The island with Australia’s best produce and ‘the restaurant with no food’

It takes seven minutes from departing the Rex Saab Turboprop for my plans on King Island to change wonderfully and completely. “You’ve just arrived? Welcome! Have you considered the Saturday market?”

Fifteen minutes later, I end up at King Island Town Hall in Currie, the largest town of this community-focused island, 80 kilometres off Tasmania’s north-west coast.

The sign upon entry – “please remove dirty boots” – is not a misplaced plea. This island is agrarian, home to some of the most-sought after beef in Australia, traditional kelp farming, and the famed King Island Dairy, as well as bees, garlic, and lots and lots of wind. The collection of dusty, rusty utes lined up in the gravel car park stand testament to that.

The POKI Market – Produce of King Island – is, according to one local, “sold out in two hours”. And as I wander in, wide-eyed, I can see why. Locals greet each other and exchange handfuls of dollars for chutneys, potted succulents and teas. I garner that everyone knows everyone, or just about. I scribble their recommendations in my notepad, then set out.

At the market, primary school teacher Sharelle Hassing sells pottery crafted with wild clay, including rustic spotted mugs. I happily take her tip to check out other craft on the island.

At the King Island Historical Museum, which is housed in a former lighthouse keeper’s cottage, I study artefacts from the island’s former farms, lighthouses and homes, as well as the washed-up remnants of some of the coast’s more than 140 known shipwrecks.

In the warren-like rooms of the old cottage, I go back in time reading a certificate of registration for a dairy, circa 1933, studying a beaten-up green enamel tea pot and staring in awe at a quilt, strung from the ceiling, featuring panels of seabirds and tall ships.

Just down the road, King Island Gallery features work by local and visiting artists within the island’s ex-Marine Board building. Around the corner between Currie Lighthouse and Currie Harbour is “The Restaurant with No Food”, a gathering place in a yellow-painted boathouse where you BYO meal and congregate with locals.

Later, I drive to the 123-year-old King Island Dairy, which was bought from multinational company Saputo by Australian businessmen Graeme Wilson and Nick Dobromilsky earlier this year and saved from closure.

There, I meet Sally Cole, who slices up portions of Roaring 40s blue cheese and the decadently creamy brie. Her husband is one of the five founding members of the island’s butchery, from where Aaron Suine, co-owner of Kittawa Lodge, sources the beef he serves me later that evening. (Cole’s raspberry jam is stocked in the Kittawa pantry, too.)

At the Reekara Community Complex, 20 minutes away, local artist Sandy Robinson oscillates between the King Island Kelp Craft store and the community creative space, both housed in a former school.

Kelp craft is a time-honoured art on King Island, with the bull kelp industry a fiercely protected, and essential, sector. Robinson makes stitched seahorses and fish out of kelp that looks like leather. I marvel at their structural integrity and my wallet becomes a little lighter, too.

After checking in at Kittawa, I drive 10 minutes down the coast to the Cataraqui monument, which commemorates the 1845 shipwreck that claimed 400 lives.

Set on the edge of a private paddock, the memorial outlines the travellers’ fate: only nine people survived the early-morning disaster. This coastline is notorious for wrecks, and you can explore eight of them on the Maritime Trail, a pamphlet for which is available at the airport.

That makes the island’s lighthouses – three in total – essential. I meet Ian Allan of King Island Walks at the base of the Currie Harbour lighthouse. We walk up 93 steps to the service room, where the beacon that once guided ships to safe passage is now a non-essential beacon. The lighthouse was built during 1879 and 1880 to help inbound mariners from confusing Cape Otway with Cape Wickham when crossing Bass Strait. It’s a passionately protected part of King Island history.

Allan tells me that authorities deactivated the light in 1989.

“Following a sustained community campaign, the lighthouse was triumphantly re-lit in 1995,” he says. “The fight to preserve the Currie Lighthouse is a true reflection of the King Island community spirit.”

THE DETAILS

Fly
Rex, Sharp and King Island Airways all service the island, flying from Melbourne, Burnie and Hobart. See rex.com.au; sharpairlines.com; kingislandair.com.au

Drive
King Island Car Rental is a locally run business with more than 90 vehicles. See kicr.com.au

Visit
At the airport, pick up a weekly guide to what’s on and what’s open during your stay. The guide is also available at the visitor centre on George Street, Currie. King Island Walks lighthouse tours start at $50. See kingislandwalks.com.au

Stay
Kittawa Lodge has two one-bedroom lodges and one two-bedroom lodge. All-inclusive stays start from $1650 a night. See kittawalodge.com

More
See kingisland.net.au; discovertasmania.com.au

The writer travelled to King Island as a guest of Tourism Tasmania and King Island Walks.