Lake St Clair

In April we went to Lake St Clair as part of a longer trip to Strahan. It's about half way between Hobart and Strahan on the west coast and we thought that it would be a good stop off for a few nights to explore and do a walk or two. Lake St Clair is within the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, so to actually enter the park you'll need a parks pass which can be purchased when you enter and head to the main visitors centre and they'll sort you out. Otherwise, you can have an all year, all parks pass as mentioned earlier in my blog (Cradle Mountain). Here is the official National Parks info for Lake St Clair.

The trip up there by car is pretty interesting, scenic and all the rest. We stopped off at Tarraleah on the way which is the old Hydro town. The hydro complex itself and the engineering involved, I found was very interesting, yet surreal that in an incredibly scenic valley there was the blatant scar of pipelines, man-made canals, wires and pump houses. Its an incredible sight to behold and an engineering undertaking on a massive scale. The history of Tarraleah and the Hydro can be found here or here.

When you are nearing Lake St Clair, you approach Derwent Bridge, where we stayed. Its the closest conurbation to the national park, lake, walks etc. There isn't an awful lot here except a couple of lodges/hotels, a fuel stop (which I'd advise you to use, there isn't fuel for ages!) and a cafe, The Hungry Wombat. This said, an evening walk with a torch found quite a bit of wildlife, especially if you walk down to the river or the open land area just off the road. Although if you see a Tassie Tiger, it's likely to be the model one at the Derwent Bridge Chalets and Studios, we made this mistake!

When you head to Lake St Clair itself there is a road that leads you into the NP. They recommend you be extra vigilant after dusk as there is a lot of wildlife here and not very many cars brave the road much after dark as there isn't a lot to go to in there after dark. There is a visitors centre which has advice, books and trail information, as well as a hotel/hostel and restaurant. Most walks at Lake St Clair start from here and there are walk registration books here that you'll need to sign, just in case of emergency. 

There is a small foreshore and beach, with a jetty for the 'water taxi' that returns tired walkers from the end of the Overland Track. Apparently you can take a ride around the lake for a better view, you'd have to ask in the visitors centre. 

See Shadow Lake Circuit blog for walk information.