Your stop on the map

Why is it called Wineglass Bay? The story behind the name

The quick take

Discover Tasmania, the state's official tourism site, says Wineglass Bay was named for the whaling era, when the hunt turned the sea blood-red.

The background

  • Whaling stations at both ends of the bay2
  • Peninsula named after Baudin's 1802 crew4
  • National park since 19165

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Freycinet and Wineglass Bay, pin by pin

Select a route, then tap a marker or stop to see its note and open Google Maps.

Map of the Wineglass Bay walks with the car park, the lookout, Mount Amos, the beach, the Isthmus Track, Hazards Beach and the beach campsite

  1. The walks car park has toilets and a water tap; the lookout track starts here.

    Google Maps

  2. The lookout platforms sit on the saddle, in a pass through the Hazards.

    Google Maps

  3. Mount Amos: 3 hours return over 3.6km, Grade 4, never when wet.

    Google Maps

  4. The beach is approximately 1000 stairs below the saddle.

    Google Maps

  5. The isthmus between the two beaches is an unusually wide tombolo.

    Google Maps

  6. Hazards Beach is the halfway point of the 11km circuit.

    Google Maps

  7. The walker campsite at the bay needs no booking and charges nothing.

    Google Maps

© OpenStreetMap contributors, map data

Why is it called Wineglass Bay? Tasmania's tourism body traces it to the whaling era, when the water ran red. Here is that story, the people who were here first, the French names on the map and the park that protects it all.

Editorial team, freycinetnationalparktour.com · Updated November 8, 2026 · Quick read: 8 min

In brief

  • The nameDiscover Tasmania links it to a sea turned red by whaling.1
  • WhalingStations stood at both ends of the bay.2
  • First peopleThe Oyster Bay nation's country.3
  • Peninsula nameAfter two brothers on Baudin's 1802 expedition.4
  • ProtectedA national park since 1916.5

The whaling story behind the name

The curve of the bay looks so much like the bowl of a glass that the shape seems the obvious explanation. Tasmania's official tourism body tells a darker story. Discover Tasmania writes that the waters off Cape Tourville were once a hunting ground for the island's whaling industry, and that the blood-red sea inspired the name Wineglass Bay.1 Today, it adds, you will find only clear turquoise water there.6

The park's own records back up the whaling past, if not the naming itself. The management plan for Freycinet National Park notes that there were bay whaling stations at Sleepy Bay and at both the north and south ends of Wineglass Bay.2 The plan dates one operation precisely: the station George Meredith set up at Parsons Cove in 1824, known as the Old Fishery, which ran until the mid-1830s.7 Whaling here was a shore industry, carried out from small camps on the beaches.

Other names on the map point the same way. The plan says Slaughterhouse Bay was probably named for its association with the whaling industry.8 Neither the plan nor the parks service gives a date or a person for the naming of Wineglass Bay, and you should treat the blood-red sea as the account Tasmania's tourism body gives rather than a recorded event. What is certain is that the bay you see today was once a place of hard, bloody work.

Names on the map

Where Freycinet's place names come from

NameOriginSource
Schouten IslandNamed by Abel TasmanPark management plan
Freycinet PeninsulaTwo brothers on Baudin's voyagePark management plan
Cape Baudin · Cape FaureNamed by Baudin's expeditionPark management plan
Slaughterhouse BayProbably whalingPark management plan
Wineglass BayA sea red from whalingDiscover Tasmania

From the Freycinet National Park management plan and Discover Tasmania.9,4,8,1

Wineglass Bay history after the whalers

Wineglass Bay history did not end with the whaling stations. The parks service lists whaling parties, tin and coal miners and pastoralists among those who lived and worked on the peninsula, and old mine shafts, farmers' huts and the remains of whalers' camps are now part of the park's heritage.13 Little survives of the whaling itself. The management plan describes the remains as very sparse: piles of whalebone, a few bricks, stone fireplaces and hut foundations.14

Farming left its own mark on the shore. In the 1830s Silas Cole, a farm manager from Cranbrook, north of Swansea, built a hut at Coles Bay and burned shells from the huge Aboriginal middens along Richardsons Beach to make lime, which was shipped to Swansea for mortar.15 It is an uncomfortable detail: ancient cultural sites became building material for the colony across the water.

