Mt Zeehan and Henty River Forest (21/12/20 – 22/12/20)

On December 30, 2020 By hikeintasLeave a comment

One of the wonderful things about walking on the West Coast is the vast expanse of wilderness and the many secret, often overgrown, tracks that are spread through it. However, it takes a lot of research and exploring to find some of these, and sometimes you just need a real track to walk on. Staying in Strahan, Mt Zeehan was my target for the day as it is the only track coming off Henty Road that is actually advertised as a walk. I have many plans for the other mysterious overgrown tracks coming off the road, and this trip was partially to investigate the entry to some of them along the drive.

The track to Mt Zeehan is incredibly easy to miss, as there isn’t even a remnant of signage and the old mining road you have to turn into isn’t visible until you’ve driven past it. There is a small 2WD-accessible area to park before the rough road heads up to the site of the old Oceana mine. Beyond here is a tangled mess of gravel roads, with no clear way to head. However, you’ll soon know if you’ve gone in the wrong direction if you meet a dead end, or end up at some buildings. Once the maze of roads is passed, the track turns into an eroded 4WD track up a section of (perhaps recently) burned vegetation. Mt Zeehan doesn’t seem like the most impressive mountain from the road, but this was an intensely steep climb, beginning almost as soon as I hit the old 4WD track.

Mt Zeehan (to the right) and its children

Looking across Henty road at the Austral mine

Eventually I reached a small saddle, where the 4WD track petered out to become non-vehicular and the scrub closed in. From near the top of this saddle I heard some strong flowing water down Pyramid Creek in the valley. Given the steep gradient, it’s possible there is a small waterfall, or at least some cascades, worth checking out down there. I was quite lucky with weather, and the view from the saddle was already impressive

The view from halfway up the saddle, looking out over the burnt section, with Mt Dundas in the background. — The view from halfway up the saddle, looking out over the burnt area and Mt Dundas in the background

The Mt Zeehan track could certainly benefit from some trackwork as the scrub from this point onwards was rather thick. At this point in time though, the scrub can be pushed through and the track can still be followed. I dealt with the steepness in short bursts, stopping every 10 to 15 minutes to catch my breath, look for birds, and gaze out at the only improving view. During one break, I spotted a striated fieldwren (the first time I’ve seen one!).

After more of the same steepness and scrub, I eventually reached the summit and appreciated the old gate placed across the trig-point base that I had a (rather uncomfortable) nap on. I got back up again and admired the clear 360 views. Most amazing was being able to see the Professor Plateau from above, it’s daunting steep slopes follow the Henty Road, and lead up to what seems like a perfectly flat plain. I could also see out to Mt Agnew and Trial Harbour to the North-West and Henty Dunes to the South. I got my binoculars out and spotted some landmarks of the town of Zeehan, such as the United petrol station and gorse.

The view out to Ocean Beach and Henty Dunes

As I was eating lunch on the summit, a family of 4 wedge-tailed eagles started gliding over the mountain. It was an incredible sight, and I am always grateful to witness such beautiful birds.

An awful photo of two of the wedge-tailed eagles

Before heading back down I went to investigate the (telephone?) tower and spotted many flowering blandfordias. They seem to do quite well up here despite the windy and exposed environment.

Tasmanian Christmas Bells (blandfordia puicea)

The view out to the West Coast Range and the Professor Plateau

The walk down was significantly more pleasant, and only took about 40 minutes, compared to the hour and a half it took to get up. Mt Zeehan is a great short day walk, provided it is a clear day and you are willing to face an unforgiving climb.

The next morning I was inspired to follow a road I had spotted on the way back to Strahan which heads out to the Strahan radiata pine plantations. Sandwiched in between the pine plantation and the Henty River is a 96 hectare section of native forest set to be logged in the near future (coupe YD018A) and I wanted to check it out (being some of the only non-pine forest in the area).

I followed Rayner Road on foot through some Pine Plantation, to the Tully River conservation area. The Tully River is a particularly beautiful spot, especially given its setting surrounded by radiata pine. The river itself is deeply brown from tanin, and has a sandy shoreline along its banks.

A road just to the left after the bridge heads straight up into the coupe, but first I walked up the hill along Zepilin road, through the recently logged section of plantation. Here I found a fairly large stand of blue gums, an old ride-on lawnmower, a green machine and a decent spot to lookout on the northern part of the coupe. After listening to the call of olive whistlers echoing down through the logged area, I headed back down to the Tully river and up the road to the coupe.

