We will take a Gordon River cruise aboard Lady Jane Franklin 11.

Two wild rivers hurtle through mountainous rainforest wilderness and merge as the Gordon River, which flows into the vast Macquarie Harbour on the west coast. The scene is the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park, in the Wilderness World Heritage Area of the south-west of Tasmania. The rivers were the centre of a controversy in the 1980s, when they were to have been dammed for hydro-electricity, but the scheme was quashed by an environmental campaign. The two rivers flow through deep valleys and spectacular “narrows” and over rapids. These majestic waterways were the site of many historic battles for our convict heritage, original settlers and conservationists.

We will take a cruise up the Gordon River aboard Lady Jane Franklin 11.

Lady Jane Franklin 11

Departing Strahan in the morning, we will explore Hell’s Gates, the appropriately named entrance to Macquarie Harbour, where many have died trying to pass through this treacherous stretch of water.

Macquarie Harbour is the second-largest harbour in Australia, six times the size of Sydney Harbour. Its unique make-up of freshwater with a saltwater layer underneath means very few fish inhabit the water, although trout and salmon thrive in the mix, with the cold and relatively unpolluted waters. We will visit the Atlantic Salmon and Ocean Trout Fish farms, with their black rings dotted on the water’s surface.

As we enter the mouth of the Gordon River, the water calms and the cruising speed drops. Large boats are not allowed to go above about six knots in the World Heritage listed wonder to ensure sustainability of the experience.

We then stop at the uppermost point the Lady Jane Franklin 11 is permitted on the river, Heritage Landing, for a guided tour of the temperate rainforest, a land of ancient trees that rise above the Earth like ancestors of times past.

The Gordon River’s mystical dark waters, with their spectacular reflections, are naturally coloured by tannin leeching from the surrounding lands.

Gordon River

In the 1980’s the Gordon River was the site of passionate protest over the damming of its pristine waters, just below its intersection with the Franklin River, a long-remembered debate that spawned the Green movement we know today.

Trained guides aboard Lady Jane Franklin 11 are well-versed in the history of this region, and are there to answer all of our questions about its history, conservation and its inhabitants.

Have a look at our holiday to Tasmania where have a Gordon River Cruise aboard Lady Jane Franklin 11 on the magnificent Macquarie Harbour.