Tarraleah was once home to hundreds of hydro electric workers building one of Australia’s first hydro-electric schemes in Tasmania’s central highlands. Today, the whole town of 1920s and 1930s wooden homes has been restored as an elegant wilderness resort.
Tarraleah means Forrester kangaroo in the language of the local Aboriginal people, and the site is host to an enormous range of Tasmanian flora and fauna. It is quite possible to see platypus and quolls, wallabies, wombats, Tasmanian devils and echidnas wandering around the town all on the same evening, and some say the Tasmanian tiger is also about.
The town’s central Lodge, built in the 1930s for the Hydro engineers and company directors, has been restored to the elegance of its early days when money and craftsmanship were no object. The Art Deco building now houses a contemporary and luxuriously comfortable nine bedroom small luxury hotel – a showcase of Tasmanian art and craft.
The town’s cottage, hand built by Tasmanian craftsmen in the 1930s, have also been restored as self-contained one to three bedroom holiday cottages.
Tarraleah is 114 kilometres (70 miles), or two hours’ drive, northwest of Hobart on the A10 Highway between Hamilton and Lake St Clair. Geographically it is 20 kilometres from the physical centre of Tasmania, right on the edge of the World Heritage Area – Franklin Gordon Wild Rivers National Park and Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park. Look out for the huge water pipes which “tumble” down the side of a valley near the chalet.
The weather in the central highlands is often wild and woolly, and because of the slightly higher elevation it is cooler in the summer and winter. So remember to bring a warm jacket and wet weather gear.