Some young blue gums on the edge of the logged plantation

A view out to the north of the coupe from the logged plantation

From here I found a wet section of forest, containing many myrtles and tree ferns before it opened up a bit further north into melaleucas and eucalypts. The track which skirts the edge of the coupe eventually got too overgrown and I headed back. This is quite a nice area, particularly along the Tully River, where much more exploring could be done. Although, care must be taken as this area borders on private property.

The southern border of the the coupe. Looking up from the regrowth.

Looking down Sorell Creek after just coming off the Myrtle Forest Trail

Sorell Creek, kunanyi (12/12/20)

On December 20, 2020December 20, 2020 By hikeintasLeave a comment

I have long been intrigued by the supposed waterfall on Sorell Creek in Wellington Park, marked as unconfirmed and named ‘Sorell Falls’ on the World Waterfall Database. Searching this name I hadn’t been able to find any information about the falls for some time, until I had the idea that people perhaps call this waterfall ‘Sorell Creek Falls’. This led to more success, turning up a couple of historic photos of the falls and an old map (which places the falls further upstream than the World Waterfall Database), but no evidence that this waterfall has been visited in the last 100 or so years. It is perfectly understandable that this waterfall hasn’t had any recent visitors, as it doesn’t appear to be particularly large, and requires a decent scramble up or down the creek from the nearest track to reach it. Even more recently, walking to the waterfall has become intensely difficult, requiring an awful scrub-bash along the closed and overgrown Myrtle Forest Trail before the creek is even reached. I’ve always known that trying to find this waterfall wouldn’t be a particularly fun walk, but given that I had no plans for the day, and I was running out of new walks to do in the park, I decided to go for it.

A historic photo of Sorell Creek Falls from Libraries Tas (date unknown)

I started walking at about 9:30am, immediately being confronted by many signs telling me that the Big Bend Trail, the only route from Pinnacle Road to the old Myrtle Forest Trail that doesn’t involve a mountain ascent, was closed for track work. So, officially, I did not walk along the closed fire trail, and I will leave it to the reader to decide how I arrived at the entrance to the Myrtle Forest Trail. The Myrtle Forest Trail has been closed to all walkers since 2015, and closed indefinitely since 2019. As this track used to be a fire trail, I figured the overgrowth wasn’t going to be too bad, but seriously, this track is closed for a reason!

View from near the carpark. A great day for a walk!

IMG_20201212_102339 — A jewel beetle on the track to Myrtle Forest Trail start (castiarina insularis)

Originally still having some resemblance of its fire trail past, the track soon descends into an enveloping cloud of cutting grass and beaura scrub. I was certainly the first to walk this track in some time, as there was no real evidence of a pad, nor any footsteps in the many sections of mud. The surrounding bush was delightfully serene and filled with wildlife, which somewhat made up for the poor walking conditions. I stopped at a relatively clear section to watch a ringtail possum (awake at midday), an olive whistler, and a pair of strong-billed honeyeaters ripping into the tree bark. Not long after this I reached a tributary to Sorell Creek, which now seems to have been diverted to run along the track, cutting a small gorge. At a few points the pools of water in the gorge got too deep and I had to scramble out, before jumping back in again when the scrub got too thick. Thankfully it was only about 1km to the creek, but the bash through the scrub through to the creek still took an hour.

IMG_20201212_112636 — A relatively cutting grass free section of Myrtle Forest Trail

IMG_20201212_112648 — One of the more road like sections of Myrtle Forest Trail

130718514_350877299405255_8426882559926638972_n — The track…

Sorell Creek is actually quite wide and is skirted by tree ferns and ancient fallen eucalypts, making for quite a beautiful setting. Being incredibly exhausted and not even half done with walking for the day, I decided while eating lunch that I wouldn’t be searching too far down the creek for the falls. I am glad that I had a bit of a scramble down the creek however, as I found some small cascades, some huge fallen trees and even a half-decent waterfall. I am quite confident the fall I found wasn’t Sorell Creek Falls, due to the lack of enormous boulder perched above, but I couldn’t push myself any further knowing I had to go back through that scrub.

