Corinna is a place with a lot of history packed into very little space. A gold rush in the 1880s turned this bend of the Pieman River into a town of hundreds, with a hotel, shops and a stream of miners and timber cutters, and then the gold ran out and the people left. Today it is a handful of buildings in the middle of the Tarkine, one of the largest tracts of temperate rainforest in Australia, with a small wilderness lodge and a few cabins on the old townsite. The Pieman River is dark as tea, stained by tannins from the button-grass and the forest, and it moves slowly under the trees.
What sets Corinna apart is the river crossing. The road to the north crosses the Pieman by a small cable barge, nicknamed the Fatman, which carries a few vehicles at a time and runs during daylight, so check the times and have the fare ready. On a motorbike it is a gentle, slightly comic moment, standing with your helmet in your hand while the river drifts by. Beyond the crossing, the road changes character, and the gravel of the Western Explorer begins in earnest.
Around the settlement the forest is dense and mossy, full of myrtle, sassafras and the treasured huon pine, which can live for over a thousand years, and was once logged in the area. Cruises run on the Pieman toward the coast, where the river meets the sea at Pieman Heads, and the walks along the riverbank are gentle. The Tarkine's Aboriginal name, takayna, is increasingly used, and the area is rich with Aboriginal heritage, including ancient middens along the coast.
You should treat Corinna as remote. The nearest sizeable settlement is Zeehan to the south, a mining town with a mining museum, but the roads are long and slow. Mobile reception is unreliable, so tell someone your plan. In return you get a feeling of being properly far from anything, with only the sound of rain in the leaves and the creak of the barge cable to keep you company.