Australia travel: Cockle Creek the best B&B at the end of Tasmania

Cockle Creek is located on Recherche Bay on the edge of the Southwest National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Photo / Supplied

The black line that I've been following for an hour on my car's GPS suddenly ends, the screen empty as though having drawn a blank on where to go next. The thing is, there is nowhere to go from here. I'm at Australia's southernmost street - the "End of the Road", as a roadside wooden post helpfully confirms.

Cockle Creek is in Tasmania's southeast corner, a tiny settlement slotted between the aqua waters of Recherche Bay and the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. There are no shops or services here, just a smattering of campsites and holiday shacks lining one dusty unsealed road.

The water is impossibly clear, flowing from a source that is more river than creek into a bay lined by silica white sand. The self-sufficient could happily forget the wider world here for a while although I'm staying in the nearest serviced township of Dover, one-hour's drive north. But more on that later.

French Admiral Bruny D'Entrecasteaux stumbled across the area in 1792, naming it after his ship La Recherche, during a mission to find missing explorer La Perouse. A supplementary goal was "advancing geographical science and enlarging our knowledge of physics and natural science" and his company included a team of physicists, philosophers, artists and botanists.

While the French were there to observe, 10 years later the English arrived and suddenly the bay was a very different place. Crystal-clear waters ran red with the blood of whales, hunted for oil, and numbers plummeted from about 100,000 to the current population of just a few thousand. A life-size bronze sculpture of a 3-month-old southern right now sits overlooking the bay as a poignant reminder.

The shallow and sheltered waters of Cockle Creek are tempting but I've come here to hike. If I had six to eight days up my sleeve I could embark on the remote South Coast Track – an 85km wonder of Tasmanian wilderness walking - but I don't, so I set my sights on South Cape Bay instead, just a four-hour round trip.

Forest gives way to a boardwalk across open plains thick with waist-high wildflowers before diving deeper into Southwest National Park. Tasmania's largest reserve covers more than 6000sq km of rugged wilderness and most of it is inaccessible except on foot or by boat. My walk is just a dip of the toes.

Ferns and tea tree end abruptly, leaving me standing on a windswept overlook. Suddenly the temperature has dropped about 15C. Or maybe it's just the wind. It's notoriously strong here on the 40th latitude, with no land having blunted its force since South America, but there's something exhilarating about standing at a southern-most bay you have had to walk to. It's a taste of what wilderness is, of what the world would be without a car park next to it.

White caps whip the cobalt water and salty air blasts its way into my lungs. Around the point, steps descend to a beckoning empty beach but after a 20-minute snack break on the cliff tops I've had about as much of the wind machine as I can handle and retreat for the hike back.

The bracing journey inspires a ravenous hunger that is quickly crushed when I arrive at Ashdowns of Dover for afternoon tea of scones and homemade jam. Gary Ashdown bottles his own, a range that includes such creative blends as Bramley apple and pomegranate, or quince and lemon.

"I could just make the usual flavours but that would be boring," he says, bubbling with enthusiasm. The bed and breakfast won Australia's Best Hosted Accommodation in the 2019 Australian Tourism Awards, an accolade that is readily understandable once you've spent time here.

Gary is an ideas man who has thought of everything, from the Tesla charger out front to the fire pit in the garden – perfect for evening stargazing - and the rack of gumboots in case guests feel like wandering among the resident sheep and chickens.

He tends an extensive vegetable garden including 26 varieties of tomato - produce used in the meals he prepares. But perhaps his piece de resistance is a little creekside shack at the end of the garden for those wanting quiet time, complete with minibar and a drawbridge across the water "so the deer can't cross" from the neighbouring forest.

I pick up one of Gary's colourful hand-drawn maps of Dover and go for a wander along the waterfront of the sleepy fishing village before returning for dinner and possibly the most comfortable bed I've ever sunk into.

If this is the end of the road, I like it.

GETTING THERE
Air New Zealand flies a twice-weekly direct service from Auckland to Hobart. airnz.co.nz
Dover is just over an hour's drive south of Hobart. Continue on for another hour on a mostly unsealed road to reach Australia's "End of the Road" at Cockle Creek.

DETAILS
Multi award-winning B & B Ashdowns of Dover has three rooms. ashdownsofdover.com.au