Lime Bay

The Tasman Peninsula is one of Tasmania’s top tourist destinations. Thousands of visitors drive down from Hobart to see Port Arthur and many of them stop at Eaglehawk Neck for more convict history. A much smaller number of active visitors go further and do the Three Capes Walk. An even smaller number turn right in Taranna and wind their way along minor roads to Lime Bay on the north-west tip of the peninsula.

After wondering about the area for years, I finally did that a month ago.

Lime Bay is beautifully sheltered, facing back towards Eaglehawk Neck, and very shallow. When the tide goes out, it goes out a very long way.

The spacious, shady, Parks Tasmania camping ground (official site) is just behind the beach. Facilities are basic: one or two security lights, toilets but no drinking water or showers; fees are handled by an automatic pay station. And it’s at the end of 6 km of dirt road, which helps keep it quiet. The convict coal mines near the start of that dirt road are the only local “tourist attraction”.

The beach supports the usual shorebirds – Black Swans, Pied Oystercatchers, Kelp Gulls, Silver Gulls – and thousands or millions of Soldier Crabs (links are to my photos on iNaturalist). I didn’t see many birds in the coastal scrub behind the beach, except a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos, but I think that’s because I spent so much time enjoying the beaches.

Quirks

Lime Bay is one side of a small peninsula. Lagoon Beach forms the other side. Between them, according to the maps, is a Lagoon. Off the coast of Lagoon Beach is an island, and to its south is a small township.

All three may be either “Sloping” or “Slopen” according to your choice of map. “Sloping” makes no sense, especially for a body of water, and one Joshua Slopen was apparently a local farmer in the early days of European settlement, so I favour “Slopen Lagoon”, “Slopen Main” (the township) and “Slopen Island”.

Lagoons normally have water in them, but Slopen Lagoon was completely dry when I saw it – dry enough that I walked across it rather than bother with the walking tracks along either side. Much of it was bare sand or cracking mud and the rest was covered by low vegetation, more succulents than grasses; it could all be called mudflats, sandlflats, coastal saltmarsh or samphire flats.

A photo online (scroll down for it) shows water in it back in 2011 and it has certainly filled since then or the vegetation would be different; but I have no idea how often it fills (perhaps only after sustained rain) or how quickly it drains.

Lagoon Beach

A long barrier of high dunes separates Lagoon Beach from the lagoon itself. That makes it look like all the west-facing ocean beaches I know in Victoria and Tasmania but it faces South Arm so it’s actually almost as sheltered as Lime Bay, and as shallow.

A round-trip hike from Lime Bay to Lagoon Beach and Lobster Point is 8 – 10 km of very easy walking. According to hiking guides (see map) it is possible to continue down to Slopen Main, and there are other tracks for energetic people with more time than I had. Most campers, though, are content to take it easy. And why not, in such beautiful surroundings?

• Introduction and index to Tasmanian destinations, late 2024.