quite a remarkable transformation from being a derelict old mining town to now being one of the hottest destination for mountain bikers. There were people, cars and bikes everywhere and every camping space seemed to be full. We saw a couple of nice houses in the town, a good pub (The Dorset), the Post Office and of course plenty of shops selling gear and mountain bikes for rent. The Town Hall was established in 1923.
We stopped down by the river and saw a great area where little kids could practice going over the bumps. There was also a bridge across the river leading to some of the trails.
We were now mostly driving through forested country. At Weldborough, this little town seemed to have a passion for timber-clad houses as there were quite a few.
The final section of road before we reached St Helens was a 13km windy climb and then descent through the forests. After that, we burst through the trees and saw the coastline at last. A blessed relief to be off the tight windy roads for a change.
On first drive-through, St Helens looks a really nice town – making good use of Georges Bay. The Tourist Information Office was our first port of call. We ended up with the usual package of sound advice as to where to go, maps and brochures.
As we couldn’t get into our BnB until after 2pm, we decided to drive out to St Helens Point. This is a nice drive out alongside the bay, looking across to the distant hills.
We stopped at a little beach near Stieglitz where two pelicans welcomed us onto their beach. Further along, we stopped at the both ramp at Akaroa where there were lovely views across the bay to the opposite shore.
We then came to a point where we were looking down on the opening of the bay to the ocean.
From this point, we headed out a gravel road to look at the beaches on the western side of the peninsular.
From there, we could also see the Peron Dunes which are massive.
We explored an unnamed beach which was a lovely mix of sand and large smooth rocks.
Next we went to Beerbarrel Beach which was small but quite pretty.
We then headed back to Burns Bay which is closer to the mouth of Georges Bay. There is a large boat ramp there which looks quite new. Again, the beaches in that area are mostly rock, that smooth round rock that prevails on these beaches and covered in red lichen. It gives quite a dramatic effect.
Day 2 – Sun 13 October – Bay of Fires
Today is our big day – we are heading around to the Bay of Fires. The southern section of The Bay of Fires is in the Conservation Area, situated along a 13 km stretch of coast between Binalong Bay and The Gardens. The other sections of the Reserve are too far north.
We had a lovely sunrise across Georges Bay from our BnB, and the morning did not seem so cold. Clear skies – that was the main thing. Then driving around the bay, the water was so still and the reflections just magic. We saw a powerboat edge its way out into the bay leaving an amazing pattern of waves on the still water.
A little after that at another bay, we got some very good photos of yachts and their reflections – beautiful.
We made our way up towards Binalong Bay, but before we got there, we headed east on a dirt road to see where that might take us.
However, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere so we turned westwards towards Binnalong. We then came to an unnamed cove, which we termed “unnamed bay 1”, and which was made up of lots of rock outcrops, sandy little beaches, great views up the coastline etc. We spent some time wandering between the different rock outcrops. Almost all the bays we have seen have been either sweeping curves – a delight to the eye, or cosy little roundish ones – so inviting, but the water would be at least 10C off a swim.
We left there still driving towards Binnalong and quickly came to “unnamed bay 2”, very similar to the one we’d just visited. This was a larger bay which had 2 small sandy beaches side by side but separated by a large rock outcrop. The larger of the two had a rope tied across the channel about half way out at water height – presumably to provide a safeguard if children get dragged out. A great little spot to take the kids to swim. Again the area was dominated by those very rounded rocks with the orange lichen.
The seas were quite rough that day, so there were plenty of waves coming through crashing over the rocks.
We then arrived to Binalong proper and stopped at the place where the Eco-Tours depart. Just to the right is a delightful pool, ideal for taking the kids for a swim. Off one little beach around the pool, a young boy was playing on his canoe.
There were fantastic views across the flowers and rocks to the other beaches that make up the Bay of Fires. The white sand is incredible and can be attributed to the high quarts content of the granite boulders. Must find out what these purple flowers are – would love some in our garden.
There is also a jetty protected by a massive stone sea wall. Next to that is a rock platform with so many different colours from the different lichen. Quite stunning.
We got onto that amazing white sand at the main Binalong beach, which is just beautiful. There are great views up the coastline.
We drove around to Swimcart Beach, the next one around but at the other end of the main Binalong beach. Lovely spot.
We walked to towards the headland passing a lagoon on our left. It had obviously not been open to the sea for quite some time. Nevertheless there were a few tents perched up on its banks.
We walked up to the rocky headland and I went up to the higher rocks to take some photos. I was very surprised to see that on the other side of the headland was another shorter beach, similarly made up of that beautiful white sand. There are a number of people fishing and I could see quite a few tents behind the beach. It is clearly a popular spot.
From there, we travelled the short distance to the Cosy Corner South. This has a large rock formation at either end of the beach and the seas seem to be running very rough into the beach itself so that there are quite a few waves smashing against the rocks. Out to sea we can see the small rocky island and next to that, the vertical rock column that Kerry thinks looks like a bird. A bit like a Kookaburra with its chin up, laughing at us all. We get closer to it later.
Around the corner, is Cosy Corner North, which looks very similar to Cosy Corner South. We are of course, closer to the rock “obelisk” and again, we have a beautiful white beach to walk along.
We went into Sloop Reef and at the carpark it was difficult to find a track to the headland. I guessed that the reef would be the rocky island and it’s nearby rock obelisk so was very keen to get to a point where I could overlook that. I did find a very narrow track and followed that, making as much noise as I could to deter any nearby snakes as the undergrowth was high.
I wasn’t disappointed when I got to the Headland and had an excellent view down to the reef and obelisk over some orange coloured rocks of the cliff I was on. There were brilliant views to the north – such a long white stretch of curved sand.
On the south side of the headland, there were very large rounded rocks with the most intense orange colour from the lichen.
Looking down the coast, I could see that the ocean waves were strong, making very large sprays over the rocks that they hit. From this side, looking back to the obelisk is like looking over an orange platform.
Next we drove down to Sloop Lagoon, which consists of the lagoon on the western side of the road and a good-sized channel from the lagoon to Taylors Beach. It didn’t look like the lagoon was open at that time. Taylors Beach is a nice long, curved white beach, as they all are on this stretch of coast.
We passed over the bridge over the Big Lagoon and drove up to “The Gardens”, the final accessible part of the southern Reserve. We were surprised to see so much open grassland up here, although there were many rocks protruding through the grass. In many respects, it reminded us of the west coast of Ireland.
We walked up to the headland to look across the beautiful bay at the middle section of the Reserve that we weren’t going to get to.
We then walked around to the beach immediately under the headland which had beautiful turquoise water. There we saw that there were a number of ropes attached to a cross rope made between 2 big rock outcrops with a channel in between. We wondered if this was a way of securing small boats.
It was a good walk around the beach with the amazing combination of pure white sand, turquoise see in the shallow areas and the bright orange lichen on the rocks. A very pretty place.
We headed back towards home but stopped a little way south of the Big Lagoon to have lunch. We walked through to the beach and watched the ocean as we polished off our salad rolls.
To see photos from this post, click here
To see video of the Bay of Fires, click here