Overland Track

The Overland Track is Australia's best-known alpine walk, a 65-kilometre route through the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park in the Tasmanian highlands, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. It runs from the jagged crown of Cradle Mountain south to the shores of Lake St Clair, the country's deepest natural lake.

Walkers typically take six days, sleeping in a chain of public huts and tent platforms spaced along the route. The track crosses buttongrass moorlands, ancient myrtle-beech rainforest and glacially carved valleys beneath dolerite peaks. Side trips lead to Australia's highest summit in Tasmania, Mount Ossa at 1,617 metres, and to a series of waterfalls in the southern forests. The scenery shifts from open alpine plateau to deep temperate rainforest within a single day.

Difficulty is moderate. The graded track is well marked, but boardwalk gives way to mud, roots and rock, and the exposed plateau catches ferocious weather, with snow possible in any month. During the peak season a booking and permit are compulsory, walkers must travel north to south, and numbers are capped to protect the fragile terrain.

The regulated season runs from October to the end of May, the driest and mildest window, though Tasmanian highland weather remains unpredictable year-round. Outside those months the track is free but far harsher, with short days and heavy snow. Full wet-weather gear, warm layers and a fuel stove are essential, as is carrying all food for the crossing. It remains the benchmark against which other Australian multi-day walks are measured.