Best Walks in Tasmania: Overland Track & Wineglass Bay

Tasmania is indisputably Australia's finest walking destination and one of the world's great walking regions: the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area (covering 20% of the state) protects some of the most intact temperate wilderness on earth, and the state's extraordinary diversity of walking environments (alpine dolerite plateaux, ancient Gondwana rainforest, pristine coastal wilderness, dramatic sea cliff coastline) provides walking experiences that are genuinely without equivalent in mainland Australia. The Overland Track alone places Tasmania at the top of any serious walker's Australia itinerary.

The Overland Track, Australia's most famous multi-day walk (65km, 6-8 days, from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair) is one of the world's great wilderness walks. The track traverses the Central Highlands of Tasmania through the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, passing through alpine moorland, rainforest, and beside the spectacular dolerite peaks of Cradle Mountain, Barn Bluff, Mount Ossa (Tasmania's highest peak), and the Cathedral Mountain. Booking is required (managed quota system during the October-May peak season). Both the Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair ends of the track are accessible by bus from Launceston and Hobart respectively.

Freycinet National Park, the Wineglass Bay Lookout walk (2.5km return, graded easy to moderate) to the famous saddle view, the Wineglass Bay Circuit (11km, graded moderate), and the Hazards Beach circuit (8.7km, graded easy to moderate) provide outstanding pink granite coastal walking within Freycinet National Park. The Freycinet Peninsula Circuit (27km, 2 days with camping) provides a multi-day walking option.

South Coast Track, the most challenging walk in Australia (85km, 8-10 days, accessible only by light aircraft from Hobart to Melaleuca), the South Coast Track traverses the remotest coastline of Tasmania and one of the most challenging walking environments on earth: the southern buttongrass moorlands, white quartzite beaches, and dolerite headlands of the Southwest National Park. Not for the inexperienced.

kunanyi / Mount Wellington, the 13km return Organ Pipes track from Fern Tree (20 minutes from Hobart CBD) climbs to the 1,271m summit of the mountain that dominates the Hobart skyline. The summit view over Hobart and the Derwent estuary is extraordinary.

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