Grail Falls Fagus Time Sat. 26th April 2025
By mid-autumn, the blaze of alpine summer colour from scoparia and other beautiful plants has long faded, but is replaced by another beauty as the endemic deciduous beech – “fagus” for short, takes on its glorious autumn colour – a magnet for wilderness photographers. What is Fagus? See https://parks.tas.gov.au/discovery-and-learning/plants/fagus for a great description. At time of writing, Phil is unsure whether he will opt for Cradle Mountain, or Grail Falls. See below for the Grail Falls description, and visit bootsnall.sutas.org.au/wp-content/uploads/20230506_Cradle_Fagus.html to look at details for the Cradle Mountain area. Note that within the Cradle area, there are options such as Hounslow Heath and Crater Lake, depending on the weather and the fitness of the party, and your leader will make final decisions when the party arrives there.
Walk Route (Grail Falls):
The walk begins at the very end of the Mersey Forest Road, south of Lake Rowallan (alt. 600m). A kilometre south, after crossing the Jackson Creek footbridge, the route heads southwest for about 1.5 km before rising steeply over the next kilometre or so, then plunging steeply to the shores of Chapter Lake. Impressive views of Grail Falls are seen on this descent. After skirting the southern end of the lake, another short climb reaches the top of the falls, with Chalice Lake (alt. 1100m) reached another 1 km southwest. Depending on weather conditions and the energy and fitness of the party, the walk might not proceed past the falls. With a total round trip of about 12 km, it will be necessary to keep up a reasonable pace due to the shortening days, so this walk has been rated medium-hard. Energetic, resilient and experienced older children should be able to manage the walk, but please consult with walk leader.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone Phil Dawson on 0417 527 511 or email pidasms@gmail.com to book in by Thurs. evening. The departure time is 7:00 am from Door of Hope car park. Alternative meeting place: Deloraine 7:30 am. Check with leader for meeting spot. If you wish to meet with the group at any other place, please arrange with the leader. Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of departure time. However, you still need to contact the walk leader, if intending to walk. The leader should be notified of any other people you intend to bring along. Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of departure time.
To access this area from northern Tasmania: proceed along the Bass Highway to Deloraine (about 51 km), but do not turn off at the eastern exit into Deloraine. Instead, continue across Meander R. and up hill to the western exit, and to the roundabout at start of Mole Creek Rd. A further 24km will bring you to Mole Creek (sometimes used as a meeting place for our walks – check with leader). Continue west past Mole Creek, on what is now Liena Rd, making sure you turn south at the caravan park 4 km from the town. The road continues west until about 14 km from Mole Creek, it branches south, now called Mersey Forest Road. A little over 6 km south, you will pass turnoffs to Cradle Mountain and Devil’s Gullet (Lake Mackenzie) but keep going south, crossing the Mersey at Lake Parangana and passing the turnoffs for Bare Hill and Arm River. Another 17 km should see you cross below the Rowallan Dam. Continue south along the east side of Lake Rowallan, for about 16 km, by which time you are south of Lake Rowallan, until you reach the very end of the road and the beginning of the Moses Creek walking track.
Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2025 walks calendar] apply:
D Drive distance requires early departure
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
L A long day’s walk in excess of 3 hours each way
M Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
E Exposed alpine conditions – can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped
Click this link for a more detailed discussion of Preparation, Food and Safety guidelines for Boots N’ All walks.
Map details:
Grail Falls area: 1:100000 map is Mersey (Tasmap 8114) and 1:25000 map is Cathedral (Tasmap 4236)
Map references:
Short ref. n/a
Grail Falls:
Zone Easting Northing
55G 4 30 685 53 64 128
No peakbagger points will be visited on this walk. For explanation of this challenge, see Peakbaggers List 2017, which can be downloaded (Excel) from Peak Baggers and The Abel Mountains | Hobart Walking Club. At the time of writing, the website to which we used to link has been taken down, along with the 1983 and 2000 versions, developed from the original 1968 Hobart Walking Club version. We can’t guarantee that peaks you have bagged in the past are still on the current version. You can download the 2000 version from our website here [link]. A parallel and more recent but not identical list system is The Abels – also linked from the HWC website, which also contains some other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
For GPX (.gpx) and Google Earth (.kml) versions of the track: Click here to browse our collection.
Direct links: GPX for this walk — KML for this walk
Click here to learn about using your phone as a navigation device, or to find out about handheld GPS devices.
