South Coast Track Tasmania

Hard to believe it has been 11 years today – how time passes when you are having fun!

We just returned from South Coast Track, Tasmania. The track was really too wet so mud, mud, mud up to our knees or worse for 7 days. Also track times and distances were much longer than quoted on track PR, so we walked for 10-13 hours every day. Gruelling. It was winter there (February in Victoria) so temperatures were maybe 10 daytime and 0 night time.

The track is also very dangerous in places and has undisclosed traps which you could only escape by retreating, but up to 6 days’ retreat would see you well out of food. For example, at Granite Beach you had to climb a vertical cliff with less than a metre of rocky beach at the bottom and 2 metre waves rapidly approaching as the tide rushed in.

At South Cape Rivulet the crossing was chest deep and intermittently swept by 2 metre waves. If I had not carried 45 metres of 2mm Spectra cord with a breaking strain of 400 kg I would never have got Della or Kerri across. Also nowhere to emergency camp and nowhere for a helicopter to land, so no alternative. I guess you could wait it out huddled under a tree with your tent draped over you until the tide went out and the stream went down. How long?

I would hesitate to recommend this track to most people.

The track crosses interminable button grass swamps which are really desolate and uninspiring. Most of the remainder of the time you are pushing through narrow tunnels of 3 metre high sword grass. For some reason the track goes straight up wherever it can to crests rather than saddles. These sections are watercourses.

It walks on the side of ridges whenever it could have stuck to the tops of same. When there might be a view it walks on the lee side of sand hills etc so there is no view of the sea (which was sometimes really beautiful).

I thought it would be much easier than the Dusky Track in Fiordland NZ where I was cautious of taking Della, but in fact it was much worse – and without the spectacular beauty or the opportunity to camp in dry huts of a night, or anywhere in between the designated camp sites.

Instead of comfy dry huts we camped in very wet bush and drank water which was darker than strong tea and often tasted yuck.The campsites are few and far between, particularly on the Ironbound range which took us 13.5 hours of steady walking to cross.

I am really sorry I didn’t go to the Dusky again this year. Next year hopefully. Della has provided a much more detailed (and poetic) track description here: South Coast Track – Hell’s Holiday

PS: I wrote this when I was feeling a bit put off by the track (as you can see). In retrospect there were some nice bits to see and camp even if they were widely separated. I will let some photos of the trip taken in the direction Melaleuca to Cockle creek speak for themselves (the weather was lousy for photography – we had our raincoats on practically the whole trip; I can swear by the efficacy of event raincoats however):

Melaleuca

Melaleuca to Freney Lagoon

Freney Lagoon

Cox’s Bight

Looking back to Cox’s Bight

Crossing Faraway Creek

Faraway Creek

Faraway Creek

Those endless buttongrass plains

Louisa River Camp Site

Crossing the Louisa River

Leaving Loiusa River

On the Ironbound Range

Ironbound Range

Deadman’s Creek

Little Deadman’s

Partway along to Prion there is a pleasant rest stop.

Wildlife Prion Bay

Prion Bay

Prion Bay

New River Lagoon

Granite Beach

Granite Beach – a very steep climb to the camp.

Horizontal Scrub

South Cape Rivulet

Near Cockle Creek

Della’s version: Tasmania’s South Coast Track – Hell’s Holiday

PS: It simply does not compare to the South Coast Track Fiordland New Zealand

PS: Both Della and I wrote these accounts years before we started this blog so they are much shorter (and less rich in illustrations). We would approach it differently now, but ‘ the past is a foreign country from which no traveler returns’ – or words to that effect. However, we s=do not plan to return to this track though its namesake in NZ calls us yet, as does the Dusky.  May 2024

See Also:

Overland Track Video

Tasmania’s Overland Track Last Day

A Taste of Tasmania’s Overland Track

South Coast Track Tasmania

South Coast Track – Hell’s Holiday

First Published Mar 6, 2011

PS: I used to be much more laconic back then – if I was writing it all now I would have included rather more (useful) detail, but if I edited it now it would have all the problems which memory is heir to. There were (many) hazards which were not (adequately) warned about. Some of these eg the defective steps off the beach after the South Coast Rivulet) have probably been fixed. Do take plenty of extra food (in case of delays) and a satellite phone in case you need to be rescued. I would still recommend the Dusky Track Fiordland as a alternative ( a million times better). Our next major walk (once my knee replacement is healed) will be there – hopefully autumn 2023.