Hastings Caves and Thermal Springs are 90 minutes' drive south of Hobart and just one hour from Huonville. These great dolomite caves started to form, we believe, about 40 million years ago and remained unseen until 1917, when timber workers discovered the entrance. They named their magnificent find after the governor of the time, Sir Francis Newdegate. Newdegate Cave is the largest tourist cave in Australia and occurs in dolomite rather than limestone.

Parks and Wildlife Service conduct 45-minute daily tours through the large highly decorated cavern. Formations in the cave are large and spectacular including flowstone, stalactites, columns, shawls, straws, stalagmites and the unusual helictites. The Cave is spacious, well lit and there are no narrow passages. There are around 240 stairs but these are traversed in small sections. The underground temperate is naturally maintained at nine degrees celsius all year round.
Tours operate hourly beginning at 1000 (from September through April) and from 1100 from the end of April to September (please phone for confirmation). You can buy your tickets from the Visitor Centre on the way to the caves.

The Hastings Cave Visitor Centre and Thermal Springs Pool is about five kilometres from the Cave entrance and you will find modern well equipped facilities including interpretation, souvenirs and a licensed cafe.

The Thermal Pool is surrounded by forest and ferns with a large picnic area equipped with change rooms, showers and toilets, electric barbecues, forest walks and a picnic shelter with open fires. The pool is fed from a spring that supplies spring water at around 28 degrees Celsius all year round. It is hygienically controlled and has a paddling pool for children.