Tasmania's 99 Bends & West Coast Drive Pack | The Stable

Tasmania's west coast is the island's wild side — a landscape of ancient rainforest, abandoned mining towns, and roads that were carved through some of the most rugged terrain in Australia. The centrepiece is the 99 Bends — a 36-kilometre stretch of road between Queenstown and Rosebery that is the queen stage of the Targa Tasmania rally.

Queenstown itself is unlike any other town in Australia. A century of copper mining stripped the surrounding hills bare, creating a lunar landscape of orange and grey that is slowly being reclaimed by the bush. The town has a frontier atmosphere — weatherboard pubs, a gravel football oval, and the sense that civilisation is a thin veneer over something much wilder.

The 99 Bends road climbs out of Queenstown through this scarred landscape before entering temperate rainforest — myrtle, sassafras, and Huon pine draped in moss. The bends are tight, the surface is good, and the rhythm is addictive. Targa Tasmania competitors attack this road at extraordinary speeds; at sensible pace, it is one of the most satisfying driving roads in the country.

The route extends to Strahan on Macquarie Harbour, where the Gordon River cruise penetrates deep into the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The combination of driving intensity and natural grandeur makes this the perfect complement to the gentler Great Eastern Drive on Tasmania's opposite coast.