This was another pleasant walk in Tasmania with my sister and her husband. Our plan was to visit Black Bluff which is the highest point between Cradle Mountain and the north coast of Tasmania. It also lies just off the Penguin to Cradle Track.
For our day trip to the bluff, we walked via different route via Winterbrook Falls. This had the advantage of being largely in shade, which would be much more pleasant on a hot day.
To get to the start, we headed along a series of forest roads to a carpark. From there we walked a short distance along a closed road and then along a track that followed the path of an old tramway. In the early 20th century, that tramway was used to take out King Billy Pine logs. The tramway is now largely fallen to bits and overgrown. In a few places traces remain of the wooden rails.
After a few kilometers along the track, it left the tramway and started climbing. We reached a track junction, and took a path to a lookout. This provides a good view of the country ahead and Winterbrook Falls. Unfortunately due to the drought, the falls had only a very tiny flow. It was not worth continuing along that track to the falls themselves.
We walked back to the junction and took the other path. It climbed steeply up through the forest and eventually we passed through a natural gaps in the bluffs known as “The Eye of the Needle”. An impressive name, but in reality the actual gaps was not that special.
But not far above, we found ourselves in beautiful open alpine scenery. The track continued through an alpine garden. We crossed the Penguin – Cradle Track and continued on. Not far below was a cirque lake – Paddys Lake. It looked a nice place. A small campsite on the lakeside was occupied by a group of walkers.
To the south we could see Cradle Mountain and Barb Bluff.
We kept on our path, climbing up through flowering scoparia to reach the top of Black Bluff. It was incredibly windy on top – it was hard to stand up, so we didn’t stay long. We dropped down to a shady sheltered spot for lunch.
Then we retraced our steps, back through the Eye of the Needle, down to a creek, and back along the old tramway path.
This was an excellent daywalk! I intend to return to Black Bluff some day. Perhaps on the Penguin – Cradle walk?
More photos are online here on my website.
Shouldn’t your comment above “To the north we could see Cradle Mountain and Barb Bluff” read ” … to the south we could see …”?
Oops! Thanks for pointing out my careless error. Now fixed.
Thanks for sharing. We are looking at this route now that the road is closed at present for the other route after the recent floods. Do you remember how long the walk took and/or the distance? Cheers
No – sorry – I don’t recall the distance nor the time taken. I would think it was a couple of hours walking to get from the carpark to the summit – perhaps 3 hours. We did have lunch near the top. And it was faster going down.