_MG_4458 — A small cascade on Sorell Creek

_MG_4459 — A cascade created by a log on Sorell Creek

_MG_4462 — The small waterfall I found on Sorell Creek

_MG_4464 — The small waterfall I found on Sorell Creek

Sorell Creek Falls remains a mystery for now, but I hope that somebody up for the challenge is inspired by my journey and hunts down Sorell Creek Falls for themselves. If you find it, I would love to see a photo!

Wineglass Bay and the Hazards from atop Mt Freycinet

Freycinet Circuit + Addons (07/12/20 – 10/12/20)

On December 14, 2020 By hikeintasLeave a comment

This week Harriet and I were supposed to be meeting between Strahan and Hobart to walk the Frenchmans cap track, after the shining quartzite rock called to us from the top of the Raglan Range. All week we had been waiting for the forecast 30mm of rain on the 7th to change, but it only got worse. Still determined to do a 4 day walk, we started assesing the weather all over the state, and naturally the east coast was the only part of Tasmania that wasn’t being blasted by rain.

The Freycinet peninsula is an intriguing place, with a shockingly dark European history, that the majority of tourists, and even many Tasmanians are not aware of. Freycinet also continues the trend of naming environmental features after people who have performed acts which would today be deemed unacceptable by those who explore the peninsula. The Hazard’s Range and Beach for example are named after Richard Hazard who, in the early 1800’s, was a whaler in the area. The whaling in the Freycinet peninsula apparently led to the white sand of Wineglass Bay being stained red with blood. Europeans also had little respect for the indigenous people of the peninsula, and much of the indigenous history is lost. Though culturally significant sites still exist and are now protected in the national park, including middens and stone artefacts.

We have both done the Freycinet circuit before, and have walked to Cook’s Beach many times, but neither of us had gone the extra hour to Bryan’s Beach, and I had never climbed Mt Freycinet. With these addons, we figured we could turn the standard 3 day loop walk into a 4 day trip. Harriet drove to Hobart Sunday night and we left Hobart the next morning at around 9am, after a bit of a sleep in. On the drive we pondered the current popularity of Freycinet, as the Tasmanian borders had just recently been reopened to all other states and territories. We were delighted to find that we could still find a spot in the main carpark, but the Wineglass Bay walk was certainly more popular than when we visited while the borders were still closed.

We set off towards Hazard’s Beach, hoping my car battery could hold its charge this week. This section of the walk was rather relaxing and incredibly scenic, especially with the perfectly clear weather polar opposite to what was currently happening out at Frenchmans… The ocean water was a serene vibrant blue and we had an unobstructed view out to Coles Bay and Swansea. After passing through the near-monoculture of sheoak (one of my favourite parts of the walk), and stopping to pull out a weed that must have snuck in on somebody’s shoe, we stepped out on to Hazard’s.

After a bit of a snack we wandered down Hazards’ Beach, following some pied oystercatchers and hooded plovers. We were soon approached by somebody running the entire 31km circuit (it was 5pm and she still had about 25km ahead of her!) and asked if we wanted our photo taken. We said yes and happily took a photo of her on Hazard’s as well and wished her luck. We continued onwards to Cook’s Beach, where the weather seemed to taking a turn for the worst, though happily it never did.

Ominous weather coming in over the Hazards

At the Cook’s Beach campsite we found a nice nest under some khunzias to pitch the tent, and went down to the beach to cook dinner and watch the sky.

IMG_20201207_202231 — Our temporary kitchen for the night

Darkling beetle (lepispilus sulcicollis)

A husk of some type of cicada, presumably the ones we were hearing

The next day was our ‘lazy day’. Awaking to the sound of some screaming cicadas, we slowly made coffee and porridge before following the short 1 hour walk to Bryan’s Beach. The weather was perfect for a swim once we arrived, but we were soon interrupted by what we think was an eagle ray. We were not at all dissapointed though, and watched with excitement from some nearby rocks as it perused the shallows of the beach.

We then surveyed the shores of Schouten Island with binoculars and spotted the hut and a few visiting boats, before exploring further down the beach in search of a reasonable spot to climb up the bank and get a view of Bryan’s Lagoon (steering well clear of potential midden sites). We eventually scrambled up the bank in a clear spot and got a good view of the span of Bryan’s Lagoon, spotting a pair of chestnut teals and a couple of black swans relaxing on the water. Climbing back down, Harriet found some sea spinach (tetragonia tetragonoides) fruit and used it to dye her entire hand pink. For a few more hours we ran around the beach and watched birds with the binoculars, including a dusky woodswallow, more pied oystercatchers, and an incredibly cute spotted pardalote. Somehow we didn’t take a single photo while on Bryan’s Beach, I guess we must have been having too much fun…

We walked back to Cook’s in the late afternoon, taking our time to photograph some intriguing flowers on the way. We very much enjoyed our day on Bryan’s Beach, and pondered the idea of spending an entire week camped at Cook’s or Bryan’s, but tomorrow we had two mountains to climb.

