Jetstar JQ753 departs Brisbane 13:40, arrives Launceston 17:30. Stove fuel cannot fly — buy canisters in Launceston on arrival. Tonight's priority: dinner, final gear check, and early to bed. The bus to Ronny Creek departs at 7am sharp tomorrow.
The Overland Track Pass can be collected at Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre in the morning before departure. Staff run a mandatory pre-departure briefing covering weather, track conditions, and biosecurity. Present your signed Walker Safety Checklist. Both the Overland Track Pass and a current Tasmanian National Parks Pass must be carried and shown to rangers on request. Neither is transferable. Before leaving home, check, clean, and dry all gear — particularly boot soles, Velcro, tent pegs, and trekking poles. The track is inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area and biosecurity is taken seriously.
Overland Track Transport bus departs Launceston 07:00, arrives Ronny Creek 10:00. Track start is from Ronny Creek — the shuttle drops you directly at the trailhead. Collect your Overland Track Pass at the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre on arrival before the bus continues to Ronny Creek, or collect the evening before between 3pm and 4pm if staying in Cradle Valley.
Duckboard and buttongrass moorland from Ronny Creek across the valley floor, then a steep rocky climb up to Marion's Lookout above Dove Lake. The track then traverses the exposed Cradle Mountain cirque with constant views before descending to the Kitchen Hut junction and continuing north to Windermere. The optional Cradle Mountain summit adds 2–3 hours and significant elevation — save it for a clear afternoon if energy allows. *Distance excludes any summit detour.
Wombats are almost guaranteed at Ronny Creek in the early morning — they graze the buttongrass beside the track with remarkable indifference to walkers. Marion's Lookout is one of the great single-moment reveals on the entire track: you crest the ridge and the full Cradle plateau, Dove Lake, and the central highlands open up at once. The whole walk is in front of you. Windermere Hut sits in a glacially carved hollow above the lake, sheltered from the west wind.
A descent from the alpine plateau into the Pelion Plains — the most dramatic vegetation transition on the whole walk. From open, wind-scoured moorland into closed-canopy temperate rainforest with myrtle beech and ancient celery-top pine. The track through the plains is muddy and rooted in places but the gradient eases considerably. Pelion Plains itself is open buttongrass under a big sky after the enclosed forest passages — the Pelion massif and Mount Ossa rise directly to the east.
The forest descent from the plateau is among the most beautiful sections of the track — dense canopy blocking the wind, filtered green light, the silence of old rainforest. Wombats again in the late afternoon at Pelion. The hut clearing sits in open grassland and feels like a different world from the exposed plateau two days ago. Mount Ossa is directly overhead, which sets up tomorrow well.
The Mount Ossa summit track branches off the main Overland Track roughly halfway between Pelion and Kia Ora — you carry full packs to the junction, stash them there, summit and return, then continue south to Kia Ora. The climb from the junction rises through alpine heath and open dolerite ridgeline to the summit plateau at 1,617 m — the highest point in Tasmania. Mostly well-marked cairns with some scrambling near the top. The onward walk from the junction to Kia Ora is through dense rainforest alongside the Mersey River. *Distance includes the summit return from the junction.
The Mount Ossa summit panorama is the finest elevated view on the entire walk — the full Pelion massif, the central plateau stretching south to Lake St Clair, the Walls of Jerusalem to the north-east, and the Southern Ocean visible on a clear day. You are standing on the roof of Tasmania. The descent to Kia Ora follows the Mersey River through rich rainforest, with the river running dark with tannins beside you for the last hour into camp.
A shorter day through some of the finest rainforest on the track. Well-maintained trail past the Du Cane Hut junction, through myrtle beech and pencil pine forest with several creek crossings, to Bert Nichols Hut above the Mersey gorge. The Du Cane waterfall side trips — Ferguson Falls and Hartnett Falls — are both within easy distance of today's route and should not be skipped. *Distance excludes waterfall detours, which add 1–2 hours total.
Ferguson Falls drops 60 m into the dolerite gorge below Du Cane Hut — the finest single waterfall on the track and one of the best in Tasmania. Hartnett Falls is a wider, more open cascade worth the short detour. The forest between Kia Ora and Du Cane is ancient and enclosed, with the tannin-black Mersey audible below through the trees for long stretches. Yellow-tailed black cockatoos are common in the pencil pines. Bert Nichols Hut sits high above the gorge with long views south.
The track descends off the southern plateau and cuts down into the Pine Valley — one of the most remarkable forest environments in Australia. The valley floor is carpeted with ancient king billy pines, pencil pines, and King Billy pines several centuries old. Trail surface through the valley is rooted and irregular — slow going but stunning. The Pine Valley Hut sits in a clearing at the head of the valley with the Acropolis dolerite plateau looming directly above.
King billy pines up to a thousand years old standing in a cathedral-like grove — trees that were already ancient when European contact with Australia began. The valley floor is covered in sphagnum moss and dense understorey. The Acropolis summit rises above the hut as a sheer dolerite wall — an optional side trip adding 5 hours return from the hut. Platypus are frequently seen in the Pine Valley Creek in the early morning. This is the most remote-feeling section of the entire track.
Return from Pine Valley to the main track junction, then south to Narcissus Hut at the northern tip of Lake St Clair. The walking is straightforward and mostly flat through open forest — a gentle way to close out the track. The ferry from Narcissus to Cynthia Bay departs at 13:15. Allow 3–3.5 hours of walking from Pine Valley Hut to be at Narcissus comfortably by 12:30. Overland Track Transport bus departs Cynthia Bay 14:30 for Hobart, arriving approximately 17:00.
Lake St Clair from the water's edge for the first time — enormous, utterly still on a calm morning, surrounded on all sides by forested mountains. Narcissus Hut sits in a clearing of pencil pines at the shoreline, one of the most peaceful spots in Tasmania. The ferry crossing is the perfect, unhurried end to the walk — Mount Olympus rising steeply on the western shore, Cynthia Bay growing ahead. Step off at the other side and the track is done. Seven days behind you. The deepest lake in Australia crossed.