Savage River Walk (5.5km)

The Pieman River region is a wild, mist-shrouded frontier on Tasmania’s West Coast, where the temperate rainforest meets the Southern Ocean. Known to the local Aboriginal people as Corinna, this area serves as a gateway to the Tarkine (takayna)—one of the largest cool-temperate rainforests in the world. The region is defined by its deep, tea-colored waters, stained by button-grass tannins, and the ancient forests of Huon Pine, Myrtle, and Sassafras that crowd the riverbanks, some of which have stood for thousands of years.

Hiking in this region offers a rare glimpse into a landscape that has remained largely unchanged for millennia. The air here is among the cleanest in the world, carried by the "Roaring Forties" across thousands of kilometers of open ocean. Whether you are trekking the rugged coastal headlands of the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area or navigating the lush, fern-laden inland tracks, the terrain is characterized by its dramatic beauty and its "edge of the world" atmosphere.

Historically, the region was a bustling hub during the 19th-century gold rush, and remnants of this mining and timber-felling past still haunt the landscape. Today, the focus has shifted from extraction to preservation. The Pieman River acts as a natural corridor for diverse wildlife, including the elusive platypus, white-bellied sea eagles, and the iconic Tasmanian devil. To hike here is to step into a prehistoric world, where the silence of the forest is broken only by the rush of the river and the calls of endemic birds.