The Gordon River cuts thirty-five kilometres inland from Macquarie Harbour, its tannin-stained water reflecting the surrounding forest with such precision that horizon and depth dissolve into a single unbroken mirror.
First charted by surveyor James Kelly in 1815, the river remained largely inaccessible until the 1970s, when hydroelectric proposals and conservation campaigns thrust Tasmania's southwest into national consciousness. Today the Gordon flows through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the last temperate rainforests on Earth, where Huon pine older than the pyramids line banks that have changed little in ten thousand years.
The Gordon River Cruise Premier Upper Deck grants access to the observation level of the vessel, elevating passengers above the main cabin for unobstructed sightlines across the water. Departures leave Strahan Harbour each morning, threading west through Hell's Gates — the narrow channel between Macquarie Harbour and the Southern Ocean — before turning inland. The route includes a landing at Sarah Island, the colonial-era penal station that held repeat offenders between 1822 and 1833, and guided walks through stands of myrtle beech, sassafras and leatherwood that form the rainforest canopy. Heritage cruise itineraries anchor interpretation around convict history, Huon pine logging camps and the ecology of buttongrass moorland that transitions into wet forest.
The premier deck configuration offers forward-facing seating, panoramic windows and access to open-air viewing platforms at bow and stern. Morning light on the river produces the clearest reflections; by midday, thermal winds from the plateau disturb the surface. The vessel's shallow draft permits navigation upstream to Heritage Landing, where a boardwalk loop penetrates two thousand years of forest succession without requiring visitors to leave the elevated walkway. Lunch service on wilderness cruise options uses Tasmanian produce — ocean trout, leatherwood honey, regional cheeses — served as the vessel drifts in still water near the river's furthest navigable point. Return legs pass logging relics and interpret the 1980s Franklin Dam controversy that defined modern Australian environmental policy. Tours span six hours, covering eighty kilometres of inland passage before re-entering Macquarie Harbour as afternoon light shifts from gold to pewter across the water.
6 hr
