PORT ARTHUR: Port Arthur was one of nine penal colonies built on the peninsula and subsequently became Australia’s largest, operating from 1830 until 1877. About 12,500 convicts served life sentences at this site. In a landscape created largely by convict labour, the prison buildings that withstood the ravages of time and fire have been restored as a fascinating window on this grim period in our past.  Today the Port Arthur Historic Site is a beautiful, peaceful picnic spot with vast lawns and sandstone ruins sprawling over 40 hectares. The new Port Arthur Visitor Centre situated within the site is a world class complex which houses an Interpretation Gallery, gift shop and restaurant. The Tasman Peninsula, renowned for its rugged beauty with dense forests, surf beaches and precipitous cliffs, offers campsites and bushwalks with spectacular vistas of the Southern Ocean.

attractions include:

• Excellent accommodation catering for all needs from scenic campsites and cabins to the luxurious Cradle Mountain Huts, Lakeside St Clair Lodges and Cradle Mountain Lodge.
• A paradise for nature lovers, with prolific wildlife, migratory birds and native plants.
• Excellent bushwalking, in particular the famous 60km Cradle Mountain Overland Track. Hikers may take fully escorted and catered tours, or carry their own equipment and stay in huts or camp along the way.
• Numerous walking trails suited to day trips, such as the 3hr return walk to Ballroom Forest.
• Australia's deepest lake, the serene Lake St Clair.
• Interpretive displays of the geology of the region, a video on glaciers, and a giant hologram of a family of thylacines (Tasmanian tigers), which can be viewed at the Cynthia Bay Visitor Centre.