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Sarah Island Macquarie Harbour, historic
Sarah Island - Macquarie Harbour Historic Site (photograph: Craig Vertigan)
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Sarah Island

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Alerts for Sarah Island

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Incident: Sarah Island - some board walks closed
Applies from 12/9/2024

​​​Sarah Island is open for cruise boat tours only. The jetty which visitors use to access the island is severely damaged.

​The south-eastern walkway to the shipyards closed. This is as a result of damage from severe weather. Repair work has started. Completion of these works are subject to weather conditions. ​

For more information, contact the West Coast Field Centre on (03) 6409 1020 or email PWS.WestCoast@parks.tas.gov.au

Last reviewed 14/1/2025 08:10 AM

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About

Sarah Island is Tasmania's oldest convict settlement and reputedly one of the severest penal establishments in the history of transportation to Australia. Flogging was frequently used as a punishment and more than 180 escape attempts were made.

Remotely located, the island sits in the southern part of Macquarie Harbour on Tasmania's west coast. Despite its isolation and grim function, Sarah Island was for a time the largest shipbuilding yard in the colonies. Convicts were also put to work in the thriving pining trade. 

Towards the end of the 19th century the haunting ruins and natural beauty of Sarah Island became popular with tourists. The island was gazetted as a tourist reserve in 1926 and nearly 50 years later as an historic site. Today it is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and Macquarie Harbour Historic Site. Cruise boats depart from Strahan and operate guided tours of the island. Visitors can use a map to navigate among the many ruins to locate the 'new' penitentiary, the commandant's slipway, the bakehouse and tannery. 

​Sarah Island has a notorious past. Once a thickly wooded outcrop in Macquarie Harbour lashed by the Roaring Forties, it was selected as a place of ‘banishment and security’ because of its isolation. It was a bleak place reserved for the worst of British felons. 

With the opening of the Port Arthur penal settlement in 1830, use of Sarah Island was phased out. It operated for a year as a convict probation station when it housed a party of convicts sent to cut Huon pine. Economic and 'moral' problems forced its closure.

From the 1850s to the 1880s, and again in the 1930s and 1940s, Sarah Island became the base camp for piners working in the area. 

During the mining rushes to the west coast, looting occurred on the island and bricks and other building materials were removed. Only the ruins of the more substantial structures were left standing.

Since the introduction of cruises from Strahan to the Gordon River in the 1980s, Sarah has become a popular tourist destination, primarily to view the ruins of the penal settlement. Guided tours are operated on the island daily. The guides also present evening performances in Strahan of ‘The Ship that Never Was’, a play that tells the tru​e story of an escape from the  Sarah Island penal colony. 

​The eight hectare island was virtually cleared of native forest and scrub during the convict era. Exotics were introduced but some of the eucalypt and wattle communities have re-established. Because of its size, history and lack of sources of fresh water, native wildlife is few and far between. 

Reptiles have been sighted and include the metallic skink, white-lipped snake and tiger snake. A large number of birds use the island as a stopover while crossing Macquarie Harbour to adjacent mainland habitats. Little or fairy penguins are known to have burrowed/bred on the island.  ​Rainforest fernland with dense Dicksonia antarctica cover occupies broad gullies, where trees are locally absent, amidst rainforest. 

The area around Macquarie Harbour, including Sarah Island, was known by the local indigenous people as Langerrarerouna​. The area has a special significance to Aboriginal people and is symbolic of the European impacts on Tasmanian Aboriginal people during the colonial period.  

European interest in Macquarie Harbour dates from the 1815 visit of Captain James Kelly and the subsequent exploitation of the area for timber-getting, particularly Huon pine.

From its establishment from 1822 until its closure in late 1833, the Sarah Island convict station was a hive of activity with a bakehouse, tannery, hospital and brick kiln as well as the convict barracks and accommodation for officials and military personnel.

A shipyard, for a while the largest in Australia, produced more than 100 vessels. Skilled convicts worked as shipwrights, carpenters, blacksmiths and clerks.

Sarah Island and outlying stations housed up to 385 male convicts. The lowest classes suffered hard labour and severe deprivation and were employed in the lumber yard gang.

Flogging was frequent but by the late 1820s sentences of up to four weeks of solitary confinement had almost replaced the use of the lash.

Absconding was particularly prevalent in the early years of settlement. Legendary status has been bestowed on a few of these escapes, either due to their horrific nature or to the sheer daring and courage involved.

Alexander Pearce is renowned as 'the cannibal convict', after murdering and eating fellow escapees. 

In January 1834 the final ship built at Sarah Island was stolen by 10 convicts. They sailed the Frederick to Chile where they set up home. At first they were not bothered by local authorities, but a change of Governor forced six to escape and the remaining four were sent to gaol. The four were returned to Hobart for trial, but were spared from the gallows on a legal technicality.

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Sarah Island is accessible via cruise boats which operate from Strahan. There are cruises each day of the year which include the lower reaches of the Gordon River and often take in the narrow entrance to Macquarie Harbour, known as Hells Gates. Yachts can also be chartered to reach the island.

A clearly defined walking track leads from the jetty to the remains of the settlement.

Strahan is reached via the B24 from Queenstown. If you are coming from the north along the Murchison Highway, turn right on the B27 to Zeehan and follow the road for 46 km through to Strahan.

From Cradle Mountain take C132 to the Murchison highway (A10) then south to the Zeehan then Strahan on B27.

From Hobart to Strahan via Queenstown on the Lyell Highway (B24)

Where possible, please avoid driving in our reserves at night. You are sharing the roads with our native wildlife, so take it slow and watch out for animals on the road.

​Access to island is by cruise boat or private charter.

The climate strong winds and rain can be expected and are extremely common on the west coast so bring wet weather gear.

Camping and campfires are not permitted on the island.​

​Find out other essential information for visiting Tasmania's parks and reserves on our know before you go section.

​​Care should be taken alighting from the boat transport on to the island jetty and on paths among the ruins. Walking shoes are advisable.

Strong winds and rain can be expected and are extremely common on the west coast so bring wet weather gear.

For more information, please read our Safety in parks ​page.