Dunalley is a fishing village built around the man-made Denison Canal, which has a swing bridge over it for road traffic. Dunalley is on the narrow land neck that connects Forestier Peninsula with the rest of Tasmania. Blackman Bay lies to the norh east; Dunalley Bay on Norfolk Bay lies to the south west. Where Is it?: Dunalley is 57 km east of Hobart, 40 km south of Orford, 26 km south east of Sorell, 22 km north of Port Arthur, on the Arthur Highway.

Denison Canal

Denison Canal disects East Bay Neck, a narrow isthmus connecting Forestier Peninsula to the Tasmanian mainland at Dunalley. It joins Blackman Bay to Frederick Henry Bay. Proposals for cutting a canal through East Bay Neck near the present day fishing village of Dunalley appeared as early as 1820 amongst the settlers, but the Denison Canal was not built and opened until 1905. It is 2.4km long, 3m deep at low tide and 17m wide (no locks). The canal shortens the journey from the east coast to Hobart by about 80 km. A swing bridge for road traffic allows vehicle access over the canal. Local legend has it that the toll to the gatekeeper is a bottle of beer.

The first swing bridge was built in the Launceston Railway Workshops. The roller bearing can be seen today mounted outside a nearby hotel. A new concrete bridge working with a hydraulic system replaced this in 1965.

Boomer Island

Boomer Island, in Boomer Bay, is a privately owned island connected via an isthmus to the mainland in Boomer Bay, which itself lies within Blackman Bay. It is known for a large castle built upon it by businessman Gunter Jaeger. For approximately 30 years Gunter Jaeger was the owner of the Hope and Anchor Hotel in Hobart. This tavern was built in 1807 and is claimed to be Australia's oldest pub. In January 2013 the idyllic hamlet of Boomer Bay, which comprised of little more than 20 houses, was turned into a charred ghost town when a bushfire went through the area. Only eight homes are left standing.


The unveiling of a memorial, erected by the Royal Society of Tasmania with the support of citizens, on the spot where Abel Janszoon Tasman planted the Dutch flag in Tasmania in 1642, was performed in December 1923. The monument is found on the Tasman Monument Track, Tasman Bay, Dunalley.

Abel Tasman

Though many modern day travellers are not familiar with Forestier Peninsula, such has not been the case with Tasmania's pre-colonial visitors. Abel Tasman was the first known European explorer to reach the islands of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) and New Zealand, and to sight the Fiji islands. His navigator Francois Visscher and his merchant Isaack Gilsemans mapped substantial portions of Australia, New Zealand, and some Pacific Islands. The Dutch explorer spent two weeks exploring the shores of southern Tasmania in November and December 1842. On 3rd December, as he was leaving the area, Tasman made for a bay at the northern end of the Peninsula, but the sea was too rough to allow a landing. The carpenter, Peter Jacobsen, volunteered to swim ashore with a pole on which was Prince Frederick Henry's flag, which he planted on the shore. Thus Tasman took possession of Tasmania for the Dutch on Forestier Peninsula at what he called Frederick Henry Bay, which is today known as Tasman Bay.

Tasman had named another large bay close by 'Blackman Bay', because of the presence of Aboriginal people. British explorer Tobias Furneux surveyed the south east corner of Tasmania in March 1772, but mistook Blackman Bay for Frederick Henry Bay. Furneaux's charts were used to prepare the Admiralty charts of today, which is why the name still applies to the wrong bay. It wasn't until French explorer Nicolas Baudin follows in his footsteps in February 1802, however, that the peninsula received its name. Baudin named it in honour of Henry Verdean Forestier (1755-1806), the French Minister for the Navy and Administration.

Nearby Cape Paul Lamanon recalls the visit of another European explorer. It is thought to have been named by Marion Du Fresne in March 1772 after Chevalier Paul Lamanon, a naturalist and philosopher. Lamanon would later sail from Brest, in August, 1785, with French explorer la Perouse in the frigates Boussole and Astrolabe. Lamanon would have been present at Botany Bay near Sydney in January 1788 when the First Fleet, sent by the British government to establish the penal colony of New South Wales, arrived during the French expedition's sojourn there. The expedition left Botany Bay a few weeks later, never to be heard of again.


Plaque on Cape Paul Lamanon

A monument on Cape Paul Lamanon marks the spot where Peter Jacobsen came ashore. As it is virtually inaccessible by anything other than boat, a convenient substitute stands in the town of Dunalley.