We had no idea what the Great Western Tiers were, but they sounded like a good way to explore the hinterland. The day did not quite work out as planned as the weather closed in around lunch time. But we did get to see some really great things including the very lovely Liffey Falls.

We visited the Western Tiers on Thursday 10th October 2019

The Great Western Tiers are a collection of mountain bluffs that form the northern edge of the Central Highlands plateau in Tasmania. The bluffs are contained within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Site.

Kerry’s snippets in fuchsia

Getting There

We were staying at Shearwater so we got back onto the A1 heading east for Westbury.

Shearwater > Westbury (66kms) > Liffey Falls (33kms) > Deloraine (25kms) > Mole Creek (24kms) > Shearwater (67kms) ~ some 215kms in total

History

A short history of Tasmania, from First Nations times to the arrival and growth of English colonial development, to the decimation of the First Nation Tasmanians, can be read here

Shearwater to Westbury

We have driven the C708 a few times now so we have some landmarks, such as the chicken farm with a single but big wind turbine. We have not seen many of these so far in Tassie.

It is nice driving through some of the lovely farmlands of this area. The A1 is really quite busy with so many trucks. This definitely needs to be a dual carriageway road.

Westbury is a really nice town. The site was first surveyed in 1823. In the 1830s Westbury developed as a garrison village – a detachment of troops were barracked around a village green in the centre of the town. Westbury Post Office opened in June 1832.

The first thing we saw was the massive stone church.

But then we found the Village Green. The village green is still in use today. It has been the site for the Westbury St Patrick’s Festival celebrating the town’s Celtic links. Though Westbury is often described as a very “English village”, the first European settlers were predominantly Irish; ex Irish convicts, retired soldiers and free settlers, many fleeing the Great Irish Famine in the 1840s. Gaelic was the local language in Westbury for many generations and a strong Irish brogue is reputed to have lasted throughout the 19th Century. Maybe also that is why the river is called the Liffey – after the river running through Dublin.

The sign at the Village Green sets out the early aspirations of the settlers. The Stocks are still there.

There are fine fine buildings in the town, but we liked the 3 little cottages sitting in a row.

Other examples of the buildings follow.

To the Liffey Falls

We drove up to the Falls via Cluan Road, then the C513, skirting the main forests on the eastern side. It was a nice drive, although the clouds were increasing all the time. Again, lovely farming country with forests and mountains in the background. We stopped at a bridge over the river – a very pretty spot.

The road turned to dirt and it got windy, as we began to head up the escarpment. The further up we went the degree of mist increased.

Arriving at the carpark for Liffey Falls, we immediately saw a sign to “The Big Tree”, a 1 minute walk away. And it certainly was a big tree – a brown top stringy bark said the sign. Its diameter was 3.4 metres (making the circumference by Siri’s calculations over 10.5 metres) and it reached a height of 50 metres.

At the entrance to the walk to Liffey Falls, there is a quirky steel sculpture – not really sure what it means though.

We headed down towards Liffey Falls, which the signs say is a 45 minute return walk. Initially, the walk is through Eucalyptus forests, with their very tall trees, but this quickly changes to rainforest. The rainforest part of the walk is really lovely, with heaps and heaps of very tall tree ferns and a scattering of other massive trees (myrtle beeches perhaps?)

The falls are really quite unusual – as they are in fact a series of 3 cascades before the waterfall itself. The cascades almost appear to be down steps in the underlying sandstone – we read later that the mudstone which used to cover the sandstone has eroded away, just leaving these quite remarkable “steps”. In between the cascades, the rock is dead flat and looks like a marble-covered floor.

There is a lot of water in the river, making it all extremely pretty. Some people have said that these falls are the most beautiful in Tasmania. The track takes us to a small but vigorous waterfall that plunges into a pool before then tumbling over the falls themselves. There are viewing platforms for the falls, but it is difficult to really get the perspective because of so many trees growing in front of the platforms.

At a small clearing in the trees, there are good views down the Liffey valley.

The video for this post covers Liffey Falls – click here

Liffey Falls to Deloraine

On leaving the falls, we took Bogan Road to the A5 and then on to Deloraine. We really liked Deloraine, and not only because the first thing you see is the delightful pub – the Deloraine Hotel, established in 1848.

There were many other lovely buildings through the town such as the Empire Hotel, the Library, which was built as a post office in 1882, the British Hotel and various shops and stores and many lovely homes.

Many towns have a little quirky feature that make them unique. In the case of Deloraine, it was a series of sculptured silver statues on a plinth at various points along the footpaths. They were really well done and added a lot of character. One in particular I noticed was called “The Postman” – and depicted a postie on his bike delivering a letter with a dog trying to grab it; or was it the postie giving the letter to the dog to deliver?

We went down to the park that runs next to the river and really loved the different trees growing through the park. The first two trees we see make a striking contrast between the delicate green of the conifer and the silver foliage of the other (unknown) tree.

There were also loads of flowering prunus and rhododendrons and camellias. There were also some other lovely trees which looked like weeping willows along the river.

Across the road, we saw another fine building and close to that, a garden bed of bluebells under 3 or 4 flowering cherries.

Deloraine to Mole Creek

From Deloraine we drove the short distance to Mole Creek, and again it was a typical lovely drive that so characterises this area. Lush green countryside with distant mountains. These mountains, though, increasingly covered by low cloud. We could see low and heavy dark rainclouds to the south.

We also passed a very substantial looking, but not large 2 storey Georgian farm-homestead. A beautiful looking building in a gorgeous setting.

One of the first things we saw as we entered Mole Creek, was a couple of fabulous deep pink prunus trees.

Further on, we passed the old pub, and then a large blue building which likely was a pub with white painted verandahs upstairs.

There are a few other nice buildings in the town, but the town is really about providing access to the Caves in the Mole Creek Karst NP. We are not “cave people” so weren’t that interesting in those attractions.

From here, we had planned to go to Devils Gullet, one of the most dramatic lookouts in the area. But with the weather closing in and looking extremely bleak to the south, we decided to call it a day. There is nothing worse than driving to a fantastic lookout only to find low cloud and rain and no view. We’ve been in that situation a few times before.

On the way home, as we approached the A1, we drove through a lovely section of road that was lined on both sides with beautiful green trees planted as an avenue. We turned onto the A1 and saw an absolutely delightful stone homestead.

To see photos for this post, click here