Tourism arrived slowly. A later management plan records holiday shacks built in 1934 on the site now occupied by Freycinet Lodge, used as an army bivouac in World War II; from 1954 until 1990 a family resort called The Chateau ran there before the site was redeveloped as Freycinet Lodge.16 A 2004 plan change provided for rebuilding the track to the Wineglass Bay Lookout, the path most visitors now climb.17

The granite peaks

How high the mountains of the peninsula rise

  • Mt Parsons331
  • Mt Mayson420
  • Mt Amos445
  • Mt Dove485
  • Mt Graham579
  • Mt Freycinet620

Heights in metres from the Freycinet National Park management plan: the Hazards north of the isthmus, Mt Graham and Mt Freycinet south of it.18,19

Before the whalers: the Oyster Bay nation

Long before any ship arrived, this was Aboriginal country. According to the parks service, the park sits inside the country of the Oyster Bay nation, whose population is estimated at 600-700 people and whose lands stretched from the Derwent Estuary north along the coast as far as the Fingal Valley, and inland to the Midlands.3 Historic records place the peninsula and Schouten Island within the lands of the toorerno-maire-mener clan.24 Captain James Kelly noted Aboriginal people on Schouten Island in 1816.10

The evidence of that life is still in the landscape. Significant Aboriginal sites lie along the coastlines, dunes and estuaries, among them shell middens, rock quarries, rock shelters and stone artefacts.25 The Richardsons Beach camping ground borders a midden that ranks with the biggest known on the east coast.20 When you walk the beach in front of the campground, you are walking past a long record of meals, tools and camps.

These places are not relics of a vanished people. The parks service stresses that the Tasmanian Aboriginal community keeps a living bond with these sites, and it asks visitors to treat them with respect.26 Keep to the paths, never collect shells or stones from middens, and leave anything that looks like an artefact exactly where it lies. The visitor centre at the park entrance introduces both the natural and the cultural heritage of the region through its displays.23

Follow the story

Which part of Freycinet's past do you want to see?

Each thread of the history has a place where you can stand in it.

  • If The whaling era

    Wineglass Bay and Sleepy Bay

    Both held bay whaling stations.2

  • If Aboriginal heritage

    Richardsons Beach, with care

    Beside one of the most extensive middens on the east coast.20

  • If The French names

    Cape Tourville and the Hazards

    Mount Baudin rises above the walk and cycle track.21

  • If The geology

    The lookout

    From there the granite blocks and the tombolo are laid out below.22

  • If The park's story

    The visitor centre

    Its displays cover natural and cultural heritage.23

Three chapters

The peninsula's story in three eras

Living culture

Oyster Bay country

The first people

  • PeopleOyster Bay nation
  • Clantoorerno-maire-mener
  • TracesMiddens, quarries
Explore the history

Shore whaling

The whaling years

Stations on the beaches

  • Station opened1824
  • WhereParsons Cove
  • RemainsWhalebone, bricks
Explore the history

Oldest in Tasmania

The national park

Protected since 1916

  • Reserved1916
  • LengthAbout 48 kilometres
  • AddedFriendly Beaches
Explore the history

How the peninsula got its European names

European names came in layers. In 1642 Abel Tasman explored Tasmania's southern and south-eastern coast and named Schouten Island, along with a stretch of high ground to the north that he called Vanderlins Eylandt.9 That name did not last. The management plan explains that Vanderlins Eylandt was renamed Freycinet Peninsula after two brothers on Captain Nicolas Baudin's French scientific expedition of 1802.4

Baudin's ships charted the area thoroughly and left a cluster of French names behind: Cape Faure, Cape Baudin, Cape Forestier and Thouin Bay among them.4 Look at a map of the park and you still find the expedition everywhere, on capes, bays and peaks. Mount Baudin, one of the Hazards, rises above the walk and cycle track along with Mount Dove and Mount Amos, and you can see all of them from the gentle path between Ranger Creek and the walks.21

The names tell you who mapped this coast and when, not who knew it first. The Oyster Bay people had their own names for these places long before Tasman sailed past, and those names belong to a living community today. Learning a few of them is a small, real way to show respect while you are here. A visit to Freycinet is a good moment to learn both sets of stories, the charted one and the far older one.

