Tasmania’s King Island is the perfect place for just about anyone to take a hike.
Story Terri Cowley Photos Neil Newitt
Beautifully windswept King Island – a flat, green oval emerging from Bass Strait about halfway between Victoria and Tasmania – is best known for 3 things: cheese, golf and beef. The owners of a new business that makes much of the place’s wide-open spaces, bracing Roaring Forties, abundant wildlife and oceanic proximity, want to add one more: walks.
Adam and Anna Hely, former Queenslanders who visited the island as valuers and fell in love with it 8 years ago, and moved here, are in the box seat to see what’s missing in the local tourism offering. They own King Island Rentals, which has an impressive 90 cars in its fleet – you can’t put your car on a boat to the island, and there’s no public transport.
“We wanted to create something for the plus-one market,” Adam says. “A lot of people come here to golf, but their partners are looking for something else to do.”
Adam had been mulling over this opportunity when he heard an interview on the local community radio station with retiring physical education teacher Ian Allan. The fit, marathon-running outdoorsman was saying he wanted to establish guided walks on the island. With Adam’s business background and Ian’s fondness for hiking boots, it seemed a perfect match.
Listen to our interview with King Island businessman Adam Hely on the R.M.Williams OUTBACK podcast.
This story excerpt is from Issue #161
Outback Magazine: June/July 2025
