- Stanley Seal Cruises
- Highfield House
Stanley was in de 19de eeuw het administratieve centrum van de Van Diemen’s Land Company. Highfield House, waar de managers woonden, is te bezichtigen. Verder is het mogelijk om vanuit Stanley een cruise te maken met de mogelijkheid om zeeleeuwen, pinguins en vele zeevogels te zien.
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Stanley's nut goes to ruin
Bron: The Mercury June 07
Neglect of one of Tasmania's key tourist icons is driving the Circular Head Tourism Association nuts.
For more than 12 months, three of the five lookouts on The Nut, Stanley's main tourism drawcard which attracts 70,000 visitors a year, have been closed to the public for safety reasons. In addition the walking tracks have eroded, leaving exposed boulders and roots to create hazards for walkers.
Circular Head Tourism Association chairman John Dabner said fire management and weed control on The Nut were also non-existent. He said the association's serious concerns had been raised at a meeting with the Parks and Wildlife Service in May last year and with the Minister for Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts, Michelle O'Byrne. "Parks promised us the lookouts would be reopened by Christmas, yet not one action has been taken since the meeting last May," Mr Dabner said. "Visitors are now placing themselves in danger by going off the tracks to the edge of the cliffs to take their photos." Nut Rock Cafe operator Julian Jacobs said he was constantly getting comments about the tracks. "Visitors say it is very slippery and the ground is loose underfoot. Lately we've been getting two or three injuries a year on top of The Nut . . ."
Last month a tourist suffered a serious leg break after falling on the track. Mr Dabner said the association now feared The Nut would lose its iconic status. "A picture of The Nut appears on the front cover of the new Zone Marketing Holiday Planners released by Tourism Tasmania in February," he said. "For so long Cradle Mountain was used as the iconic illustration and it was fantastic for us when The Nut took over as the official jewel in the North-West tourism crown. But we have very real fears Tourism Tasmania will revert to Cradle Mountain because of the terrible state of The Nut."
Association tourism manager Jason Clare said it was too early to assess the impact on visitor numbers, but "the losses could easily turn into tens of thousands of dollars". "Word of mouth is very strong in tourism and current visitors are not going to be speaking very favourably of their experiences," he said.
Melbourne visitors Kathleen and Jack Van Raay last week climbed The Nut and told the Sunday Tasmanian they had been very disappointed. "The closure of the lookouts shows no money is being spent and the area is dangerous," Mr Van Raay said. "You don't expect to visit an icon and find the lookouts closed."
Stanley resident Lana Bradfield last week took her partner's two granddaughters for a tour of The Nut and was appalled at what they saw. "I last climbed The Nut about nine months ago and it is terrible in comparison to what it was," she said. "One of the girls almost fell on the track and they couldn't see the best views because of the closed lookouts."
Ms O'Byrne said the State Government understood the importance of The Nut both as a tourist destination and local icon. "Works on The Nut are listed under the Parks and Wildlife Service's $12 million priority asset management program," she said. "I am very confident we will obtain funding to address the infrastructure problems at The Nut." And significant progress was being made on weed control.