Tahune Airwalk Tour from Hobart Overview
The Tahune Airwalk tour from Hobart takes you deep into Tasmania's ancient forests in the Huon Valley, where a 597-meter elevated walkway rises 20 meters above the forest floor through towering swamp gums and Huon pines. This tahune airwalk tour from hobart tours experience includes the canopy walk, ground-level trails along the Huon River, and access to the 48-meter-high AirWalk cantilever that extends over the river valley. The scenic drive south from Hobart passes through historic settlements and temperate rainforest before reaching this conservation area, home to some of the world's oldest trees.
The Tahune Airwalk opened in 2001 as Australia's first commercial canopy walk, suspended 20 metres above the Huon River and threading through swamp gum and stringybark eucalyptus that tower to 80 metres.
The structure was built without felling a single tree — steel pylons were hand-carried into the forest and anchored to bedrock, allowing the 597-metre deck to float among the canopy without touching trunks. Engineers designed the walk to sway gently in wind, mimicking the movement of the trees themselves.
The airwalk sits within the Tahune Forest Reserve, a 4,800-hectare tract of wet sclerophyll and cool temperate rainforest along the Huon and Picton Rivers. This reserve protects some of Tasmania's last intact old-growth stands, including Huon pine — a slow-growing conifer that lives over 2,000 years and was logged nearly to extinction in the 19th century. The Huon Pine Walk, a ground-level loop included in site entry, winds through a grove where trees predate European settlement. The timber's oil content makes it naturally rot-resistant, which made it prized for shipbuilding and furniture but devastated wild populations.
The Tahune Airwalk tour from Hobart brings visitors into a vertical ecosystem rarely accessible on foot. At canopy height, epiphytic ferns cling to bark, and grey goshawks nest in upper branches. The forest floor 20 metres below supports tree ferns, myrtle beech, and mosses that thrive in the perpetual shade. The airwalk's steel mesh deck offers unobstructed views down to the Huon River confluence, where cold mountain water meets the slower Picton flow. Two swinging bridges extend from the main walkway, adding 200 metres of suspended passage that responds to every footstep.
Today the site draws over 50,000 visitors annually, most arriving from Hobart via the Huon Highway through Geeveston. The airwalk functions as both conservation education and low-impact tourism — entry fees fund ongoing reserve management, including weed control and track maintenance across the broader Tahune network. The structure itself requires no ground disturbance for upkeep, and the forest canopy has grown around the steel supports in the two decades since installation.
24 hr
