Guide
Tasmania with a dog
Tasmania is one of the easiest places in Australia to drive around with a dog and one of the hardest to walk one, because the national parks are closed to dogs. Here is what is open.
Tasmania looks like the ideal dog holiday. It is small enough to drive across in a day, the weather suits a dog with a coat on it, and the island is known for walking. Then you start booking, and you meet the rule that shapes the whole trip.
The national parks are not an option
Dogs are excluded from Tasmania's national parks and from most of its reserves. That takes Freycinet, Cradle Mountain and the rest of the postcard list off the itinerary before you begin, and it catches out visitors who have walked dogs in regional parks on the mainland. The Parks and Wildlife Service publishes what is permitted, and it is worth reading before you plan a day.
What is left is better than it sounds: the councils manage a great deal of very good coastline and track.
Getting there
Dogs entering Tasmania are subject to Biosecurity Tasmania entry conditions, which have historically included hydatid tapeworm treatment. Requirements change, so confirm what is current well before you sail. It is the one piece of admin that cannot be fixed on the day.
Hobart: a real off-lead beach
Nutgrove Beach at Sandy Bay is a rare thing in a capital city: 700 metres of calm, north facing sand on the Derwent, backed by the lawns of Nutgrove Park. The City of Hobart treats it as a restricted dog exercise area, which means off lead from 6pm to 10am during daylight saving and from 3pm to 10am for the rest of the year.
Two things catch people out. The middle of the day is on lead, so check the clock before you unclip. And the entrance beside Lipscombe Avenue and the access on the eastern side of Nutgrove Park are on lead at all times. The water is flat, shallow and cold well into summer.
Walking: the Alum Cliffs Track
Kingborough Council requires dogs on lead on every track it manages, with one exception that is not this one. So the Alum Cliffs Track takes dogs on lead for the whole eight kilometre return route between Kingston Beach and the Taroona Shot Tower, about three hours by Council's reckoning, through blue gum forest to headland lookouts over the Derwent Estuary.
Three cautions do real work here. The cliff edges are unfenced and Council's own advice is not to approach them. There is no water on the track. And Boronia Beach Reserve, which looks like an obvious side trip near the southern end, is a declared Prohibited Area that dogs must not enter at all.
The compensation is at the trailhead. The northern end of Kingston and Tyndall Beach is a declared Dog Exercise Area where dogs may be off lead on the sand, a good cool down after three hours on a lead.
Lunch: Bangor Vineyard Shed
An hour east of Hobart at Dunalley, Bangor is a cellar door and restaurant inside a shed on a working sheep farm. Leashed dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas, the long covered deck over Blackman Bay and the lawn beside it. Only assistance animals come inside.
The lead rule is not a formality: sheep graze right up to the building. The venue's own accessibility page notes water bowls on request, which is more than most places offer. Open daily 10am to 5pm, kitchen closing at 4pm, and the deck is exposed enough that the weather matters.
East coast: a base at St Helens
BIG4 Tassie Getaway Parks St Helens sits on Georges Bay at the gateway to the Bay of Fires. Dogs are welcome on every site, and in a limited number of Classic Open Plan Cabins held back from online booking, so you have to ring. A $25 cabin cleaning fee applies to those on arrival, and the limit is two pets.
The rule that shapes your days is that pets can never be left alone. A dog may sit out on a cabin balcony, but it cannot stay behind while you go exploring, so anything dog free needs somebody to stay with them. Dogs also stay out of the amenities block and the camp kitchen.
The Bay of Fires itself needs checking rather than assuming. The conservation area allows dogs on lead in some parts only, with seasonal restrictions, and Break O'Day Council publishes the dog zone map that settles it. Read that map before you drive to Binalong Bay, not after.
What the trip looks like
Two or three days around Hobart, the Alum Cliffs in the morning and Nutgrove timed for the late window. East to Dunalley for lunch on the deck, then up the coast to St Helens. Not the Tasmania on the posters, because that one is closed to your dog, but a good week all the same.