Southwest National Park

Southwest National Park covers over six thousand square kilometres of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and contains almost no roads. Its interior is quartzite ranges, buttongrass moorland, rainforest gullies and a coastline that takes the Southern Ocean unbroken. The South Coast Track runs eighty-five kilometres from Melaleuca, reached by light aircraft, to Cockle Creek at the end of the road network, taking six to eight days through mud, river crossings and the Ironbound Range. Federation Peak, a quartzite spire, is regarded as the most difficult bushwalking summit in Australia. Melaleuca is also the last refuge of the orange-bellied parrot, one of the world's rarest birds.

History

The park was first created in 1955 as the Lake Pedder National Park, and in 1968 the Tasmanian government enlarged it to 1,916 square kilometres. The original Lake Pedder was controversially flooded for hydroelectricity in 1972, despite a campaign by environmental groups that failed to stop the dam; the same movement later succeeded in halting the Franklin River dam. The park was extended in 1976, became a UNESCO biosphere reserve from 1977 and part of a World Heritage listing in 1982, and kept growing until it reached its present size in 2000 (Wikipedia, Southwest National Park).

The landscape

• The South Coast Track - an eighty-five-kilometre walk between wilderness and ocean.
• Federation Peak - the quartzite spire considered Australia's hardest walking summit.
• The buttongrass plains - open moorland covering much of the interior.
• Melaleuca - the airstrip settlement and orange-bellied parrot refuge.

When to go

December to March, the only sensible window; even then the southwest has some of the most severe walking weather in Australia, with rain, wind and snow possible in midsummer. Trips require full self-sufficiency and weather delays are routine.

Things to know

This is serious wilderness: mud to the thighs, unbridged river crossings, and walkers regularly delayed for days waiting on flights or weather. There is no phone coverage. Rescue is difficult and expensive. Inexperienced walkers should not attempt the interior.

Nearby

Cockle Creek is the southern road end; Lake Pedder lies on the northern boundary.

Key facts