The next morning we left when it was already quite warm, and accepted that we were in for a long and hot day. We said goodbye to the oystercatchers on our way to the Mt Graham turnoff and began walking through a nice section of coastal bush. Along this section of the track we saw multiple snakes, an excited grey shrike-thrush making a very wide range of sounds, and a heap of mountain dragons.

Looking up where we were heading from Cook's Beach — Looking up at where we were heading from Cook’s Beach

A mountain dragon (rankinia diemensis) camouflaging into the debris

We slowly meandered our way up the steep ascent to the saddle between Mt Freycinet and Mt Graham and found a shady spot to have a lunch break before climbing our first mountain of the day. The walk up Mt Freycinet was short and sharp, with a healthy dose of rock scrambling. We were very lucky with birds and plants on our way, spotting a bearded orchid and a huge wedge-tailed eagle being taunted by a black currawong soaring around the summit. From the summit there were great views out to Schouten and Maria islands, the northern part of the peninsula, and deep out into the Pacific Ocean. With binoculars we could even make out some people walking along Wineglass Bay.

Mt Graham waiting for us as we sat on the Mt Freycinet summit

130734801_1298247410526363_1435079678200748761_n — Schouten Island from the summit of Mt Freycinet, with Maria Island off in the distance

Already exhausted, we returned to the saddle and began our climb up Graham, taking a fair few breathers. We reached the summit at about 4pm, so wasted no time at the summit and kept on walking until we reached Graham’s Creek, and very slowly filled all of our drink-bottles from a tiny tiny trickle while dodging a swarm of mosquitoes. After another hour or so of walking and commenting on the impressive size of some of the grass trees, we arrived at Wineglass Bay. Very hungry, we quickly set up our temporary kitchen on the beach and cooked away while we watched a pacific gull eat a crayfish leg it must have stolen from one of the boats anchored in the bay.

The next morning we attempted to get out as quick as we could, as Harriet had to be back in Strahan by the end of the day. So we only stopped to have a quick chat to one of the many people passing through the Wineglass Bay track, and to observe a shining bronze cuckoo hiding in the bush. We arrived back at the car at 11am, so judged that we had enough time to grab some hot chips from Coles Bay on the way home, and to stop and admire some baby goats Harriet had spotted on the drive up.

Freycinet is a great place to spend a few days during the Summer, and we would have loved to have spent a few more nights camped at Cook’s Beach, exploring and birdwatching. While it is not the most wild of places in Tasmania, with human presence very noticeable in the park these days, it was a welcome change to have a real track as opposed to our previous scrub-bash up the Raglan Range.

The Raglan Range (30/11/20 – 01/12/20)

On December 10, 2020December 30, 2020 By hikeintasLeave a comment

The Raglan Range is an incredible area of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area with an intriguing history. Just a short walk west of the popular Nelson Falls short walk on the Lyell Highway is an old rusty gate, swinging open over the Nelson River. Just beyond this gate a wooden bridge once marked the start of the Raglan Range road, constructed and used by the Bradshaw family to log burnt out King Billy Pines atop the range. I had a keen interest in the gate and what lay beyond after spotting it driving between Hobart and Strahan. From observing the old TASMAP layer on the LISTmap, I figured that this gate marked the start of an old track that walkers sometimes use as an alternate route out of Frenchmans Cap. It was also clear from the ESRI imagery layer that this road would still be traceable on foot, so I was intrigued to follow this road and see just how overgrown it was, and how far we could get. The road is now massively overgrown in parts, through at the time of writing is still clear enough to follow with care taken in the more dense parts.

