As poet Robert Frost said, we have found a "road less travelled" again for a wonderful vacation. A short aeroplane flight on a small Piper Chieftain, one hour from Melbourne,took us three hundred kilometres south to King Island, Tasmania.

King Island is a beautiful parallel universe a short distance from Australia's second biggest city that might as well be a million miles away in time and space. We spent a restful six days there: meeting the locals; driving; ushwalking and sampling the wonderful local produce. There was plenty to do and no hustle and bustle.


Where can you go these days where you don't have to lock your car and house. NO CRIME! The locals even leave their keys in the ignition of their cars.


King Island is a great secret. It is an island about the area of Singapore, but with a permanent population of less than 1600 souls. Because of its relative isolation, King Island receives less than ten thousand tourist a year (compared with two and a half million in Queensland). The cost of travelling to both places is about the same.


The island is in the middle of Bass Strait at its western end, between the Australian mainland and Tasmania. This has given it its unique geography and history.


The rugged west coast is dominated by the Roaring Forties winds and some of the most challenging ocean in the world. At the northern point is the one hundred and fifty year Cape Wickham lighthouse, the tallest in the southern hemisphere, to protect shipping.

The picturesque main settlement of a few hundred people, Currie, is in a sheltered harbour on the west coast. Currie has a pub; a few shops, industries and restaurants and is the administrative centre for King Island.


The east coast is much more sheltered, with long beaches, such as the Nine  Mile Beach and a couple of State Parks. The little settlement on this coast is Naracoopa, which lies on the sweeping Sea Elephant Bay and has guest houses, restaurants, a jetty and a few houses.


In the south there is the dramatic Point Stokes, jutting into the turmoil of the Southern Ocean. Nearby is the little
settlement of Grassy and the deep-water container port of Grassy Harbour that services the island from Tasmania.

The island itself is a pastoral idyll.Sleek Angus and Hereford beef cattle and assorted dairy breeds wander the fields. Wild pheasants, peacocks and turkeys wander the paddocks and roads, safe with the absence of foxes (and rabbits) on the island. King Island produces some of the world’s best produce. King Island cheese and dairy
products command boutique prices on the mainland and internationally. King Island pasture-fed beef is truly superlative.

There are more wallabies than cars on the island! Wallabies are in overpopulation on the island and you have to drive very defensively to avoid them. We drove our hire-car to the Naracoopa Holiday Cottages where we stayed for our six days. This was comfortable, delightful setting run by a couple of friendly and helpful King Islanders: Rhonda and John and their friendly old border collie dog Mojo. Long and peaceful

The natural wonders of the island are hard to resist. The west coast has high cliff walks such as to Copper Head and Seal Rocks, with stunning views of coastal gorges. Fairy (Little) penguins and Mutton Birds (short-tailed hearwaters) nest on the shore. The island is a bird-watcher’s paradise. Other natural highlights include pristine bush-walks with sights such as an ancient calcified forest.

Grassy is in a dramatic location, set high above an old abandoned Scheelite Mine. Scheelite is used in the production of tungsten steel, and the locals are hopeful about the promise that the mine will soon re-open.

Another important industry on King Island is an unusual but lucrative one: the gathering of bull kelp for export to Scotland. Kelp is a valuable commodity used in pharmaceuticals, stock food and food additives. Locally, nteresting products are made such as kelp chutney and handcrafts.

As we moseyed along we discovered more and more about the island’s rich history. A few Aboriginal middens have apparently been discovered pre-dating the end of the last ice age (circa 15,000 BP) when the island was connected to Tasmania and the mainland by a land bridge. Incredibly human occupation seemed to have ceased for nknown reasons after that time.

Permanent settlement really only began on King Island from the 1860s, but today’s success and prosperity on the island is sample testament to the fortitude of these early pioneers.