- Where
- East coast of Tasmania,
Australia - Coordinates
- 42.16° S
148.30° E (Wineglass Bay) - Park founded
- 1916 (with Mount Field,
Tasmania’s oldest) - Area
- 169 km² (Wikipedia infobox)
- Gateway
- Coles Bay, 192 km from Hobart,
173 km from Launceston - Visitors
- About 200,000 (2008)
- Best visited
- All year; Canada notes bushfires are
common from October to April - Advisory
- Australia Level 1
exercise normal precautions
Pink granite mountains standing in a line beside the sea like guests waiting to be introduced, and a steep path up between them with steps cut into it. From the top, the water beyond was a perfect curve of white sand and very blue sea, and I settled on a warm rock and kept quiet a long while. A small wallaby watched me eat my sandwich, critically.
The short answer
Freycinet National Park lies on the east coast of Tasmania, 125 kilometres north-east of Hobart, Wikipedia records; its infobox gives an area of 169 square kilometres and about 200,000 visitors in 2008. Founded in 1916, it is Tasmania’s oldest park, with Mount Field National Park. It covers the Freycinet Peninsula, known for its pink granite mountain range, the Hazards, and its sheltered white-sand beaches, and Schouten Island to the south, whose western side is Jurassic dolerite. The park holds many protected Aboriginal and European sites. Coles Bay, on the northern end of Great Oyster Bay, is the main entrance; it had 515 people at the 2021 census.
Why it's worth knowing
Pink mountains in a row. The Hazards are a series of jagged granite peaks in a line along the peninsula, Wikipedia records, and the park is known for its red and pink granite formations. Wineglass Bay lies on the far side of them from Coles Bay, reached on foot over the saddle between the peaks. The Parks and Wildlife Service gives the walk to the Wineglass Bay Lookout as 2.6 kilometres return, one to one and a half hours, grade 3 on its scale, a steep uphill walk of about 1.3 kilometres each way past resting seats; going on from the saddle down about 1,000 stairs to the beach makes a walk of 6 kilometres return, two and a half to three and a half hours, with no facilities along the track until a composting toilet at the bay (its walk pages, read on 21 October 2026). Toilets stand at the walking-tracks car park.
A name told two ways. Nicolas Baudin, whose French expedition charted this coast, named the peninsula after the navigator Louis de Freycinet, and called the bay Thouin Bay, Wikipedia records; it is now Wineglass Bay. Shore-based whaling stations worked the peninsula in the 1820s and 1830s, at Wineglass Bay among other places, and George Meredith set up a station at Coles Bay in 1824 that worked only in winter and was abandoned by the 1850s. Tasmania’s tourism sites say the bay was named for its water turning red during the whaling, while others take the name from its curved shape (indexed); neither account cites a record of the naming, and this entry adopts neither.
The field notes
Who lives here
The red-necked wallaby is one of the animals most often seen in the park, Wikipedia records; the white-bellied sea eagle is among its large predators, and the Tasmanian devil was once common there. The Friendly Beaches, at the park’s northern end, are one of several key sites for the New Holland mouse.
Wineglass Bay from the lookout.
Photograph: Mitchell Lawler via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
Pink granite tors on the Wineglass Bay Lookout track, 2022.
Photograph: Mitchell Lawler via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
Wineglass Bay at sunrise from Mount Amos.
Photograph: Elly-Grace Rinaldis via Unsplash · Unsplash licence · cropped
Dusk on Hazards Beach, 2021.
Photograph: Tim Lippis via Unsplash · Unsplash licence
A Bennett's wallaby and her joey on the Freycinet Peninsula, November 2009.
Photograph: brewbooks · Bennett's Wallaby and Joey - Flickr - brewbooks · CC BY-SA 2.0 · cropped
- Climb to the saddle between the pink mountains early, and sit on a granite slab while the water below wakes up.
- Go on down to the white beach and leave a line of footprints along the curve. (I wrote the list in the sand at the far end to see how it looked. The sea read it, thought about it, and took the whole thing.)
- Some of the stones and shells here belong to older stories than yours or mine. Leave each of them where you find it.
