Mount Wellington walk map

[walktasmania]

A week or so ago,while on the Wellington Falls Circuit, I stupidly missed the enormous cairn on the Montague Fire Trail which shows the way down to Wellington Falls. I wandered on in beautiful weather to the top of Thark Ridge, realised my mistake, retraced my steps and finally completed the Circuit in 9 1/2 hours. It was a long but satisfying day, but it did make me realise that I really needed a good SINGLE map showing all the tracks on Mount Wellington. I fully realise that safety concerns may well cause the map-maker to withdraw sections of track from a map once they get hard to follow - however a map showing disconnected sections of track with no indication if they have ever been (or could be) joined up is also pretty unhelpful - many existing Mount Wellington maps are just like this.

So .... attached is my initial attempt at a Mount Wellington walk map which shows all the tracks I currently know (and a few more!). My aim is to have a vector-graphics map (PDF in this case), which can be enlarged without effective loss of resolution and which can be readily edited to show new features and to apply corrections. Before any given walk, I would expand a portion of the map, print it out and just take one A4 sheet of paper as my main guide. The map is attached. It comes without any guarantee as to the "quality" of the tracks shown (although the sequence of decreasing "quality" from main road to a series of cairns is red -> pink -> dark green -> light green; generally a vehicular rough road would be dark green and any other track would be light green). It is very much a "beta" version of the map and I'm looking for comments and suggestions. It is planned to be a "live" map with regular updates based on feedback from users.

Cheers - walktasmania

[tasadam]

Been a while since I looked at this one, but...
http://www.map-centre.com.au/nat_park.htm#mtwellington

[DaveGwy]

I was going to say - the Wellington Park Recreation Map has the track that I believe you are talking about marked on it. It's marked as as 'unformed marked/cairned' dotted line. Thanks for your map though - the Rec Map doesn't have the western half of the park(From Trestle Mtn. West).

[walktasmania]

Hi Dave - the reason I missed the turning was entirely my fault - I was enjoying the walk and dreaming! - I hadn't taken a proper look at the map (which was in John Chapman's excellent book and shows the track quite clearly!). However, what is missing from most maps are the jumble of tracks over and around Thark Ridge, allowing one to traverse from the Montague Fire Trail to the car park above Big Bend - these latter tracks ARE in David Leaman's "Walk into History in Souther Tasmania" - a lot of fun could be had seeing if the many track's in David's book are still negotiable.

[muka]

Well 'walktasmania' the track you have marked from St Crispins Well to the Milles [Vanishing Tarn] is closed and up for upgrade whenever that will be.
And you can also add the 'red dot' and 'yellow dot' tracks.

Along EastWest Trail you could easily include the tracks for the arriving at the summits of Trestle, Marian and Charles

Seems you have Lower Sawmill track missing.

Think you could change that green line for a red dot line?

Cheers

[walktasmania]

Hi Muka - thanks for that. A few comments:

1. I'm not sure what to do with "closed" tracks. If I mark them as "closed" there will undoubtedly be a period when they are still marked as "closed" but have been reopened. I think I'll leave it to walkers themselves to discover whether they are open or closed - at most this will be a bit of an inconvenience - in the case of emergencies there are not many "closed" tracks that can't be negotiated. Also, I believe that the Pipeline Track has been "closed" at the landslide for a rather long time - obeying the "closed" sign cuts off one significant Wellington Falls option (via the weir).

2. "And you can also add the 'red dot' and 'yellow dot' tracks" - can you explain what you mean by "red dot" and "yellow dot" tracks?

3. Summit trails from East West Trail - these will be done.

4. Lower Sawmill track - I'll also put this on. However there is disagreement concerning the track from Pinnacle Road to Sphinx Rock on the 1991 and 2003 TasMap "Mount Wellington Walk Map" - does anyone know if the 2003 version is now correct?

5. "Think you could change that green line for a red dot line?" - I've gone for the green lines for tracks to differentiate them from the roads (I have always disliked the TasMap format where roads and tracks are almost indistinguishable) - however, I might change the light green to dark green to make it clearer and only distinguish "vehicular" and "other" tracks by the different line width.

Thanks for your comments.

[DaveGwy]

AH, sorry walktas, I thought you meant the trail from near Mt Montague down to Wellington Falls, which is marked on this 2010 Rec map.
I will have another look at your map - It's damn frustrating when the official map doesn't even have all the tracks which exist in reality marked on it!

[walktasmania]

Hi Dave

"I's damn frustrating when the official map doesn't even have all the tracks which exist in reality marked on it!"

Got it in one! That's exactly what drove me to make my map!

[walktasmania]

I have just changed the Mt Wellington map to a slightly updated version, with a modified colour scheme, a key, a rather obvious caveat, and the addition of the Lower Sawmill Track and tracks to Trestle Mountain. I can't find tracks to either Mount Marian or Mount Charles on any map - if anyone can help, I'll put them in the next edition.

[Liamy77]

I have just changed the Mt Wellington map to a slightly updated version, with a modified colour scheme, a key, a rather obvious caveat, and the addition of the Lower Sawmill Track and tracks to Trestle Mountain. I can't find tracks to either Mount Marian or Mount Charles on any map - if anyone can help, I'll put them in the next edition.

Would you want a .gps track or what would you need ?

[walktasmania]

Hi Liamy (and anyone else who wants to give me track information) - a GPS track (eastings/northings or lat/long) would be great. Note that the blue grid on the map is a kilometre grid in GDA94 (effectively WGS84), but I can easily convert from AGD66 or AGD84 (just tell me what horizontal datum you are using).

[eccles]

Dear walktasmania,

I read with interest your article on the walking tracks on Mt Wellington and fully agree with the sentiments expressed therein, e.g. the lack of easily accessible and comprehensive track map of the Mt Wellington Park and adjacent regions for bushwalkers. I downloaded the .pdf version of your map and fully appreciate the work and effort you put into the project. Being an occasional user of the Mt Wellington tracks and also a resident living close to the Mountain, I would be glad to cooperate within my limited resources and knowledge to add and expand your excellent map in order to help the multitude of walkers taking advantage of the great environment offered to nature lovers by the Mt Wellington park and it's environs.

If you are interested following up my initiative, please reply to this message.

With kind regards,
Eccles

You can reach me at: barkereccles@gmail.com

[Slam]

Thanks WalkTasmania for your Mt Wellington Walking Map. I'm planning a Mt Wellington Circuit walk in the next couple of weeks and this will be very useful. P.S Have you ever followed the North West Bay River from its source to Wellington Falls? If so, what's the terrain like?

Cheers,

Slam.

[walktasmania]

Hi Slam - very sorry for the slow reply - I've neglected to read these posts for well over a month.

No - I've never followed the North West Bay River from its source to Wellington Falls - I'd guess it is pretty rough. If you do have a go at it please let me know and I could put something appropriate on the map.

Cheers,

John

[iaindtiler]

Hi Walktasmania. It's a great topic, as Mt Wellington is so accesible for those spur of the moment walks. Have spent a bit of time wandering around. Have attached a map with two great walks, highlighted with blu arrows. The walk to Dissappearing tarn from the summit, via South Welly and the Potato field is a cracker. from South Welly it is tagged and a weak pad. From (a bad) memory, it is about 5 hours return, and if lucky enough to see the tarn with water, well worth it. The other short (1 n half hours- one way) from The Chateau to summit is a very weak pad, very accasionally tagged climb. Care should be taken, but again for an amazing perspective of the Organ Pipes , well worth it. Hope many more tracks appear as its a great mountain for day wanderings. Regards , iain.