Tasmania's Aboriginal people occupied the Southwest for 30,000 years or more - indeed during the last Ice Age they may have been the most southerly people on earth - but European settlers in the early 1800s decimated Aboriginal culture across the whole island of Tasmania. Whaling and timber-getting first brought Europeans to the Southwest, but this presence was short-lived - in just 20 years the resources were depleted, leaving the remote Southwest wilderness largely forgotten and unoccupied.

Nowadays, few people journey to the Southwest, and it's not for the feint-hearted. Though with Roaring 40°s guides and resources, visitors need no prior kayaking experience, just good health and a robust sense of adventure ...