Bay of Fires

The Bay of Fires is located close to St Helen's on the North East coast of Tasmania. It was named by Captain Tobias Furneaux in 1773 because he noticed numerous fires along the coast, They where the fires of the local Indigenous population. Furneaux, was a British navigator and navy officer who accompanied Cook on his second exploration of the area. He was the first man to circumnavigate the world in both directions. He drew the earliest European maps of Tasmania, during 1773-1774, Many of the names of places on that map survive to the current day. The Bay of Fires being one of them ! Recently The Bay of Fires was voted the second most beautiful beach in the world in The Lonely Planet Guide. It has been one of Austalia's best kept secrets, where tourists have enjoyed almost deserted beaches, of pure white sand and transluscent aquamarine water, set against a backdrop of orange hued granite boulders