A short history

From Tasman's chart to the national park

  1. 1642

    Abel Tasman

    Tasman names Schouten Island and Vanderlins Eylandt.9

  2. 1802

    The French expedition

    Baudin's voyage renames the peninsula after two brothers.4

  3. 1816

    Schouten Island

    Captain James Kelly records Aboriginal people on the island.10

  4. 1824

    The Old Fishery

    George Meredith opens a whaling station at Parsons Cove.7

  5. 1916

    A protected place

    The peninsula and Schouten Island become scenic reserves.11

  6. 1992

    The park grows

    The Friendly Beaches join the national park.12

Granite, sand and the shape of the bay

Whatever its name, the bay owes its shape to rock. According to the parks service, the peninsula took shape over 400 million years: two worn-down masses of granite, the Hazards in the north and Mount Graham with Mount Freycinet in the south, tied together by the sandy isthmus that makes Wineglass Bay.22 The management plan calls this link an unusually wide and well developed tombolo, a bar of sand with dunes and lagoons behind it.46

The peaks are modest in height but striking in form. North of the isthmus rise the Hazards: Mt Parsons (331 metres), Mt Dove (485 metres), Mt Amos (445 metres) and Mt Mayson (420 metres).18 South of it, Mt Graham reaches 579 metres and Mt Freycinet, the highest point on the peninsula, 620 metres.19 The plan calls the Hazards the most outstanding example in Tasmania of large-scale granite weathering and landform development.53

Those rounded domes and orange-stained boulders are what give Freycinet its color, and they change hour by hour. Discover Tasmania describes the park's dramatic pink granite peaks, and in late light they glow above Honeymoon Bay.54,38 Seen from the lookout, the geology is easy to read: granite to the left and right, and between them the long white curve of sand that gave the bay its famous outline.

Video

Coles Bay and the Freycinet Peninsula on film

Libraries Tasmania on YouTube · Tap play to load the video; not before.

These waters were once a hunting ground for Tasmania's historical whaling industry - so much so that the blood-red sea inspired the name 'Wineglass Bay'
Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania)1

Visiting with respect

A checklist for the history-minded visitor

At heritage sites3

  • Never take shells or stones from middens25
  • Keep to paths near the Richardsons Beach midden20
  • Start at the visitor centre displays23

In the park3

  • Carry a valid parks pass50
  • No fires: fuel stoves only51
  • Look for whales from Cape Tourville, May to November52

Tasmania's oldest national park

Here are a few facts about Freycinet National Park that explain why the bay still looks untouched today. Set aside as a national park in 1916, it shares with Mount Field the distinction of being Tasmania's oldest.5 The management plan gives the exact date: on 29 August 1916 the Freycinet Peninsula and Schouten Island were gazetted as scenic reserves under the Scenery Preservation Act 1915.11

The park has grown since. The Friendly Beaches joined it in 1992, and the management plan dates that to 29 January 1992, when 1,920 hectares including those beaches came in.12,55 Today the park measures approximately 48 kilometres from end to end, counting Schouten Island, and is at most 6 kilometres across.56 It runs from the Friendly Beaches in the north to Schouten Island in the south.

