Tasmania, the small island state off Australia’s southern coast, is one of the most geographically remarkable places on the planet. Despite being routinely left off world maps, it harbors a stunning collection of natural records, ancient history, and bizarre anomalies that most people know nothing about. Geography by Geoff took a look at this fascinating island and why it can be so wild.
The island’s northwestern tip, Cape Grim, is home to what scientists have identified as the cleanest air in the habitable world. Winds roaring off thousands of miles of untouched southern ocean arrive at the cape without a trace of industrial pollution, making the site a global benchmark for atmospheric research.
Tasmania also lays claim to the highest sea cliffs in the southern hemisphere, towering 300 meters above the Southern Ocean at Cape Pillar. These dramatic formations are composed of Jurassic dolerite that fractured into massive hexagonal columns as it cooled millions of years ago.
As Australia’s most mountainous state, Tasmania bears almost no resemblance to the flat, arid mainland. More than 20 percent of the island is protected within the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the last surviving expanses of temperate rainforest on Earth.
Underground, the island holds Australia’s deepest known cave system. Niggly Cave in the Junee Florentine Karst area plunges nearly 400 meters below the surface through vertical shafts and underground waterfalls.
Perhaps most surprisingly, Tasmania produces roughly 50 percent of the world’s legally grown opium poppies, supplying the global pharmaceutical market with raw materials for medications including morphine.
In 2020, the state became one of the few jurisdictions on Earth powered entirely by renewable energy, harnessing its mountain rivers and relentless winds to build a fully self-sustaining green energy grid.
