Cradle Mountain is the image almost everyone has of Tasmania's wilderness: a mountain of jagged dolerite ridges cut out against the sky and reflected, on still days, in the dark waters of Dove Lake, with forest, alpine vegetation and waterfalls all around. It's the heart of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the last great strongholds of temperate forest, alpine moorland and endemic wildlife on the planet.
It is, without a doubt, Tasmania's best-loved nature destination. This is where the legendary Overland Track begins, one of Australia's great multi-day walks, but you don't need to be an expert trekker to enjoy it: the park offers short, accessible trails, many on wooden boardwalks, leading to lakes, waterfalls and spectacular lookouts. And it's one of the best places in the country to see wildlife in the wild: wombats grazing on the Ronny Creek grasslands at dusk, wallabies, echidnas, birds and, if you're lucky, the elusive Tasmanian devil.
This guide takes a practical look at Cradle Mountain: how to get there (there's no public transport), how the pass system and the compulsory shuttle to Dove Lake work, which walks to do depending on your time and fitness (from the easy Dove Lake Circuit to the demanding summit climb), when to go and how to prepare for weather famous for changing in an instant. It's a place of breathtaking beauty, where it pays to be patient with the clouds and to dress warmly, because when the sky opens up over Cradle Mountain, the reward is unforgettable.
Cradle Mountain and its park are on the land of the Tasmanian Aboriginal peoples (palawa), who lived in this alpine region for more than 35.000 years —even during the last ice age—, hunting and gathering and leaving numerous occupation sites across the landscape. The area lies on the boundary between the Big River and North Tasmanian nations. After European colonisation and the tragic devastation of Tasmanian Aboriginal people in the 19th century, the mountain was almost forgotten until Austrian naturalist Gustav Weindorfer and his wife Kate fell in love with it: in 1912 they built the Waldheim chalet ('forest home') and Gustav declared that this should be 'a national park for the people, for all time'. His campaign led to it being declared a scenic reserve in 1922, the seed of today's national park and World Heritage Area. The full story is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The island south of the mainland, once Van Diemen's Land: home to one of the most feared penal colonies of the empire and the scene of the tragic Black War against the Palawa people. Today it is a haven of wild nature, with more than a third of its area protected as a World Heritage Site.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Beneath the jagged silhouette of Cradle Mountain lies one of the oldest and most remarkable human stories in Australia. The Aboriginal peoples of Tasmania (palawa) have lived in this alpine region for more than 35,000 years, which means they were here during the last Ice Age, when much of the landscape was covered by glaciers and the climate was far colder and harsher than today. Their presence at these high southern latitudes, in the depths of the glaciation, is an extraordinary testament to adaptation and survival.
The Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair area lies on the boundary between two Aboriginal Tasmanian nations: the Big River nation and the North nation. Groups moved through this territory seasonally, hunting animals, gathering plants and using tools made of bone, stone and wood. The landscape is dotted with numerous occupation sites (shelters, campsite remains, marks in the ground) that show this continuous human presence over thousands of years, even in the harsh conditions of the alpine moorland.
These peoples were part of one of the most isolated human populations on the planet: when sea levels rose at the end of the glaciation and Bass Strait formed, some 10,000-12,000 years ago, Tasmania was cut off from the mainland and its inhabitants lived for millennia in almost total isolation. Recognising that Cradle Mountain is not an empty 'untouched paradise' but an Aboriginal cultural landscape of astonishing age is the essential starting point for telling its story.
The arrival of the British in Tasmania in the early 19th century opened one of the darkest chapters in Australian history. The colonisation of the island, first as a penal colony and later as pastoral land, brought the violent occupation of Aboriginal lands, disease, and the so-called 'Black War' of the 1820s and 1830s, a devastating frontier conflict. The Aboriginal Tasmanian population, which had lived on the island for tens of thousands of years, was decimated by violence, epidemics and dispossession, and many survivors were forcibly moved to settlements on islands in Bass Strait, where large numbers of them died.
The mountainous centre and north-west, remote and with a hostile climate, stayed relatively on the margins of intensive colonisation, but not of its effects. According to some records, the last free Aboriginal people in the area were sighted just south of Cradle Mountain around 1836. For decades these mountains were left almost empty and forgotten, known only to a few prospectors, trappers and miners who ventured into the wild interior.
Against the long-lasting myth that the Aboriginal Tasmanians had 'died out', one essential truth must be stressed: the descendants of the Aboriginal Tasmanians survived and are here today. They maintain their identity, are reviving their language (palawa kani) and assert their connection to this land. The Aboriginal Tasmanian community is a living part of the present of Cradle Mountain and of the whole island.
The protected destination that Cradle Mountain is today was born of one couple's love for the mountain. Gustav Weindorfer, an Austrian naturalist born in 1874, emigrated to Australia in 1900 and there met Kate Cowle, a Tasmanian amateur botanist whom he married. They shared a passion for nature, and when Gustav first climbed to the summit of Cradle Mountain in January 1910, he was so overwhelmed by the beauty of the place that he uttered a line that would become historic: 'This must be a national park for the people, for all time'.
Determined to share and protect the mountain, in March 1912 Gustav began building a rustic timber chalet deep in the forest, which he called Waldheim, German for 'forest home'. From Waldheim, Gustav and Kate welcomed the first visitors (often after gruelling walks just to get there), showed them the wildlife and scenery, and spread the idea that the place had to be preserved. Gustav became a tireless promoter and guardian of the mountain, a pioneer of conservation and ecotourism long before those words existed.
His campaign paid off: in 1922 the Tasmanian government declared a scenic reserve and wildlife sanctuary of some 158,000 acres between Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair, the seed of today's national park. Kate died in 1916 and Gustav stayed on alone at Waldheim, looking after the mountain, until his own death in 1932; he is buried near his beloved chalet. Today a faithful replica of Waldheim, surrounded by myrtle forest, lets you relive the story of love and vision that saved Cradle Mountain for everyone.
The reserve Weindorfer championed kept growing and consolidating throughout the 20th century until it became Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, one of the most important in Australia. In 1935 the legendary Overland Track opened, the multi-day trail linking Cradle Mountain with Lake St Clair that is now one of the country's great walks. The park became Tasmania's most iconic natural destination, drawing walkers and nature lovers from all over the world.
International recognition came in 1982, when the park was included in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, one of the largest temperate wilderness reserves in the southern hemisphere, protected by UNESCO for both its natural and cultural values. The area covers a vast expanse of temperate forest, alpine moorland, wild rivers and unique plants and animals, including relict species from ancient Gondwana such as King Billy pines and fagus, Australia's only native deciduous tree.
With the growth of tourism came management challenges too: protecting a fragile ecosystem from the pressure of hundreds of thousands of visitors. That is why today's system was introduced: the compulsory shuttle to Dove Lake (to cut car traffic), raised boardwalks that protect the vegetation and soil, permits and quotas for the Overland Track, and fees that fund conservation. The aim, more than a century on, is to fulfil Weindorfer's vision: keeping the mountain a park for the people, for all time.
Today there is also progress in recognising and interpreting the site's deep Aboriginal history, bringing in the voice and knowledge of the palawa community. For travellers, knowing that beneath these postcard landscapes lie 35,000 years of human presence, a colonial tragedy and the story of a couple who dreamed of protecting them turns the walk around Dove Lake into something far deeper than just a photo of a beautiful mountain.
