The Central Highlands Council is a Local Government Area in the central highland region of Tasmania. It is the second largest Local Government Area of Tasmania, after the West Coast, and the least densely populated, with only 0.3 people per square kilometre.
The population of the area is small and quite decentralised, resulting in a large number of small towns. Some of these towns were founded as support sites for workers on the hydro-electric dams scattered along the upper Derwent River. Main towns are considered Hamilton (council headquarters) and Bothwell, but the largest town is Tarraleah.