Strahan
Tasmania's Wild West Coast Port
On the lands of the Toogee people.
schedule 1 min read / Updated Apr 2026
On Macquarie Harbour on the wild west coast of Tasmania, Strahan is the gateway to the Gordon River, the Sarah Island convict ruins, and the rainforest of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
Strahan was founded in 1877 as the port for the copper, gold, and timber industries of the surrounding mountains. It sits on Macquarie Harbour, a vast, dark inland body of water six times the size of Sydney Harbour. The harbour entrance is the famous Hells Gates, a narrow channel between two rocky headlands where the Roaring Forties slam into the coast and ships have wrecked since the 1820s.
The Gordon River cruise is the standard half-day trip out of Strahan. Cruise boats run up the harbour, through Hells Gates, and into the lower Gordon River with its black mirror-still water reflecting the rainforest. The cruise stops at Sarah Island, the most brutal of the convict settlements ever established in Australia. From 1822 to 1833, around 1,200 male convicts were sent here for the worst secondary offences. The ruins are now part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
The West Coast Wilderness Railway also leaves from Strahan, a restored heritage railway that climbs through the rainforest to Queenstown via the original 1890s route.
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- 130131 6987 West Coast Visitor Information Centre Strahan Ta... · 夏目・龍之介 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- 130131 7069 West Coast Wilderness Railway Strahan Tas Austra... · 夏目・龍之介 · CC BY-SA 3.0
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