Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Introducing Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Tasmania’s best-known national park is the peerless 168, 000-hectare World Heritage area of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair. Mountain peaks, dank gorges, pristine lakes, tarns and wild moorlands extend triumphantly from the Great Western Tiers in the north to Derwent Bridge on the Lyell Hwy in the south. It was one of Australia most heavily glaciated areas, and includes Mt Ossa (1617m) – Tasmania’s highest peak – and Lake St Clair, Australia’s deepest natural freshwater lake (167m).

The preservation of this region as a national park is due in part to Gustav Weindorfer, an Austrian who became besotted with the area. In 1912 he built a chalet out of King Billy pine, called it Waldheim (German for ‘Forest Home’) and, from 1916, lived there permanently. Today, the site of his chalet at the northern end of the park retains the name Waldheim.

There are fabulous day walks at both Cradle Valley in the north and Cynthia Bay (Lake St Clair) in the south, but it’s the outstanding 80.5km Overland Track between the two that has turned this park into a bushwalkers’ mecca.

Last updated: Mar 2, 2009