The town is on the northern end of Great Oyster Bay with views of the red and pink granite peaks known as The Hazards, on the Freycinet Peninsula.

Each Easter the town is one of the three locations for the Australian Three Peaks Race, a continuous sailing and running event starting at Beauty Point just north of Launceston and ending at Hobart with runners scaling three mountains including Mount Freycinet (33 km run; 620 m ascent).

Whaling parties, tin and coal miners and pastoralists are some of the many people who have lived and worked on the Freycinet Peninsula since European settlement.

Old mine shafts and abandoned farmers' huts remain today and attract tourists.

[6] The town became one of the first in the world to ban plastic shopping bags in April 2003, after a two-year campaign.