Tasmanias west coast is still wild and rugged. As you travel west along the Lyell Highway through the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, part of the World Heritage Area, or south from Devonport you know you are entering an ancient landscape.

Dense forests line the highway, dark rivers tumble through steep gorges, deep and wide lakes open up before you.

Tiny towns, such as Rosebery and Tullah that once housed hundreds of miners are now quiet and peaceful. Look out for Montezuma Falls near Rosebery, our tallest waterfall.

If you are travelling from Hobart, you enter the stark landscape of Queenstown, following the road as it spirals for more than 90 bends down into what remains of the worlds richest gold and copper mine. It would have been a difficult life in those days, and when you meet the people of Queenstown, you hear their deep pride in their town and its history.

From Devonport the road takes you through Zeehan, once a wealthy silver town. Make sure you stop into the West Coast Pioneers Memorial Museum to learn of the towns once rollicking mining past.

These are journeys you will always remember.