Bushwalk Australia

Hi everyone,

Great site you've got here! I'm flying from Sydney down to Hobart early Friday morning and staying until Tuesday. I will probably spend a day or so around Hobart and also plan on seeing Port Arthur as well as staying one night in Burnie with a friend.

With all this traveling and trying to see as much of Tassie as I can in 4 days, does anyone have any recommendations for day trips I could do in any of those locations? I probably will not bring my tent and camping gear, but I would like to take at least one or two day walks. I also have gore-tex trail runners but no boots with me. Will that be a problem? Do I need to buy some gaiters? What places are accessible at this time of year?

Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions you can offer.

Cheers!

Hi mw11, good to have you on the forum.
When in Hobart you can walk ( or drive )to the top of Mt. Wellington. There is still quite a bit of snow up there.
While on the Tasman peninsula there are walks such as Waterfall bay to Fortesque bay, or the Candlestick.
I will leave the Burnie end to learned forumites from the north of the state

Flyfisher

Further to flyfisher's suggestions, most places on the east coast are usually good at this time of year - Maria Island and Freycinet are two more options on this side of the island that are worth spending some time exploring.

Tony Robinson

Burnie you say?

Well, your options in less than an hours driving are limited to a few, but they're not bad walks. In Burnie itself there's a short river stroll out at Fern Glade, that's a nice short little wander just on the outskirts of town.

As for proper walks. I'd suggest The Dial Range (East of Burnie) is a goer definitely. You can take your pick of flat forest walks or nice mountain-top views. The Gnomon, Duncan and Mount Montgomery are all goers. Monty is the easiest to get to (views are better than Gnomon too).

West of Burnie is Rocky Cape National Park. There are a lot of walks in this coastal park, I have no experience with any of them though. Quite a lot of walking books like John Chapman and Hardy and Elsons cover Rocky Cape though.

Behind Burnie is a favourite of mine, but it's likely to be heavily snowcapped at the moment, that's St. Valentines Peak. On one hand, the views a from up there reach for hundreds of k's, and the sense of height is exaggerated by the flat land around the mountain. On the other hand, the immediate view is of a lot of plantation forest, there is a little bit of scrub to push through initially, and well, even if the weather looks good, it can still catch you out up there in the blink of an eye.

Thems my suggestions.

With all that driving, your best bet is to take advantage of short walks on well-formed tracks so gaiters should not be needed. Getting off the beaten track and into the nasty scrub is not a good idea when you have longish drives and deadlines to meet.

Are you aware of Tassie driving times? 50km on a Tasmanian road can mean anything from 30 to 90 minutes of driving depending where you are. Are you flying in and out of Hobart? If so, the trip to Burnie and back will eat a chunk of your stay? Do you need to avoid gravel due to hire car issues?

The trip from Hobart to Burnie and back is approx 3.5 hours each way on Highway 1. Do yourself a favour and take a different route each way.

Hobart to Burnie via the west coast takes about 7hours one way with a heap of sub 30 minute nature walks and lookouts along the way. E.g. Lake St Clair, Franklin River, Donaghy's Hill, Nelson Falls, Hellyer Gorge, etc. This is hard core in a day, especially in winter. Most people would stop at Strahan or Queenstown along the way.

Going from Hobart to Burnie over the Central Plateau via the Highland Lakes Road (gravel) or Poatina Road (sealed) will add 60 to 90 minutes on to the Highway 1 time. Again, you pass some great walk opportunities such as Pine Lake, Liffey Falls, Quamby Bluff, Projection Bluff, etc.

As you are planning to see Port Arthur, Burnie via at least half of the east coast is a good option. Hobart to PA is almost 90 minutes. PA to Freycinet (Coles Bay), 3 hours. Freycinet to Burnie via Lake Leake, 4 hours. Like the west coast, this is best done in 2 days so you can enjoy short walks such as Wineglass Bay Lookout or longer walks to Wineglass Bay or Mt Amos.

