Sarah Island

Sarah Island is a small island in Macquarie Harbour, on Tasmania’s west coast, that held a penal settlement from 1822 until late 1833: up to 385 male convicts at a time, and a shipyard that for a while was the largest in Australia. The Parks and Wildlife Service calls it Tasmania’s oldest convict settlement. You can reach it only by cruise boat or private charter, and both Gordon River cruises from Strahan land there for a guided walk. World Heritage Cruises gives it an hour, first thing in the day: Strahan: World Heritage Cruise on Gordon River with Lunch, from US$116 a person (checked November 2026).

The calendar above is World Heritage Cruises’ morning cruise from Strahan, with 1,267 reviews (checked November 2026).

The short answer

You cannot visit Sarah Island on your own without a boat, so the island comes with a Gordon River cruise. If the convict history is what draws you, take World Heritage Cruises, which stops there first for a 1-hour guided tour. If the river matters more, Gordon River Cruises visits Sarah Island at the end of the day, after Heritage Landing and lunch, with a guided walk among the ruins. Either way, the walk is on paths among ruins after stepping off at the island jetty, so wear sturdy shoes.

Check dates for an hour on Sarah Island

Where it is

Sarah Island lies in the south-eastern part of Macquarie Harbour, 28 km in a straight line from the Strahan wharf, not far from where the Gordon River runs into the harbour. Macquarie Harbour covers more than 290 square kilometres and opens to the Southern Ocean only through Hells Gates, a channel that Tourism Tasmania describes as wild, shallow and less than 500 m wide. The convicts gave it that name.

What happened there

European interest in Macquarie Harbour began with Captain James Kelly’s visit in 1815 and the timber-getting that followed, above all of Huon pine. The penal settlement on Sarah Island opened in January 1822. The Parks and Wildlife Service describes it as reputedly one of the severest penal establishments in the history of transportation. Its shipyard produced more than 100 vessels. Tourism Tasmania counts more than 150 prisoners who tried to escape during the settlement’s eleven years. After Port Arthur opened in 1830, Sarah Island served for about a year as a probation station, and it closed in late 1833.

The island was gazetted as a tourist reserve in 1926 and, nearly fifty years later, as a historic site. It is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and the Macquarie Harbour Historic Site, and camping and campfires are not allowed there. Port Arthur, which opened in 1830, is a separate day out on the Tasman Peninsula; portarthurtour.com covers visiting it.

The guided walk on each cruise

Operator facts from each operator’s own pages, November 2026; prices from the listings (checked November 2026). The Parks and Wildlife Service asks visitors to take care stepping from the boat onto the island jetty and on the paths among the ruins.

Prices, ratings and review counts from the listings (GetYourGuide checked November 2026; Viator checked November 2026). Operators price by date and season, so treat the figures as the shape of the market, not a quote.