Lake Rodway at Cradle Mountain – Sat. 7th Feb. 2026
This is a rare opportunity for Boots N’ All to visit the spectacular scenery under the east face of Cradle Mountain, including Artists Pool, Lake Rodway and Scott-Kilvert Hut.
Walk Route:
The success of this walk depends on a willingness of participants to keep to time, and to be able to walk at a good pace, including the very steep pinch of Hansons Peak on both the outward and return journeys. A good level of fitness and agility is needed to allow the destination to be reached.
An early start from Launceston is needed – about 2 hours drive, then allow 45 minutes to get bus tickets and get to Dove Lake where the walking begins.
From Dove Lake carpark, (alt. 940m) follow the track to the east side of the lake, avoiding the right branch for the lake circuit, and climbing steadily at first, avoiding the left turn to Lake Hanson, and climbing very steeply to the ridgeline of Hansons Peak (alt. 1180m), about 2 km from carpark. While the rest of the walk does rise and fall, the inclines are more gentle over the next 2km south, past Rangers Hut (day shelter) to Artists Pool. As we continue south, we lose about all the gained altitude to reach Flynns Tarn, Lake Rodway and Scott-Kilvert hut (alt. 906m), a further 2 km from Artists Pool. The full walk will only be possible in good weather. Your leader will decide whether it is safe to proceed. There are alternative walks such as the Dove Lake circuit and Crater Lake if the weather makes the full trip too risky.
The walk would be suitable for energetic and resilient older children. The busfare, NOT included in your parks pass, is $15 per person. You also need to have an individual parks pass, or arrive in a car with a parks pass. Shuttle buses run from 8:10am to 6pm in February, so your leader will be keen to arrive at Lake Rodway fairly soon after midday to make sure the group is back well before the last bus. Buses at the end of the day from Dove Lake can be crowded!
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone or text your walk leader, Stephanie Sebastian, ph. 0427 553 424 to book in. The departure time is 7:00 am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 7:50 am or Moina at 8:20 am. The group should arrive at the Visitor Centre by approx. 8:35 am. If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader must be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.
To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd (C136) through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd. but still C136), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. (C123). After approx. 20 km, you will reach the Cradle Mt. turnoff. Turn left (still called Cradle Mt. Rd.) and 3 km south, the Visitor Centre and shuttle bus terminus are on the left.
Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2026 walks calendar] apply:
D Drive distance requires early departure
M Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet.
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
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:
Waldheim/Dove Lake/Cradle Mt area: 1:100000 map is Sophia and 1:25000 map is Cradle (Tasmap 4038).
Map reference: 126845 (Cradle Mountain)
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
55G 4 12 730 53 84 690 -41.68478 145.95140
No peakbagger points will be reached 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
Right-click on the file and save target as to a location of your choice. (Suggest you click the Last modified at top to sort by date to get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).
