Cradle Mountain

PeaksTasmania,Australia

A saw-toothed dolerite crest in Tasmania above a glacial lake and a lone timber boatshed, and the start of a 65-kilometre walk south.

September·Edge of season

Sep–Nov

Spring thaws the plateau: snow retreats off the buttongrass, days lengthen and warm, and cushion plants and wildflowers green up. The Overland Track's booking season reopens on 1 October and the shuttle stretches its hours toward summer.

Year-round The dolerite peaks and Dove Lake are here year-round, and the weather can run through four seasons in an hour. The one clear seasonal event is autumn, when the fagus changes colour.

Cradle Mountain is a saw-toothed crest of dolerite standing 1,545 metres over the Tasmanian highlands, above a dark glacial lake with a lone timber boatshed on its shore. On a still morning the two horns lie doubled in that water, sharp enough to trace peak for peak, and the reflection comes and goes as the breeze crosses it. The boatshed in the foreground was cut from King Billy pine by the park's first ranger, unused for decades. That timber is worth knowing about. King Billy and pencil pine are Tasmanian conifers that grow slowly, live past a thousand years, and have no defence against fire. The summit is harder than the lake. The last climb crosses a steep field of dolerite blocks that you pull yourself up by hand, and cloud closes over the top more often than not, so plenty of walkers turn back at the boulders. On a clear day it opens onto a plateau of lakes and moor with nothing built on it anywhere. From the Dove Lake shore the Overland Track sets off south, sixty-five kilometres and six days to Lake St Clair across alpine moor, rainforest and glacial valley. You do not need all of it: the first climb, to Marions Lookout, gives you the lake and the mountain from above. In late April and May the fagus turns, and the steep sides of Crater Lake hold one of the densest stands on the mountain, so the whole bowl goes gold and rust at once. It is Tasmania's only winter-deciduous tree, and it grows wild on no other island, low and twisted rather than tree-shaped, so you walk through the colour at eye level instead of under it. Wombats graze out on the buttongrass in the last hour of light, and after dark the forest belongs to the Tasmanian devil, the largest meat-eating marsupial left, heard far more often than seen. None of the old trees here would survive a fire. A single one erases a stand that took a thousand years, and on burnt ground they do not come back.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Dove Lake is reached by shuttle, not by car — private vehicles are barred from the lake road whenever the buses run, and there are only nine parking bays at the far end.
The fagus turns around 25 April — the colour holds for roughly a month, but a wind storm at the wrong moment strips the leaves early, so no week is a safe bet.
Come out at dusk for wombats — the buttongrass flats around Ronny Creek are where they graze most openly in the last hour of light; stay on the boardwalk and keep your distance.
The western shore is where the water sits stillest — go at dawn, before the wind picks up and breaks the reflection for the rest of the day.
Dress for four seasons in one day — the summit is often locked in cloud and snow can fall in any month, so carry rain gear and warm layers even on a clear morning.

Things to do

1
Catch the peaks mirrored in Dove Lake
On a still morning the two dolerite horns lie doubled in the dark water, sharp enough to trace peak for peak. Sit at the lake edge and wait — the reflection comes and goes as the breeze crosses the surface, and for a moment the mountain stands twice. The little boatshed on the shore, cut from King Billy pine by the park's first ranger and unused for decades, is the foreground everyone frames against the peak. Soft morning light with mist still low on the lake is when both come together.
2
Step onto the Overland Track
From the Dove Lake shore, the 65-kilometre Overland Track sets off south for Lake St Clair, six days across alpine moor, rainforest and glacial valley. Through the main season only 34 independent walkers start each day and everyone walks the same way, north to south; the year's bookings open on a single morning in July and the summer dates go within hours. You don't need the whole walk: the first climb to Marions Lookout opens a wide view back over the lake and the mountain.
3
Scramble the boulder field to the summit
The last climb to the 1,545-metre top crosses a steep field of dolerite blocks where you pull yourself up by hand. On a clear day the summit opens a view over a lake-dotted wilderness; when cloud rolls in, as it often does, the honest move is to turn back.
4
Walk the Crater Lake circuit as the fagus turns
The steep sides of Crater Lake hold one of the densest stands of fagus on the mountain, and in late autumn the whole bowl goes gold and rust at once. The circuit runs about six kilometres around it. The plant itself is low and twisted rather than tree-shaped, so you walk through the colour at eye level instead of under it.