Hot Air Ballooning

Tasmania is really not the place to go for a hot air balloon ride, unless you want to bring your own. There are no commercial operators here, so balloon flights over this beautiful state are few and far between. If you really want a birds eye view of the beautiful state of Tasmania, you’d better take a scenic flight. Hot air ballooning just doesn’t happen very often around here.

It does happen occasionally, though. One of the first unsuccessful attempts at balloon flight in Australia happened in Launceston, and you can see the spot this happened in Princes Square. There are no balloons even attempting to fly around here now, though. Well, not often anyway. In May of 2004, a ‘flying house’ could be seen floating over Launceston as part of the annual Agfest, Tassie’s premier rural event. It was actually a giant hot air balloon, taking passengers over the festival and Launceston.

The balloon also stopped traffic in Hobart, where neighbourhood residents jammed the switchboard of the local radio station to report the strange sight. Hot air balloons, let alone flying houses, are a rare sight over Hobart because of the surrounding mountains and bay.

But unless you want to hang around until something like this happens again, you’d better find another way to see Tassie!