On top of Gormanston Hill on the Lyell Hwy, just before the final descent along hairpin bends west into Queenstown, is a sealed side road leading 900m to an utterly spectacular lookout over the geological wound of Iron Blow. This awesomely deep decommissioned open-cut mine, where Queenstown’s illustrious mining career began, is now filled with emerald water. You can get an eagle’s-eye view from the ‘springboard’ walkway projecting out into thin air above the mine pit.
Iron Blow Lookout
Cradle Country & The West
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
20.75 MILES
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24.69 MILES
This World Heritage–listed national park came to prominence when the wild Franklin River was very publicly saved from hydroelectric immersion in the 1980s…
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17.56 MILES
Head 6km west of Strahan's town centre to find Ocean Beach, Tasmania's longest beach (40km), which is fiercely pounded by surf. It runs uninterrupted from…
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18.34 MILES
Housed in the 1894 School of Mines & Metallurgy, this museum is the pride of the local community and the town's major tourism drawcard. There's plenty to…
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18.35 MILES
When the Gaiety opened in February 1898, a troupe of 60 performers was brought to town from Melbourne and played to 1000 spectators every night for a week…
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14.72 MILES
You hear a lot about Huon pine in Strahan…now see it, smell it and touch it at this working waterfront sawmill. Milling demonstrations take place daily at…
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14.7 MILES
The West Coast Visitor Information Centre is home to this creative and thought-provoking display on the history of Tasmania's west coast. It includes a…
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1.82 MILES
Run by a group of friends who fell in love with the town and its handsome but faded bank building, this gallery is home to the Queenstown Artists in…
Nearby Cradle Country & The West attractions
1.68 MILES
The panoramic views of town from this lookout, which was named by soldiers after a battle in the Boer War, are excellent. Try to arrive at sunset, when…
1.8 MILES
This museum started life as the Imperial Hotel in 1897 and now houses an extensive and idiosyncratically captioned photographic collection documenting the…
1.82 MILES
Run by a group of friends who fell in love with the town and its handsome but faded bank building, this gallery is home to the Queenstown Artists in…
1.83 MILES
Well-known printmaker and painter Raymond Arnold and his artist partner Helena Demczuk are two of a small community of visual artists living and working…
1.95 MILES
This 1930s behemoth is the town's major landmark and in its heyday it was the epicentre of a thriving social scene. Lovingly restored to a semblance of…
2.35 MILES
Queenstown's story is told in this intriguing cemetery with more than 500 graves and some fascinating inscriptions on the crumbling headstones.
13.8 MILES
A pleasant 50-minute return walk through the rainforest to these falls follows platypus-inhabited Botanical Creek. The track starts at People’s Park, off…
14.17 MILES
There’s a lookout over the town here, accessed by following Esk St, beside the Strahan Village booking office. It’s less than 1km from the Esplanade.