Trowutta Arch, North-West Tasmania’s Natural Wonder!

What to expect at Trowutta Arch

Trowutta Arch is an incredible natural wonder in the North-West of Tasmania, unlike anything I have ever seen! 🤩

The large stone arch that has naturally formed there over time is exceptional. It is easily 20 meters wide, and the limestone rock face is extremely jagged. It kind of looks like a honeycomb in that regard.

Large rocks can be found scattered beneath the arch that were possibly connected to the top of the arch or cave at one point in time.

The other aspect of this landscape scene that will jump out at you is the pool of water, which is bright green and looks brilliant. It is the remains of a giant sinkhole with the ground sloping steeply up around it.

So be careful, as if you were to fall in, you might very well come out with two heads! 😜

There is a large fern tree on the right-hand side of the sinkhole, just through the arch, adding a nice extra element to the photos you might snap here.

Trowutta Arch Rainforest Walk

The short walk from the car park through Trowutta Arch Rainforest is also an attraction of this location. The rainforest is stunning in its own right, as you will quickly see! 😊

Massive trees and ferns have grown throughout this rainforest in all sorts of weird and wonderful places and directions. Plus, the chorus of birds singing as you make your way to Trowutta Arch is spectacular.

You have to use some discipline not to stop at every bend in the path to take photos of the beautiful scenes you will see. Otherwise, you will never make it to Trowutta Arch.

These natural wonders combine to make Trowutta Arch an incredible and unique Tasmanian landscape photography location!

What is Trowutta Arch?

Trowutta Arch is a natural limestone arch located in a stunning rainforest in the Trowutta Caves State Reserve. This reserve is in the North-West region of Tasmania.

After reading through several websites to research this location, I believe that Trowutta Arch was once a cave, or a series of caves, that collapsed in on itself, leaving behind a 20-meter-wide jagged natural archway.

It is said that there are two sinkholes here, one on either side of the naturally formed arch. The obvious one is a bright green pool of water just on the otherwise of the arch. The other, which is less obvious, you would pass through as you approach Trowutta Arch. This sinkhole is nowhere as deep and has been reclaimed by the rainforest.

This image was captured after I had moved through Trowutta Arch and was photographing back up towards the entry. Here you can see the three fern trees I mention in this article. Although, one, you can just make out in the very left corner of the archway. While I like this image as it captures the full size of the limestone arch, next time, I would like to zoom in further to better frame and enlarge the rainforest you can see. (HDR Image, Nikon D750, 16mm | Early Morning | March 2023)

How to photograph Trowutta Arch

From in front of the entrance

Once you have arrived at Trowutta Arch, along the path provided, you have many options for how best to photograph this particular location.

Back along the path

Many beautiful large fern trees are right next to the path you pass to reach Trowutta Arch. This includes, at the very end of the trail, a line of three ferns before the ground slopes in towards the sinkhole. The way that they are positioned makes them appear like they are guarding the entrance to Trowutta Arch.

I did have several attempts at capturing these three ferns in particular and Trowutta Arch behind them, with varying degrees of success. The ground drops off quickly once you reach the end of the walkway, so trying to capture these ferns, the arch and especially the sinkhole in one photo is tricky.

I found one way of attempting this was to stand off to the path on the right, where the ground raises up, which gave me a better angle to try this shot.

I do mention a better way to photograph them below…

Directly in front of the entrance

This area will be the primary place to capture the perfect photo of Trowutta Arch! From the front of the arch, with a wide-angle lens, you can capture everything that makes this place unique.👌

You can capture the ground below, consisting of several large rocks that have embedded themselves into the ground. Arching over the top of that is… well… the arch! And then, in the middle of all that, when you think it can’t get any better, is the pool of bright green water.

I was also amazed at how taking a couple of steps in any direction can significantly change the composition. You need to be a little careful of your footing as the incline could make a slip relatively easy.

From the other side of Trowutta Arch

Photographing back towards the entrance

Once you have made your way through Trowutta Arch, you can aim your camera back up towards the three large fern trees at the arch’s entrance. Obviously, your photos won’t include the sinkhole in this direction, but you do get the incredible archway and textured rocks that frame the rainforest in the centre of your image.

This angle still makes for a nice photo, even without the sinkhole included in this composition. I realised when there and looking in this direction that I had seen a number of really good images taken from this very spot at Trowutta Arch.

Photographing the Green Sinkhole

If you wanted to photograph the nuclear green sinkhole specifically, you have a couple of options from this position. You can move to the sinkhole’s edge and look for a nice composition to capture it. Even though this won’t include the arch in your photos, there are still a lot of visually interesting items, including the incredible rock formations, rainforest, large trees that have fallen into the sinkhole, etc.

