The Wall in the Wilderness

The sculptor Greg Duncan began carving in 2005 with the intention of filling a hundred metres of wall with panels of Huon pine, three metres high, depicting the history of the Tasmanian central highlands: the Aboriginal people, the piners who cut Huon pine from the rivers, the hydro workers, the graziers, and the animals of the plateau, including a thylacine. Each panel is carved in relief from timber salvaged rather than newly felled, and the work took more than a decade. The building is unheated and simple, and photography inside is not permitted, a rule the artist enforces strictly, which means the work is known largely by reputation.

What you actually see

• The carved panels - a hundred metres of relief carving in Huon pine.
• The highland history - Aboriginal people, piners, hydro workers and graziers.
• The timber itself - salvaged Huon pine, a slow-growing endemic species.
• The scale - three-metre panels running the length of the building.

When to go

Year-round; the gallery opens daily with shorter winter hours. Derwent Bridge is cold and often snowbound in winter, and the building is unheated. It combines naturally with Lake St Clair, which is minutes away.

Honest expectations

Photography inside is completely prohibited and enforced, which frustrates many visitors. Entry is charged. The building is plain and cold. The visit takes under an hour, and there is little else at Derwent Bridge.

Nearby

Lake St Clair is a few kilometres away; Queenstown lies west.