Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park

Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park stretches across two ends of Tasmania's Central Highlands with no road joining them: Cradle Valley in the north, where the dolerite peaks of Cradle Mountain hang over Dove Lake, and Lake St Clair in the south, a glacial basin holding the deepest freshwater lake in Australia. Glaciers have worked this country for the past two million years, cutting the Dove River valley, the cirque that now holds Crater Lake, and the moraines the Watersmeet Track runs along. The reserve was gazetted in May 1922 over 63,943 hectares, after Gustav Weindorfer looked out from the Cradle Mountain summit in 1910 and argued it should be a national park for the people for all time; he and Kate built the guest chalet Waldheim at Cradle Valley in 1912, and it stands 5km inside the northern entrance. The park joined the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area in 1982.

Tasmanian Aboriginal people have lived in this landscape for more than 35,000 years, and Lake St Clair carries the name leeawuleena — sleeping water. Most visitors come for one view: Cradle Mountain's peaks rising behind Dove Lake, seen from the 6km circuit around the shore.

What to expect

Reviewed 6 November 2026

You come into Cradle Valley off the Cradle Link Road (C132) and pull up at the Cradle Mountain Interpretation Centre and Rangers Station, just inside the park entrance and open daily 9am–4pm. Everyone parks here: during shuttle hours private vehicles are held back and the shuttle runs you down the valley to Snake Hill, Ronny Creek and Dove Lake, with the carpark at Dove Lake the end of the line. Sort your pass at the desk — the standard Tasmanian Daily Pass does not cover Cradle Mountain, so day visitors need the Icon Day Pass at $30.70 per adult with the shuttle included — and read the track notices before you commit to anything. Past the visitor centre the road narrows through rainforest and buttongrass to Waldheim, the Weindorfers' 1912 chalet 5km inside the northern entrance, and on to the Dove Lake carpark directly beneath the peak. Picnic shelters with electric barbecues sit beside the interpretation centre, and there is food at the Cradle Valley lodges and the café over the road.

The Dove Lake Circuit is 6km, takes 2–3 hours and is Grade 3 — Parks recommends some bushwalking experience — and it starts at the Dove Lake carpark at the end of the shuttle run. Walk it clockwise. The track climbs over buttongrass and through myrtle, sassafras, fagus and King Billy pine, past the boat shed on the shore and the cool temperate rainforest known as the Ballroom Forest beneath the mountain's slopes. This is the walk most people come for, and weather is the variable that decides how it goes: the lake lies wide open under the peaks, and Parks warns the track is subject to severe, quickly changing conditions. Start early for the best chance of still water and a reflection, carry the layers you would take into alpine country even in midsummer, and treat a grey forecast as a reason to go sooner rather than later, because the valley closes in fast.

From the same Dove Lake carpark the Crater Lake Circuit is a 5.7km loop of about 2 hours, Grade 3 with steep sections, running past Lake Lilla and Wombat Pool to Crater Lake — a classic cirque lake gouged out by glacial snow and ice, and the halfway point of the walk. The park's serious objective sits above: Cradle Summit is 12.8km return, 8 hours and 600 metres of climbing, with large-rock crossings and steep exposed scrambling, graded 5 and reserved for very experienced bushwalkers with navigation and emergency first-aid skills. Parks is blunt that it is not suitable in wind, snow or rain. Snow can make tracks here difficult to navigate and possibly impassable in any season, so check the day's conditions at the ranger station before you leave the road.

Lake St Clair sits far south by track and a long way around by road, because no road runs through the park: you reach the southern end at Cynthia Bay from Derwent Bridge, 5.5km down Lake St Clair Road (C193) off the Lyell Highway. The lake fills a basin scoured by glaciers and reaches 167 metres at its deepest, making it the deepest freshwater lake in Australia, and its traditional name is leeawuleena — sleeping water. From the Cynthia Bay visitor centre, which covers both the glaciation history and the Aboriginal history of the area, three short walks combine into a figure-of-eight of 4.7km taking 45 minutes to 1.5 hours: the Watersmeet Track (Grade 2), which runs along the top of a moraine to where the Cuvier and Hugel rivers meet, plus Platypus Bay and lamairremener tabelti (both Grade 3), the walk that interprets the Aboriginal communities who lived around the lake. The longer option is Echo Point: 11km one way through rainforest close to the shore, 3–4 hours, with a 20-minute ferry back from the jetty — a fee applies and bookings are essential.

Wildlife is what most people remember. Wombats and pademelons graze the grass at Ronny Creek and Waldheim at dawn and dusk, Tasmanian devils, spotted-tailed quolls and eastern quolls move through the valley at night, and echidnas and platypus turn up on the short walks. The black currawong is the one you will meet up close — the park describes it as highly inquisitive, and it will go through your pack while you stop for a drink. The plants are just as old as the animals are unusual: King Billy pine, pencil pine, celery-top pine and pandani are Gondwanan survivors, and fagus, Tasmania's deciduous beech, colours the hillsides each autumn. This is a Fuel Stove Only area, so there are no campfires anywhere in Cradle Valley, and Parks asks visitors to keep off the roads in the reserves at night for the wildlife's sake. Check the PWS alerts page before you drive in — some access roads into Cradle Mountain close in winter, and the Lyell Highway and the Derwent Bridge access road can be closed by snow.