- Watch the mountains from the shore in the last of the light, while they turn pinker and pinker, as if lit from inside.
- Share nothing with the wallabies, however hard they look at your lunch.
A boulder of the Hazards’ pink granite. The line of peaks above Coles Bay is pink and red granite, Wikipedia records, and the park that protects it is Tasmania’s oldest, founded in 1916. It is climbed over on the way to the Wineglass Bay lookout, sat on and looked at, and left where it lies.
Tally, in the marginI sat for hours on a great pink boulder before I looked down and noticed what I was sitting on. The whole range is made of it. I had been resting on the mountains all day without so much as asking.
Getting there
How to get there. By road: Coles Bay, the entrance to the park, is 192 kilometres north-east of Hobart and 173 kilometres south-east of Launceston, Wikipedia records; the largest nearby town is Swansea.
When to go. All year. Canada’s travel advice for Australia (updated 14 October 2026) notes that bush and forest fires are common between October and April. The Parks and Wildlife Service’s Wineglass Bay page calls the area a fuel-stove-only area and says drones are not permitted in Tasmanian national parks and reserves; on 21 October 2026 the Service’s park alerts named no closure at Freycinet, Wineglass Bay or Coles Bay. The park’s visitor centre is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Service says.
What to arrange ahead. A valid parks pass is required for entry to all of Tasmania’s national parks, the Parks and Wildlife Service says. As of 21 October 2026 its fees page (last modified 1 July 2026) gives a daily pass, for up to 24 hours, at $49.15 a vehicle with up to eight people or $24.55 a person travelling by bus, bicycle or on foot, and a holiday pass for all the state’s national parks for up to two months at $98.35 a vehicle or $49.20 a person; children under five go free, and the Service reviews the fees each year by the consumer price index. Coles Bay has the nearest beds; book ahead for the summer holidays.
Safety. The State Department’s advisory for Australia is Level 1, “Exercise Normal Precautions”, dated 18 August 2026. Canada says to take normal security precautions, and notes that riptides are common and dangerous on Australian coasts and that animals on country roads are a hazard after dark.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Wineglass Bay?
Wineglass Bay is on the Freycinet Peninsula on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, in Freycinet National Park, 125 kilometres north-east of Hobart, Wikipedia records; it lies behind the granite peaks of the Hazards from Coles Bay.
How old is Freycinet National Park?
Freycinet National Park, on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, was founded in 1916; with Mount Field National Park it is Tasmania’s oldest park, Wikipedia records.
What are the Hazards?
The Hazards are a line of jagged pink granite peaks on the Freycinet Peninsula, in Freycinet National Park on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia, Wikipedia records; Wineglass Bay lies behind them.
How long is the walk to the Wineglass Bay lookout?
Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service gives the walk to the Wineglass Bay Lookout, in Freycinet National Park, as 2.6 kilometres return and one to one and a half hours, a steep uphill walk of about 1.3 kilometres each way; on to the beach, down about 1,000 stairs from the saddle, it is 6 kilometres return and two and a half to three and a half hours (read 21 October 2026).
Why is it called Wineglass Bay?
Tasmania’s tourism sites say Wineglass Bay, on the Freycinet Peninsula, was named for its water turning red during shore whaling in the early nineteenth century, while others point to its curved shape; Wikipedia records that Nicolas Baudin had named it Thouin Bay, and that whaling stations worked there in the 1820s and 1830s.
Who was Freycinet named after?
The Freycinet Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia, was named by Nicolas Baudin after the French navigator Louis de Freycinet, Wikipedia records.
How much is a pass for Freycinet National Park?
Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service, which requires a parks pass for Freycinet and every other national park in the state, gives a daily pass at $49.15 a vehicle with up to eight people or $24.55 a person on foot, bicycle or bus, and a holiday pass for up to two months at $98.35 a vehicle (fees page last modified 1 July 2026, read 21 October 2026).
How do you get to Freycinet National Park?
By road to Coles Bay, the park’s entrance on the east coast of Tasmania, Australia: 192 kilometres north-east of Hobart and 173 kilometres south-east of Launceston, Wikipedia records.