Protection shapes how you visit. You need a valid parks pass to get in, drones are banned, dogs are generally not allowed and the whole park is a fuel stove only area where fires are prohibited.50,57,58,51 Those rules can feel strict, but they are the price of a bay that still looks wild a century after it was set aside, and of humpback whales that again visit the waters off the peninsula in winter.59

Wineglass Bay facts for your visit

A handful of Wineglass Bay facts are worth knowing before you go, and some of them surprise even people who have seen the photographs. The 2026 World's 50 Best Beaches list, compiled from the votes of over 1000 people working in travel and content creation, placed the bay at #21.60 Discover Tasmania calls it the park's most popular natural feature.61 Its lookout path, a 1.5-hour walk, carries more walkers than any other track in the park.62

The bay is a working wildlife site again. Whales and dolphins pass through the bay on their migrations, and the parks service singles out humpbacks as regular winter visitors.63,59 Discover Tasmania puts the whale-spotting window at Cape Tourville at about May to November, for humpbacks and southern rights alike.52 It is a striking reversal for a bay whose name recalls the whaling stations.

Reaching the sand still takes effort. The sand lies 6 km there and back from the car park, 2.5-3.5 hrs, with approximately 1000 stairs below the saddle.64,45 Looping back over the isthmus via Hazards Beach makes 11km, a route that counts among Tasmania's 60 Great Short Walks.48,65 Walk it slowly and look for the sparse traces the plan describes: a fireplace stone, a scatter of bricks, a story in the sand.

FAQ

Fast answers to common questions.

Why is it called Wineglass Bay?
For the whaling era, by the official account.

Discover Tasmania says the blood-red sea of the whaling days inspired the name.1

Was there whaling at Wineglass Bay?
Yes.

Records show bay whaling stations at both the north and south ends of Wineglass Bay.2

Who were the first people at Freycinet?
The Oyster Bay nation.

It is Oyster Bay nation country; that nation numbered an estimated 600-700 people.3

Who is Freycinet named after?
Two brothers on Baudin's expedition.

Vanderlins Eylandt was renamed Freycinet Peninsula after two brothers on Baudin's expedition of 1802.4

When did Freycinet become a national park?
In 1916.

It was reserved in 1916 and shares the title of Tasmania's oldest national park with Mount Field.5

How was the bay formed?
Granite blocks joined by sand.

The bay is the sand isthmus between two eroded blocks of granite.22

What is the highest point on the peninsula?
Mt Freycinet.

The management plan gives Mt Freycinet as the highest point, at 620 metres.19

Sources

  1. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Wild and woolly walks through history ↩
  2. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  3. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  4. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  5. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  6. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Wild and woolly walks through history ↩
  7. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  8. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  9. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  10. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  11. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  12. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  13. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  14. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  15. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  16. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park Management Plan 2016 (PDF) ↩
  17. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park Management Plan 2016 (PDF) ↩
  18. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  19. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  20. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  21. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet Walk and Cycle Track ↩
  22. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  23. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  24. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  25. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  26. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  27. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park
  28. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Swansea
  29. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet Peninsula
  30. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Bicheno
  31. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park
  32. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park
  33. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet Peninsula
  34. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Friendly Beaches
  35. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Cape Tourville
  36. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Sleepy Bay
  37. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park
  38. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet Peninsula ↩
  39. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park
  40. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet overnight walker campsites
  41. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park
  42. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park
  43. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Mount Amos
  44. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Mount Amos
  45. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay ↩
  46. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  47. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach
  48. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach ↩
  49. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet overnight walker campsites
  50. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay Lookout ↩
  51. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay ↩
  52. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet Peninsula ↩
  53. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  54. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park ↩
  55. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  56. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park and Wye River State Reserve Management Plan 2000 (PDF) ↩
  57. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  58. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Dogs in parks ↩
  59. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Freycinet National Park ↩
  60. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park ↩
  61. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park ↩
  62. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Wineglass Bay Lookout ↩
  63. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay ↩
  64. Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service · Wineglass Bay ↩
  65. Discover Tasmania (Tourism Tasmania) · Guide to Freycinet National Park ↩

More to read

More to read before you go

GuideHobart to Wineglass Bay day trip, hour by hourGuideWineglass Bay tours comparedGuideThe Wineglass Bay cruiseGuideFreycinet park pass and entry fee

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