Duck Reach and Gorge Bushland – Sun. 14th June
Date change! Although the Boots N’ All calendar listed this walk for Sun. 7th June, it has been moved to 14th June to allow people to attend both the Fortescue Bay camping trip and the Duck Reach walk.
Note also that this walk has now been changed to Sunday Afternoon after years of being a Saturday morning walk.
By early to mid-June, the days are short, the nights are cold and the mornings are often foggy. You could stay at home and pay for your heating, or you could warm up with a vigorous circuit walk in Launceston’s beautiful gorge.
From the Duck Reach carpark, we follow the path down the east bank of the South Esk gorge past the “second basin” where the river broadens around what becomes an island during floods. A de-rigeur visit to the impressive Sentinel Lookout, then we continue downstream to the First Basin. Last year, we had to divert the walk from the lookout via the steep access trail to Denison Rd, but the track has been fully open since November, so less effort! We will still bypass the suspension bridge at first, heading to the cafe on that side – the popular Cliff Grounds cafe is currently undergoing a major renovation, so no coffee break on that side!
After the break, the walk resumes, crossing the suspension bridge or the low level crossing, up Snake Gully and following fire trails back to the northern side of the gorge above Duck Reach before the steep descent to the old power station, with its historic interpretation information, and across the suspension bridge before the steep climb back to the car park, before we head our separate ways, hopefully well before it gets dark! Total walk distance is about 5 km, on well-formed tracks except for the 300 metres off-track if we need to bypass. Suitable for energetic children, but not suitable for prams, strollers or wheelchairs. People with those needs could link up with the group during the time at the Basin area.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone or text Basil Tkaczuk on 0438 664 402. Meet at Duck Reach car park (West Launceston/Summerhill side in Corin St, NOT the Reatta Rd. Hoo Hoo Hut car park!) by about 1:45 pm. If you wish to meet with the group at any other place or need to be picked up from Door of Hope, please arrange with the leader. However, you still need to contact the walk leader, if intending to walk, so he knows who to wait for. 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: The walk is in the Launceston area. See notes above about car park.
Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2026 walks calendar] apply:
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
For this walk, there are no special clothing requirements apart from normal precautions against cold or rain (carry a raincoat, please!). Solid shoes or sneakers (with reasonably thick socks to protect against blisters) should be fine, and gaiters are not needed.
Map details:
For this walk, there are some good maps in Trails in and around Launceston, a brochure which can be downloaded from this link. See page 5 for the route we will follow (red dots).
No peakbagger points on this walk! For explanation of peakbagging, see our new Peakbaggers and Abels page, which has links to various lists of peaks, including Peakbaggers, Abels, Poimenas and others. For really enthusiastic walkers, Phil Andrew’s recently updated Tasmanian Peaks Composite List [link] can be downloaded, which gives a complete smorgasbord of Tasmanian mountains, hills and high places – enough for a lifetime of bushwalking!
Various websites show walks in the Cataract Gorge reserve including Duck Reach and Kings Bridge (6.7km), Cataract Gorge Reserve, TAS > Trail Hiking Australia, although that walk also includes the section from Kings Bridge to First Basin.
GPX version of the track: Click here to download.
For GPX (.gpx) and Google Earth (.kml) versions of tracks for most Boots N’ All Walks: Click here to download.