In general, Tasmania is wetter than any other part of Australia, and virtually the entire island is forested, except for the high peaks and rugged plains above the tree line.

Although the mountains here are lower than their equivalents on the mainland— Mt Ossa, Tasmania’s highest only reaches 1,614m— this alpine area was very heavily glaciated during the last ice ages, and it is generally bleaker, more treeless and more exposed than the Australian Alps. Walkers have died of hypothermia in the summer, on these ranges! There are very few mountain huts, just one or two old ones built by trappers.

The vegetation here is special — Huon Pine; King Billy Pine; Celery-Top Pine; Antarctic Beech; Pandanus; spiky Scoparia;  Button-Grass; and above all, virtually impenetrable Horizontal — scrub that forms a woven forest up to 6 metres high! Plunge into this and abandon all hope of seeing where you are going!

The worst scrub we ever encountered was on the Tyndall Range on the West Coast, but we cannot claim to be scrub connoisseurs. To hear about real scrub, the stuff where you have to slave to make any progress, talk to people like Les Southwell or John Chapman. Incidentally, photos of Tasmania can be very misleading, and areas that look from a distance like easy going through heath may in fact be incredibly scrubby and effectively impassable.

Tasmania is not a place that rewards walkers who attempt to retreat downhill, and many epic searches lasting days or weeks have ended discouragingly with the bodies of missing walkers never being located.

These pages provide images and personal experience of Tasmanian bushwalking, but no detailed track notes. These days, bushwalking is well documented, and below you will find links to useful websites, tour operators,  and, in particular, the walking guides written by John Chapman and John Siseman, to whom we all owe a great debt.

Catered organised walks, on which you only carry a light pack,  are very popular with overseas visitors, and are offered in a number of delightful easier walking areas.

The Central Plateau and the Reserve

There are still wonderful unspoiled walking areas nearby, particularly the Labyrinth and the spectacular Walls of Jerusalem. The latter is not a huge area, but the peaks are sensational and there are thousands of lakes and tarns.

It is possible to link extended walks from the Walls to the high peaks of the ‘Reserve’, as Cradle Mountain National Park is locally known.

For detailed information about the Central Plateau and the Reserve:

Link to Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair guidebook...

South-West Tasmania

The typical walk is about 7 days, but longer expeditions are possible. Tough parties carry 14 days of food, or more, and visit real wilderness areas, places devoid of detailed maps or track notes.

The latter walks — expeditions, really — are invariably through trackless scrub, where you might be lucky to cover two kilometres in a day. These walks are definitely not for inexperienced visitors. In the 50’s and 60’s, extended walks here were made possible by airdrops of food and supplies. These were eventually  — and quite rightly — banned because of the intractable litter problem they caused on the high campsites.

You shouldn’t go south west at all, if:

•    you are concerned about leeches, flies and mosquitoes;

•    you can’t tolerate scrub bashing, fields of moraine and knee-deep             muddy tracks; and

•    you are not equipped for foul, sub-antarctic weather.

John Chapman estimates half the parties visiting the high ranges turn back because of intolerably wet weather. From the Arthurs, the southern ocean coast is generally visible, 1,000 m below, and just a few kilometres away. Storms may sweep in unhindered from the Roaring Forties in any season.

Even organising transport to and from these walks can be a major operation. Popular destinations include Frenchman’s Cap, Precipitous Bluff, the Western Arthurs; the iconic Eastern Arthurs and Federation Peak (1,224m). In all these areas, the only facilities might include an occasional log bridge across a dangerous river; a section of cut and benched track to avoid a mud-hole; a rare lean-to shelter hut; a rough sloping muddy campsite or two cut into the scrub; and the occasional pit toilet constructed by Park Rangers.

In January 1983, we were forced to retreat on a South West trip due to seriously life-threatening weather. Read about it in my Western Arthurs trip diary...

A great introductory walk is the 7 day South Coast track, a good 70 km trail which was cut over a century ago to enable shipwrecked sailors to walk out of nowhere back towards Hobart. You usually begin by being dropped off at Melaleuca airstrip by light plane. This is definitely not an easy walk by European standards, but it is the easiest big walk in SW Tasmania.

Link to Maria island guided walks...

Link to Freycinet National Park guided walks..

Link to Tasmanian Expeditions — small group guided trips...

Link to John Chapman’s pages...

Link to the Tasmanian National Park pages...