'One more week on Bruny Island' - visiting Bruny Island

Let’s get one important fact out of the way from the start – Bruny Island is not an ideal destination for a one-day, self-drive trip. As Dylan sings in his rockabilly number, you need to stay at least overnight. A two-night stay on the island is good, three or more on Bruny, even better still.

It might be only a 15 minute ride on the vehicle ferry from Kettering, half an hour south of Hobart, but Bruny Island always feels like a land apart – as soon as you drive ashore at Roberts Point, you’re on island time, and there just isn’t enough time to experience the island if you’re always thinking of the return ferry ride later that day.

Sure, you can drive from one end of the island and back in a day, but pretty much all you’ll see is the road.

Barely joined together by a slender thread of dunes at The Neck, the two parts of the island have different characters – North Bruny is drier, browner and more gentle, with sheltered bays and beaches and rolling grasslands; South Bruny is wilder and greener, with high sea crags, tall forests and raging surf on south-facing beaches.

Bruny Island locals returning home after a day’s shopping in town look smug as they drive back onto the island, but the shack-owners from Dennes Point, Killora, Adventure Bay, Alonnah and Lunawanna always find it hard to leave – on Sunday afternoons, they queue for the ferry at Roberts Point in their 4WD utes, newspapers propped on steering wheels, looking forward to their next weekend visit.

Also waiting for the afternoon ferry are the cluey travellers who have spent a few days discovering Bruny. They’ll be remembering some of the highlights that they’ve had plenty of time to enjoy on the island – the sensational oysters from Get Shucked in Great Bay; artisan cheese, beer and bread from the Bruny Island Cheese Company nearby; sweet delights from Bruny Island Honey, just down the road; spectacular views from the lofty balcony of Cape Bruny Lighthouse; the awesome experience of gazing up at massive sea cliffs on the Pennicott Wilderness Journeys cruise; and in early summer, the unbelievably luscious Black Devil cherries from the shed at Roberts Point. Note the scatter of cherry pips all the way down the road to the ferry!

You could soon join those Bruny shackies and full-time island residents. After you’ve spent a few days exploring, give Jude a call to discuss how you can find your place as a Bruny Island property owner. And here’s an extra bonus – island ratepayers love the big discounts they receive on the ferry!