There are also some small caves in this area. I went into one in particular and took a couple of photos from inside. I am yet to process these images in favour of the pictures you see here. So it will be fun to work on these images at some stage in the future and share them on my Instagram account.

This image was captured standing at the very end of the path leading you to the start of Trowutta Arch. I think this photo does a good job of showing this location’s depth or layers. From the arch and rocks below to the sinkhole and then a cave in the background and off in the distance. It is such a great place to photograph. (HDR Image, Nikon D750, 26mm | Early Morning | March 2023)

What gear should you take with you?

Grab your wide-angle lens

The archway and area beneath it are big but not so big that you can’t get all of the elements you want in one shot using a wide-angle lens. I used my Nikon 16-35mm F4 lens at 16mm, which allowed me to capture the whole scene without too much trouble.

That said, I also didn’t move away from a wide focal length, 16mm to 23mm, during the countless other photos I took at this location’s many different areas. This shows how important a wide-angle lens will be when visiting this stunning location.

The best time to photograph Trowutta Arch

At this point, I have only visited Trowutta Arch once, but I do feel, because of its beauty and uniqueness, that it is a place that would receive a lot of visitors. Therefore, I suggest getting there early in the day, potentially not long after sunrise, for your best opportunity to have this location to yourself.

I visited Trowutta Arch on a Saturday and was worried about there being many people there because it was a weekend. Actually, it was the first day of a long weekend. So I arrived early in the morning, just after sunrise, to maximise my chances of having the place to myself.

Thankfully, this worked! 😀

I was the only one at Trowutta Arch from approximately 7:30am to 9:30am when others started to arrive. Those two hours flew by, and I took heaps of photos moving from one place to the next and exploring many different compositions. Thankfully by 9:30am, I was pretty much done and was returning to the car.

I do think that if you had a few people there as you were photographing Trowutta Arch, it would make it a difficult place to photograph. As mentioned, the stone arch is big but not that big. So if others were also exploring this area, you wouldn’t be able to capture many photos without including them in it.

Travelling to Trowutta Arch

Driving to Trowutta Caves State Reserve

Trowutta Arch is located in the North-West region of Tasmania in the Trowutta Caves State Reserve. If you are travelling by car, you could expect the following approximate travel times:

• Stanley to Trowutta Arch: 45-minutes
• Launceston to Trowutta Arch: 3 hours and 15-minutes
• Hobart to Trowutta Arch: 5 hours and 30-minutes

When you get close to Trowutta Arch and turn off Tayatea Road onto Reynolds Road, the last part of the trip will be along an unsealed road. I didn’t find the road too bad to drive along, but you should drive cautiously. I also thought it worthwhile to mention this in case you are in a hire car, as I don’t think they allow you to drive along a dirt road. 🤔

As you arrive, the area is well signposted, and there is some parking available for cars and potentially for people towing caravans.

After a long drive, there are also no toilets there. So it might be a quick trip into the bush for a tree wee. Or at least, that is what I have heard. 🫣

Walking from the car park to the Arch

It should take you approximately 15 minutes to walk from the car park to Trowutta Arch.

The path is well-constructed and easy to follow, with only a dozen or more stairs needing to be crossed. Therefore, most people shouldn’t have a problem reaching, at least, the start of the Trowutta Arch viewing area.

After parking your car and hopping out, these are the two signs you will see, letting you know that you have arrived and have a short walk ahead of you to reach Trowutta Arch. (iPhone | March 2023)

Trowutta Arch is incredible!

Out of 10, I rate Trowutta Arch a 9 as a landscape photography location! 👏

Trowutta is a fantastic Tasmanian landscape photography location and has probably become one of my favourite places that I have captured to date. I have mentioned this several times throughout this guide, but Trowutta Arch is unlike anything I have seen.

Trowutta Arch is everything that you could want in a photography location.

As I was leaving, I realised that I had been so focused on taking photos and maximising the time I had before others turned up that I didn’t stop to appreciate and just enjoy the location thoroughly. I had been in a rush!

Trowutta Arch is such a profoundly tranquil place. Especially as the rain started falling and the sounds of birds singing echoed through the rainforest. It is a place where you wouldn’t be too disappointed if you forgot your camera as you could simply sit for a while and enjoy nature.

But don’t forget to grab your camera! 😂

I didn’t give this gem of a location a perfect score because it is a little out of the way to get to. I usually like to go to a place around two, preferably three times, before writing a guide. But with Trowutta Arch being a little isolated, I am unsure when I will return.

However, most photography locations worth capturing can take a lot of work to get to. And I will certainly be back!

Enjoy visiting Trowutta Arch.

Thanks,
Rob Potter