Have you been to Cradle Mountain before? If not, you can travel via Ridgley, Cradle Mountain and Sheffield between Burnie and Elizabeth Town. This will take approx 3 hours instead of 1 hour via Highway 1. Cradle has a host of walking options of all levels of difficulty and duration.

Highway 1 passes through almost no bush at all. The alternate routes described above all travel through at least some wilderness areas so you can almost feel like you've been bushwalking without getting out of the car.

Have fun!!!

P.S. Hopefully this 4-day visit will entice you to return for more.

tastrekker wrote:Hopefully this 4-day visit will entice you to return for more.

Couldn't agree more. I've spent about 7 weeks in Tasmania over the past 3 years in 4 separate trips and have barely scratched the surface. 4 days is really very short so I recommend that you do some judicious planning before leaving (posting and researching here is a good start!). If you haven't already done so I recommend getting appropriate road maps etc and study them well before you leave.

Tastrekker and others have provided some great ideas. Unfortunately you won't have time to do all of them. You don't say what means of land travel, but we're assuming that you are hiring a car leaving from Hobart Airport?

Tourism Tasmania had an office in Sydney CBD near Wynyard railway station (just off York St) but looking at google maps photo the building appears to be up for lease. Where did they go? They used to provide a really good free touring map that shows the location of many of the short walks already mentioned. Alternatively, try this link to download some maps and other info:

http://www.discovertasmania.com/maps

If you are definitely going to Port Arthur I can recommend one of Flyfisher's suggestions. If you can, do the walk from Fortescue Bay to Cape Hauy (Candlestick). About 10km/3 hours return. However you do need to drive down a (potholed) gravel road to get to the start. Check with your car hire co. if they allow unsealed road use. Depending on other logistics it may be possible to do Cape Hauy walk and visit Port Arthur historic site in one day.

As TT said the Midlands Hwy (1) is quickest way to the north but no bushwalking. Plenty of historic towns, buildings, bridges though.

johnw wrote:If you can, do the walk from Fortescue Bay to Cape Hauy (Candlestick). About 10km/3 hours return. However you do need to drive down a (potholed) gravel road to get to the start. Check with your car hire co. if they allow unsealed road use.

If you can't drive to Fortescue Bay for the excellent cape Hauy walk or time prohibits, then just past Port Arthur is Remarkable Cave (worth the visit alone) and a very good coastal walk to Mount Brown. This is a much neglected walk IMO as you start with great views over Maingon Bay towards Cape Raoul as you wander along through the coastal brush. You can venture down along the rocky coast before coming to the cliffs of Maingon Blowhole. Quite a spectacular spot with steep cliffs. A bit more walking and you will come to the base of Mt Brown (approx 1 hour). If you continue ahead you can venture down to Crescent Bay which is a pristine unspoilt beach. Continue up Mt Brown for a reasonably steep (but short) climb to the top. The views over Crescent Bay make this climb easier . When you reach the top you will get panormaic views to the east of the sea cliffs all the way across to Cape Pillar and Tasman Island. Wander around the open summit and across to the eastern side and look down the sheer cliffs and the punding sea 180+ metres below. Go to the southern side and gaze across an ocean that doesn't end until Antarctica.

If you want to check the walk out, load up Google Earth. The track and high res images of the area is on there now thanks to the new upgrade. The track is very easy to follow but I would recommend long trousers as the track is a little overgrown with scrub in places. The walk takes around 3-4 hours return (add 1 hour to check out Crescent Bay) depending on how much exploring and admiring you do. Given that is is only 10 minutes from piort arthur both features can be easily done in a day. Nothing special required for this walk, except the long trousers (as I mentioned before) and a camera.

Whilst in the area, check out the Tesselated Pavement, the Blowhole, Devil's Kitchen & Tasman Arch. Make sure you check out all the house names in Doo Town too, seriously funny. Most of all, enjoy your stay in tassie

If you're taking highway 1 you can stop in at Oatlands which has a fair amount of bouldering available if you're interested in that kind of thing......