A search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, at least one hadronically decaying $\tau$ lepton and zero additional light leptons ($e$/$\mu$), has been performed using \integLumi of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and a 95% confidence level visible cross section upper limit for new phenomena is set. In the framework of minimal gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, exclusion limits on the breaking scale $\Lambda$ are set at 54 TeV, independently of $\tan\beta$. Exclusion limits are derived also for an mSUGRA/CMSSM model, for which the parameters are chosen in such a way that the Higgs mass is compatible with the recent discovery of a Higgs boson-like particle at the LHC. A further interpretation is presented in a framework of natural gauge mediation in which the gluino is assumed to be the only light coloured sparticle and decays in $\tau$-enriched final states. Gluino masses below 1.14 TeV are excluded in this hypothesis.