Launceston, Australia + Add a trip
on Launceston
City Life: Slow, sleepy, sophisticated
Lush and leafy, three-syllabled Launceston wears its Tasmanian history with puffed-up civic pride. Indeed, with graceful Georgian estates peppering its West Country farmland-esque surrounds, this is as Jane Austen as Australia gets.
Tassie's second largest city is also more than just country meets country town - Launceston has a maritime spring to its step too, thanks to its position on the banks of the winding Tamar river. Huge, four-metre tides breathe in and out of the city and ships bigger than the Spirit of Tasmania dock in its modern-day port. Mucking about on the river, Ratty and Toad style, is de rigeur, but the surprisingly hilly latticework of streets also hides gourmet, craft and fashion treasures. Or tickle your tasting tonsils with a visit to nearby Tamar Valley, home to some of the best-credentialed cold-climate wines in the world.
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Getting There
Automobiles
A car is a must-have when travelling around the island. Bring your own over on The Spirit of Tasmania or hire one from Launceston Airport (www.launcestonairport.com.au), which has most of the big-name rental companies on-site.
Planes
There are no international flights into or from Tasmania, but there are regular connections with mainland Australia's big cities via Jetstar (13 15 38; www.jetstar.com.au), Qantas (13 13 13; www.qantas.com.au) and Virgin Blue (13 67 89; www.virginblue.com.au). Tasmania has stringent rules about travelling with plants, fruit and vegetables, even from across the water - so leave your healthy snacks behind.
Trains
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Local Knowledge
Dialing
Country code: +61; Launceston: (0)3.
Reads
Check out celebrated Tasmanian author Richard Flanagan: his novel, The Sound of One Hand Clapping, which was also made into a movie (directed by Flanagan), tells the darkly dramatic story of Slovenian immigrants to the island. For something a little lighter, try Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger by Margaret Mittelbach and Michael Crewdson, a road trip in search of the island's elusive, probably extinct predator.
Do go / Don't Go
Come for mists and mellow fruitfulness in autumn or manageably balmy summers away from the desert and tropical heat of the mainland. The island can get a little closed-down during winter, but the fires are toasty even if the winds are Antarctic.
Cuisine
Tasmania has come a long way since dubbing itself the Apple Isle. You're just as likely now to stumble across a saffron farm as a pear orchard, and the wine industry has been getting gongs for years. Despite the 75 kilometres that separate the city from the sea, Launceston's deep and broad Tamar River has also been bringing munificent ocean harvests to town to rival its more nautical Southern neighbour, Hobart. Round it all off with extensive dairy farming in the fertile valleys nearby - Launceston's cheeses are legendary - and you've arrived in gastronomic nirvana.
Taxis
Taxi Combined has Launceston's largest fleet of cabs (13 2227; www.taxicombined.com.au), running a 24-hour service throughout the city. A cab from the airport into town costs around AU$32.
Tipping
As with the rest of Oz, tips aren't expected anywhere - but 10 per cent is always appreciated for good service.
Currency
Australian dollar (AU$).
Packing
Waxed anoraks for the water; portable spittoon for the wine.
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Worth Doing
Arts
The city punches above its weight in the culture stakes. The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (+61 (0)3 6323 3777; www.qvmag.tas.gov.au) is an old-fashioned cornucopia of collections on Australian colonial art, contemporary craft and design, Tasmanian history, zoology, and 19th-century industrial railway workshops. By contrast, The Design Centre (+61 (0) 3 6331 5505; www.designcentre.com.au) is a sveltely Scandi-like survey of both sculptural and practical wood design, much of it using local woods like Huon Pine and Blackwood.
And...
Shopping
The hand-made thing of beauty is king, so track back to the Design Centre shop (www.designcentre.com.au) for rolling pins as smooth as babies' bottoms or ornate, inlaid music boxes. The one-stop designer shop is Cocoon on George Street (www.cocoonlaunceston.com.au), or bigger wooden furniture can be found at 1842 (www.1842.com.au), where studio craftsmen Trevor Jones and Jared Irwin ply their exquisite trade in the next-door studio.
Viewpoint
With gabled tearooms and a bandstand worthy of a Tolkien novel, the Basin at the end of Cataract Gorge (www.launcestoncataractgorge.com.au) is a Rivendell-like place of quaint Edwardiana and craggy bushland. Take your heart in your mouth, and get on the world's longest single-span chairlift for vaunt-worthy views up and down stream.
Something
Launcestonians are justly proud of Cataract Gorge (www.launcestoncataractgorge.com.au), their wilderness retreat only 15 minutes' walk from the city centre. Do the straight line from the Gorge entrance to the Basin or wander further from the madding crowd and go bush. Preening peacocks and scurrying marsupials abound.
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Diary
February The Lonnie year kicks off with Festivale (www.festivale.com.au), three days of eating, drinking, performing and clapping in the town's central City Park. April Too much exertion all round with the Three Peaks Race (www.threepeaks.org.au) as paired teams sail and run from Beauty Point to Hobart and scale Mounts Strzelecki, Freycinet and Wellington on the way. October The Royal Launceston Show (www.launcestonshowground.com.au) brings the district's loveliest livestock and oversize veggies to town. Don't miss the auxiliary Tasmanian Whipcracking Championship. November Push back with the Launceston Blues Festival (www.ozblues.net/lbc) where local and mainland performers get together and jam.