The Bradshaws likely began construction on the logging road in 1930-40’s and it was used to obtain burnt King Billy logs at least through to the 50’s and 60’s. The Raglan Range area was and still is, despite the logging, covered in burnt King Billy Pines. It is fairly widely accepted that these pines all burnt in a severe bushfire that spread over the range in the Summer of 1897-98. Ruins of an old sawmill and some other buildings remain close to the peak of the range. Large drainages are now cut in the truck and much of the road was reforested in 1993.

img_20201130_105640-1 — View of the West Coast range and Gormanston

Leaving our cars at the Nelson Falls carpark, we set off at around 9:30am on Monday the 30th of November on a perfectly clear, but uncomfortably hot day. Crossing the Nelson River at the old bridge site didn’t provide too much of a challenge, but could certainly be dangerous given large rainfall. Immediately after crossing the river we were greeted by two signs telling us that the (nonexistent) bridge is unsafe to cross, and that the road ahead was closed. The first section though the wet forest close to the river was the most overgrown of the entire track, and was absolutely packed with leeches. Navigating wasn’t too difficult however, as the vegetation growing on the road was noticeably younger than the bush either side of it. A few times it was necessary to leave the road for a small while before returning to avoid the worst of the bauera scrub. Eventually we reached a much more road-like track as we began ascending up the range. This continued for some time, with great views out to the West Coast range and Gormanston.

Eventually the track led back into a more dense, wet forest. This section of the road was obviously more difficult to cut, as it occasionally cuts through what feel like mini canyons that have been dug out for the road to pass through. The forest in this section of the track was very enjoyable to walk through, with the melalueca and satinwood overstory almost completely blocking out the piercing sun and the road entirely covered in blechnum ferns. Brown thornbills seem to love this area, and could be heard chirping throughout this whole section. Eventually we emerged back into the sunlight, and subalpine vegetation. The Tasmanian waratahs were out in full flower and were scattered all along this next section of the track. The track continued similarly for a while, becoming gradually more open and more road-like as we ascended.

We soon encountered the old sawmill ruins along this subalpine section, from which there were more great views out to the West Coast range. This is the most ideal place to pitch a tent if planning an overnight walk up the Raglan Range, although we camped a bit lower down on a flat(ish) piece of road in order to have a quicker walk out the next morning to avoid incoming strong winds and rain. We set up our camp on the way up and packed some water, snacks and an EPIRB in a day pack to continue walking up to the trig point.

A very old can of Boag's Draught — A very old can of Boag’s Draught

Christmas Bells (blandfordia grandiflora) — Tasmanian Christmas Bells (blandfordia punicea)

View of the West Coast range from the sawmill site

From here it was only a short walk up to the trig point along a quite clear section of the road. Near the peak, we were lucky enough to witness countless Macleays swallowtail butterflies (graphium macleayanus) fluttering above us. From the trig point there were astounding 360 degree views and far too many peaks visible to name them all. Perhaps most impressive was the view of Frenchmans Cap and its surrounding peaks

Frenchmans Cap and nearby peaks in the background with Flat Bluff (left) and Mt Mary (right) in the foreground

Despite the incredible views, we didn’t stick around too long as we were starting to feel the effects of the heat and our water supply in the day pack was running low. Walking back to the camp was much quicker than heading up, and we soon re-hydrated ourselves and had a nap in the shade. The walk back from our campsite the next morning was quick as we had planned, and we managed to avoid the incoming heavy weather. Although, we returned to a car with a flat battery, which leads me to believe the Nelson Falls car park is cursed, as another account of this walk from rockmonkeyadventures described the exact same thing happening! We luckily had two cars as one of us lives in Strahan and the other in Hobart, and were able to drive to Gormanston to find phone reception and call RACT to jump start the car. This unfortunately meant that as we were driving back and forth, we faced the full force of the intense winds and rain so hard our windscreen wipers couldn’t keep up!

While I would recommend an overnight trip for this walk, it is certainly doable in a Summer’s day, taking around 8 to 9 hours. It is very important to note that there is nowhere on this walk aside from the Nelson River to fill up a drink-bottle, so take at least 3 litres per person (plus extra if you’re using some for cooking). If you are interested in precise route details and information on extending this walk further, I recommend checking out the description of the Raglan Range walk on rockmonkeyadventures.

Hiking in Tasmania

Tag: tasmanian history

Mt Zeehan and Henty River Forest (21/12/20 – 22/12/20)

Sorell Creek, kunanyi (12/12/20)

Freycinet Circuit + Addons (07/12/20 – 10/12/20)

The Raglan Range (30/11/20 – 01/12/20)