Island guide · Austral Islands
Tubuai,
the garden capital.
A broad lagoon nearly twice the island's size, market gardens in volcanic soil, and a strange footnote of the Bounty story.
01 / Orientation
Fields, reef,
and a fort that failed.
Tubuai is the administrative center of the Australs: about 45 km² of gentle volcanic hills — Taita'a rises 422 m — inside a reef that encloses a lagoon of roughly 85 km², nearly double the land. About 2,200 people live in Mataura, Taahueia, and Mahu, and the island's temperate edge lets it grow what the tropics struggle with: potatoes, carrots, lychees, coffee.
In 1789 the Bounty mutineers tried to make Tubuai their refuge, building a stockade — Fort George — on the northeast shore. Two violent months later they gave up and sailed back to Tahiti; the site remains a quiet field with a story far larger than its stones.
02 / Essential facts
The island
in numbers.
Austral Islands, about 640 km south of Tahiti
Roughly 1 h 45 by airAbout 45 km²; Mount Taita'a 422 m
Lagoon nearly twice the land2,185 at the 2022 census; Mataura is the chief village
The Australs' admin centerWide, shallow, and windsurf-friendly; motu picnics on the reef
Kite and sail conditionsFort George, the Bounty mutineers' two-month colony of 1789
A field with a plaqueMild — expect 20–25 °C much of the year
Bring that extra layer
03 / What it does best
An island
that feeds islands.
Tubuai's growers ship produce north to Papeete's market — visit in lychee season and the whole island smells of harvest.
04 / A sensible first visit
Days that
use the island well.
- 01Rent wheels on arrival
A bike or scooter covers the 24 km belt road; the cross-island track adds the hills.
- 02Do one lagoon day
Boat out to the motu for shallow, bright water — wind sports thrive in the trade season.
- 03Find Fort George
The mutineers' field is marked and easily reached; pair it with the east-coast beaches.
- 04Eat what the island grows
Lychees around December, taro always, and vegetables rare elsewhere in the territory.
Weather & marine forecast
Check conditions close to travel, not months out.
Météo-France Polynésie ↗Official destination info
Events, closures, and operator lists move often.
Tahiti Tourisme ↗Nearby & next