Lake Judd Walk

Lake Judd Walk

Lake Judd is an ancient glacier-formed lake in Tasmania’s Southwest National Park, with a spectacular back-drop of 600 metre high cliffs and views of Mt Anne, SW Tasmania’s highest peak. The 16 km day walk to the lake and back traverses button grass plains peppered with pink quartzite outcrops. As the track ascends the view behind is of Lake Pedder and surrounding peaks. The first 7 kms of the 8 kms to the lake is on part of the renowned, multi-day Mt Anne Circuit Walk.  We did the Lake Judd walk in January 2024. Here’s what we found.

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Mount Kate Walk - Cradle Mountain

Mount Kate Walk - Cradle Mountain

Mount Kate is a little visited peak in the Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park. It is not signposted but is a relatively easy 6 km return walk from Ronny Creek. It provides great views of Cradle Mountain, with a different perspective to most of the walking tracks in the area. It is a very worthwhile day walk. Here’s how we went about it.

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Arthur River to Sundown Point Walk

Arthur River to Sundown Point Walk

Starting from the evocatively named ‘Edge of the World’, at the mouth of the Arthur River on Tasmania’s wild west coast, this beach walk takes you along a stretch of broad, white sand to a rocky point of great significance to Tasmania’s indigenous peoples. It’s an easy half day (4 – 5 hour) walk that gives a good feel for this dramatic, windswept coastline facing the Roaring Forties and the Southern Ocean.

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Cape Surville Walk (With a Little Help From an E-Bike)

Cape Surville Walk (With a Little Help From an E-Bike)

Cape Surville is a little visited, but spectacular location on the Forestier Peninsula, on Tasmania’s east coast. A return walk of just under 6 kms features some dramatic high sea cliffs. The access road in is rough in parts and requires a four-wheel drive vehicle. We didn’t have one, but solved this problem by cycling the most difficult section on e-mountain bikes (EMTBs). Here’s how we did it.

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Maria Island Getaway

Maria Island Getaway

Maria Island, off Tasmania’s east coast, is a National Park popular for camping, bushwalking, cycling, snorkelling and wildlife viewing. Pronounced Mariah (as in Mariah Carey), it has a rich history dating back millennia starting with its interesting geology, through the long Aboriginal presence on the island, a significant convict period, attempts at industrialisation and commercial ventures, to today. We recently had three days and nights there. Here’s how we spent our time.

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Return to Shippies - Shipstern Bluff Walk

Return to Shippies - Shipstern Bluff Walk

In November 2017 we published a post describing the day walk to the famous southern Tasmanian big wave surfing spot of Shipstern Bluff aka Shippies. Four years on we’ve returned to Shippies to check out the upgrades to the walk that we’d heard had been done. This post describes these changes. The walk itself still takes four hours return following the same track. But there have been some nice improvements to amenities and signage in the intervening years.

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Tasmanian Bushland Garden

Tasmanian Bushland Garden

As the name indicates the Tasmanian Bushland Garden (TBG) is a garden dedicated to native Tasmanian plants, particularly from the southeast of the island. It was established in 2010. It is a 20 hectare reserve of natural bushland 4 kms south of Buckland, close to Tassie’s east coast. It has 1.5 hectares of display gardens linked by well-maintained tracks and featuring a sculpture trail. We saw an item on it in the popular TV program Gardening Australia so decided to check it out.

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Black Glen Falls Walk

Black Glen Falls Walk

Black Glen Falls is a series of five small waterfalls on the Lachlan River in southeast Tasmania. It sits inside Wellington Park, the reserve that covers most of kunanyi/Mt Wellington. The walk to the falls and back is a 4 kilometre return trip. Despite being less than an hour’s drive from home in Hobart I’d never been there before, so with regular walking companion Graeme, we went to check it out.

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The Growling Swallet

The Growling Swallet

A “swallet’ is defined as an “underground stream”, also “an opening through which a stream disappears underground”. Tucked away in a corner of Mt Field National Park in Southern Tasmania is Growling Swallet. It is a place where the Junee River disappears underground through a large cave. It is said that when the river is running hard it positively growls. I’d never heard of this place until recently when a friend mentioned it. We decided to check it out. Here’s what we found.

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Four Dog-Friendly Walks in North East Tasmania

Four Dog-Friendly Walks in North East Tasmania

Being the proud owners of Frida, the heeler-border collie cross rescue dog, means that walks in national parks are off the menu when we want to take Frida with us. North East Tasmania doesn’t have a lot of territory classified as national parks, but it does have plenty of good, short walks within reserves and state forests where dogs are permitted. We decided to check out a few of these. Here are four good dog-friendly short walks in the region.

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Waratah - A Tale of Three Waterfalls

Waratah - A Tale of Three Waterfalls

Waratah is a small town in North West Tasmania. The town was built to support a tin mine at nearby Mt Bischoff. It was constructed on top of a waterfall so that the diverted water could be used for mining operations. On my recent first-time visit to Waratah, I was keen to see the town waterfall. While there we took the opportunity to visit two other waterfalls in the area and a couple of other sites of interest.

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Richmond Heritage Walk

Richmond Heritage Walk

The township of Richmond is one of Tasmania’s oldest settlements. Richmond was a convict station and military post. It is home to Australia’s oldest bridge built in 1823 by convicts. Just thirty minutes’ drive from the centre of Hobart, Richmond is an excellent day trip for anyone visiting the south of the state. In this post we describe the Richmond Heritage Walk as recommended by Clarence Council which we did recently.

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Cremorne to Roches Beach Walk

Cremorne to Roches Beach Walk

The Clarence Coastal Trail makes it possible to walk from Cremorne to Seven Mile Beach, a distance of around 13.5kms. It is an attractive and satisfying walk. You can leave or join at several places or just do a chosen section. We have broken the walk down into two sections: Cremorne to Roches Beach (this post) and Roches Beach to Seven Mile Beach (previous post).. Read on if you want to know more.

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Nierinna Creek and Margate Creek Tracks, Southern Tasmania

Nierinna Creek and Margate Creek Tracks, Southern Tasmania

In the southern suburbs of Hobart lies the municipality of Kingborough. Within this region there are an abundance of walking opportunities, including a lot of good short walks. Along with friend Jillian I decided to combine two creek walks which we had not previously done – Nierinna Creek Track and Margate Creek Track. The walk notes and maps on the council web page showed how these two walks could be easily joined into one longer walk.

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Marjorie Bligh - Domestic Goddess, QVMAG Exhibition

Marjorie Bligh - Domestic Goddess, QVMAG Exhibition

In early March 2020, just prior to strict coronavirus lockdown measures being implemented in Tasmania, we were able to visit an exhibition at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) in Launceston entitled “Majorie Bligh – Domestic Goddess”.

The QVMAG website description of the exhibition says: “Marjorie Bligh is a Tasmanian icon, well-known for her advice on household management, craft, cooking, gardening, and even relationships….The exhibition showcases many of Marjorie's handmade items, collections, mementos from travel, scrapbooks, personal photographs, signed editions of her books, and numerous awards. In particular the exhibition focusses on her thrift and use of recycled material.” As big fans of Marjorie’s work for many years we were keen to learn more about her fascinating life.

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Hobart Rivulet Walk

Hobart Rivulet Walk

The Hobart Rivulet was critically important to 19th century colonial Hobart both as it’s water supply and for a number of industrial purposes. Today the 2.7 km walk beside the rivulet which wends through the suburb of South Hobart provides many insights into the city’s past. It also affords excellent views of kunanyi/Mt Wellington before concluding at the Cascade Brewery, Australia’s oldest brewery, established 1824.

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