Strzelecki Australian Cycling Tour from Sydney to Hobart

In 1839 Explorer Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki set off from Sydney on a journey of scientific discovery. We follow his 5-month journey into the Great Dividing Range through the Snowy Mountains to Melbourne. Spend a rest day in the skiing township of Thredbo, NSW, giving you a chance to explore Australia’s highest peak. Strzelecki climbed and named Mt Kosciuszko in March 1840.

Stage 2 of this Australian bike tour heads into bushranger county and along the Murray River before turning back into the mountains and summiting Mt Hotham, Australia’s highest sealed road at 1,840 metres.

A beautiful descent through forested wilderness continues over two days to the coast from where Strzelecki’s expedition took a turn for the worse and he was forced to leave his horses and mineral samples behind. Strzelecki would have likely died of starvation had it not been for the knowledge and hunting skills of his two Aboriginal guides as they made a 3-week long dash to Melbourne.

With much of the dense forest which caused Strzelecki’s expedition so much trouble now open farmland, we instead skirt the mountains and ride through the fern-filled Yarra Ranges before entering Australia’s most cycle-friendly city: Melbourne.

Stage 3 of this Australian cycling tour starts with an overnight ferry journey from Melbourne, VIC, to the port town of Devonport in Tasmania. Strzelecki spent 2 years exploring almost every part of the island and our route heads to what he considered (and thankfully still is) the wildest and most beautiful parts of this southern gem — known internationally as offering some of the most scenic cycling in the world. After exploring the mountainous heights and the rainforest lined west coast of Tasmania, the cycling tour finishes in Hobart, Australia’s second-oldest capital and its historical charms are still evident to this day.