TASMANIA'S TREATS

Farms, vineyards, distilleries and more make the Australian state a food lover’s dream

- Clara Lock Assistant Life Editor

Before married couple Kate and Iain Field became goat farmers, they wanted to be cheesemakers.

“The only way to guarantee the quality of milk is to have healthy animals bred in a healthy landscape,” says Iain Field, 54.

The couple began rearing goats in 2012 and later took over the Tongola Cheese brand that had been started by a Swiss couple in the 1990s.

Although theirs is a “small commercial dairy” with between 120 and 300 goats, multiple restaurants I visit in state capital Hobart feature their cheese on the menu as a point of pride — and for good reason. The fresh goat curd is like a creamy spread with a hint of tang, and Bloom is a soft cheese akin to a Camembert, delicate and without funk.

Their story captures Tasmania’s agritourism ethos — its reverence for the land, pride in its produce and commitment to farming in a way that leaves more for the next generation. All this has elevated the Australian state, once gently mocked as an agricultural backwater, into a tourism hot spot.

Two-thirds of international visitors to Tasmania travelled for leisure in 2025 and roughly one in five international visitors came from Asia — a source market that Tasmania is looking to grow.

Like Iceland’s Ring Road or New Zealand’s South Island, Tasmania is a big-trip destination that begs for a two-week self-drive holiday. But if you have less time, base yourself in Hobart, as I did on a five-day trip in March. The scenic city is a convenient jumping-off point for day trips to orchards, vineyards and farms to savour produce fresh from its source. Here are some highlights.

BEHIND THE SCENES

The goat farm is part of a tour in and around the small fishing town of Dunalley, a 45-minute drive from Hobart, that will delight anyone curious about the source of their food.