George Town and Low Head are classified as Historic Towns, with Low Head boasting a working pilot service and signal station since 1805 and George Town built by convicts on the site where Europeans first landed in northern Van Diemen's Land 1804. You're spoilt for choice in accommodation and dining options in award-winning establishments, plus optional BBQs with a new pump track and adventure playground catering for all ages nearby.
An easy shared pathway winds its way around York Cove and along the scenic river's edge out to the Low Head Lighthouse, complementing the more recent MTB Trails at Mount George and Tippogoree Hills soon to be completed. While many of George Town's earliest buildings are long gone, some remain and the history lives on in the old 1855 Watch House, the Bass and Flinders Maritime Museum, the Community Quilts in the Memorial Hall and in Regent Square.
Drive the short scenic riverside route north to the Low Head peninsula where the Pilot Station has operated since 1805 and Little Penguins gather at dusk. The original 1847 Coxswain's Cottage now houses a seafood shack and in the adjacent 1835 convict-built Pilots Row you'll find the renowned Maritime Museum with its 13 rooms of genuine artefacts on display. The remaining Pilot Station buildings and the Lightkeepers' Cottages offer heritage accommodation in these scenic locations.
Continue to the end of the road [if you go any further, you're in Bass Strait!] where convicts built Australia's third Lighthouse in 1833. It was replaced by the present iconic Low Head Lighthouse in 1888 and the views of the whole Tamar Valley and the northern coastline from here are superb. You can see Table Cape on a clear day!
This is an ideal central destination from which to explore the coastal villages and the surrounding beaches, vineyards, wineries, distilleries and agricultural areas in the Pipers River Valley and the Hillwood area and take in a nocturnal Penguin Tour.