Updated: Mar 2024
Published: Feb 2024

Pine Lake region

Note: indicated routes and locations are approximate.Use official topographic maps for navigation

This is a ramble around the area a few kilometres west of Pine Lake, just beside Highland Lakes Road in northern Tasmania. The area is fairly flat, but there's a lot of knee-high Richea scoparia scrub, tussocks, peat bogs and wombat holes, and there are no tracks.

We camped for two nights at a decent campsite we found a few kilometres in. There are waterfalls on Duncansons Rivulet (Duncansons Falls, Warners Falls and Havelock Falls), but I opted to hang around the campsite and take some photographs in the fog instead of visiting them on the intervening day. Thanks to John and Vonda and the Hobart Walking Club for organising this walk.

Just north of Pine Lake is Projection Bluff, and if you've got a few hours to spare on the first or last day, it's worth doing the ascent for some great views.

Looking towards Adams Peak from Pine Lake

Near Pine Lake there is a rough cairned route up Adams Peak on its east flank, and the view from the top is worth the ascent. We also found a few cairns on the north-west side of the lake, which helped avoid some of the scrub there. Use the boardwalk to access the lake, then follow the shoreline. The area between the carpark and the lake is fairly boggy, and the extra detour to the boardwalk is worth the effort. 

Skeleton 1

Near our campsite a few kilometres west of Pine Lake

Sundown
Fallen
Skeleton 2
Mountain Rocket

Bellendena montana. The red parts are actually seed pods, not flowers.

Pencil Pine in the sun
Skeleton 3
View from Projection Bluff

Projection Bluff is just a couple of kilometres north of Pine Lake.  Allow 3 hours for the complete return walk, which should allow for about an hour on top. There's a good but steep track up to the plateau, then a reasonably well defined track with cairns on the eastern side.