Still batted by strong winds, we’ve moved further west, as far west as we can go in Tasmania – we’ve reached the Edge of the World!

It’s Wild

The northwest of Tasmania becomes ever more remote the further you head west until you reach the Indian Ocean. It can be a wild place with strong winds and heavy rain sweeping across the ocean until it hits land. Suitable for cattle farming and little else as witnessed by the enormous number of dairy cattle dotted across the rolling fields.

This is no place for townies. It is a place for the lover of the outdoors, the wet weather and muddy boot brigade, the adventurous who wish to explore the wilder places of this world. It’s where the roaring forties makes land. This really is the Edge of the World – literally. It says so on the map.

Located on Gardiner’s point beside Arthur River, the driftwood strewn beach is testament to the wild, unpredictable weather in the northwest. From this point looking out west the next landfall is Argentina.

Looks can be deceiving, though. We were fortunate on our visit, the sun occasionally appeared between showers and the 45kmh gusts were a mere breeze in comparison to the dark skies and gales of the Indian Ocean at its worst.

A bronze plaque stands with its back to the sea cast with the following inscription by the late Brian Inder:

THE EDGE OF THE WORLD

North West Coast Tasmania

I cast my pebble onto the shore of Eternity.
To be washed by the Ocean of Time.
It has shape, form and substance.
It is me.
One day I will be no more.
But my pebble will remain here.
On the shore of Eternity.
Mute witness for the aeons.
That today I came and stood.
At the edge of the world.

Brian Inder

Brian and his wife Laura created Tasmazia, one of the world’s largest maze complexes – and the Village of Lower Crackpot – at Promised Land in the 1980s.