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Bruny Island Tours › Do You Need a Parks Pass for Bruny Island?Updated 2026-09-21

Do You Need a Parks Pass for Bruny Island?

Hours, prices and access verified by the Bruny Island Tours team — last checked 2026-09-21.

Turquoise water below a bush-covered slope, a white beach curving away

The short answer. You need a parks pass only inside South Bruny National Park: the lighthouse grounds, Fluted Cape, Grass Point, Cloudy Bay and the other walks in the south. The ferry, The Neck, Adventure Bay and the food producers need none. A daily pass costs $49.15 per vehicle or $24.55 per person on foot, by bike or on a bus. Some tour fares include it; check yours before you buy one.

Quick facts

  • Who sets it: the Parks and Wildlife Service Tasmania.
  • Where you need it: inside South Bruny National Park, nowhere else on the island.
  • Daily pass: $49.15 per vehicle (up to 8 people), or $24.55 per person.
  • Children: under 5 are free.
  • Prices: Australian dollars, last updated by the Service on 1 July 2026, reviewed each year.
  • On a tour: in the fare on some days, not on others; check the card.

Why an island with no gate has a pass

Bruny Island has no entry ticket and no gate: you roll off the ferry and drive where you like. There is no Bruny Island entry ticket to buy, and anyone who sells you one is selling something else. The one place a fee applies is the national park in the south. The Parks and Wildlife Service puts it plainly: a valid parks pass is required for entry to Tasmania's national parks.

South Bruny National Park takes in the coastline, and some of the land behind it, from Fluted Cape round to Great Taylor's Bay. That covers most of what people come south for: the lighthouse, the cliff walks and the long surf beach at Cloudy Bay. If you are pricing Bruny Island day tours, the pass is one of three costs you might meet yourself, with the ferry and the lighthouse tour. All three are set out on the visitor guide.

What each pass costs

The Service sells several passes, and the right one depends on how you travel and how many parks you will visit in Tasmania. These are its prices as of September 2026. Check them before you travel, because the fees are reviewed each year in line with inflation.

PassPer vehicle (up to 8)Per person (bus, bike, foot)Covers
Daily Pass$49.15$24.55Up to 24 hours
Holiday Pass$98.35$49.20All parks, up to 2 months
Annual Park Pass$104.75—All parks, a year
Annual, one park$53.50—One park, a year

Concessions take 20% off selected passes for holders of an Australian Government Seniors Card, Pensioner Concession Card, Health Care or DVA card: the annual pass drops to $83.85, and the one-park pass to $42.80. Children under 5 go free on every pass.

Which pass you need

For a single day on the island in your own car, the Daily Pass per vehicle is the answer, and it covers up to eight people in the car. If you travel by bike or on foot, you pay per person. Two people cycling pay about the same as one car.

If Bruny Island is one stop on a longer trip round Tasmania, do the sums. Two Daily Passes cost $98.30, and the Holiday Pass costs $98.35 for two months of every park. So if you will visit national parks on three or more days, the Holiday Pass is the cheaper choice. Mount Field and Freycinet, for example, are national parks too.

Useful tip. Sort the pass before you cross, along with fuel and cash. There is no ATM on the island, and the only fuel is at the Adventure Bay General Store.

Where you need it, and where you do not

  • Need a pass: the lighthouse grounds, Fluted Cape and Grass Point, Cloudy Bay, East Cloudy Head and the Labillardiere Peninsula.
  • No pass: the ferry, The Neck and Truganini Lookout, Adventure Bay, Alonnah and every food producer.
  • Climbing the lighthouse: you need a pass, and the climb is a separate paid tour on top of it.

The walks inside the park are graded on the things to do page, and the lighthouse, its grounds and its tours are on the lighthouse page.

Families and groups

The vehicle pass is the bargain for a family. It covers up to eight people in one car, so two adults and three children pay $49.15 between them for the day, and a full people mover pays the same. Children under 5 are free on every pass, whether you arrive by car, bike or on foot.

Groups on a bus are a different sum. A tour bus is not your vehicle, so each traveller counts as one person, at $24.55 each for the day. That is why it matters whether your tour fare already covers the pass: on a coach of twenty it is the operator's bill or yours, and the answer is on the booking page.

Which tours include the pass

Most day tours from Hobart stop somewhere in the national park, so the question is who pays. The fares split three ways, and the difference is worth up to $24.55 each if you guess wrong.

The dayPass in the fare?What to do
The food days with the lighthouse climbYesNothing
The guided walking and sightseeing daysYesNothing
The private all-inclusive Discovery dayYes, as park feesNothing
The 2-day and 4-day toursYesNothing
The 3-day tour and the shore excursionListed, with a note to buy oneAsk at booking
The cruise, the cruise days, the other food and walking daysNot mentionedAsk the operator

The food and lighthouse day is the clearest case: the national park entry sits in its fare with the ferry, every meal and the climb. See the food day with the lighthouse climb. The guided walking day also carries it, at a lower fare, on the guided walking and sightseeing day. The cruise from Adventure Bay spends its time on the water and does not land in the park, and its fare mentions no pass.

Important. The 3-day tour and the shore excursion put a pass in their includes and also tell you to buy one. Do not guess. Ask the operator at booking, and buy your own only if they say so. The days that cross Tasmania in two to four days are compared on Tasmania Bruny Island tours.

Driving yourself: pass, ferry and fuel

If you bring a car, you pay for two things before you reach the south: the ferry and the pass. The ferry charges per vehicle, and foot passengers ride free. The pass is $49.15 for the car. Add fuel before you cross, because the only pump on the island is at the Adventure Bay General Store.

Two more things: the island's roads are partly gravel, and the Service asks you not to drive through its reserves at night. How the ferry works is on the getting to Bruny Island page, and the roads are on the roads and wildlife page.

On foot or by bike

You can cross as a foot passenger for nothing, but the national park is a long way south of the ferry landing at Roberts Point: the lighthouse is about an hour and a quarter's drive. So a foot passenger heading for the lighthouse needs a bike, a tour or a lift. If you cycle, each rider pays the per-person pass, $24.55 for a day.

A tour that includes the pass is often the simplest answer for anyone without a car. The walking days that put the pass in the fare are compared on Bruny Island walking tours.

Days with the pass already paid

Next: See how the island feeds you in the food trail, stop by stop. Every fare sits side by side on Bruny Island Tours.