Orford lies at the mouth of the Prosser River at the end of Paradise Gorge on the east coast, just 80 kilometres north of Hobart.

Orford was named by Edward Walpole, who was granted 1,000 acres (4 km²) in the area in 1831 and the town was first established as a mainland port for the convict settlement on Maria Island.

A quarry situated between Orford and Spring Beach provided sandstone for use in buildings in Hobart and Melbourne, including the Melbourne General Post Office. Sandstone blocks cut from the quarry were rolled down on to ships waiting at a jetty at the foot of the cliff face.

Orford has several clean, picturesque beaches - including Raspins, Millingons, Spring and Rheban - with a popular campsite at Raspins Beach. Nearby is the well-regarded 9-hole Orford Golf Course and the Darlington Vineyard.

In February 2007 an artificial reef and dive site was created from the scuttling of the ship the Troy D in the Mercury Passage approximately 1 km off Maria Island, to further bolster the area's reputation as a premier location for scuba diving, thanks to its unpolluted water and abundant sea life.

The ferry from nearby Eastcoaster Resort takes you to Maria, a very special island which has something for everyone - historic ruins, sweeping bays, rugged cliffs and mountains and a remarkably tame wildlife. Explorer-discoverer Abel Tasman named the island in honour of Maria Van Diemen, wife of the Governor of Batavia.

To forestall any attempt by the French to establish a toehold in the New World, the English established a settlement on Maria in 1823, seven years before the founding of the Port Arthur penal colony.

There is a hotel, quite a few holiday units, holiday houses available for rent, a convention centre, a small Anglican church and a police station. There is a golf course, a lawn bowls club, a cricket club, a small hall and a community netball court.

The Old Convict Road is precisely as its name suggests - a road built by convicts- is now a pleasant walk through the bush land beside the river. No one knows exactly when the road was built although it must have been constructed some time between 1841 when a Probation Station for new convicts was established at Buckland and 1855 when the last Probation Station in the area was closed down. The walk lasts about 40 minutes.

The weather on Tasmania’s east coast is typically settled and warm, with an average maximum temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius in summer and 10-15 degrees Celsius in winter.