Published: Mar 2025

Higgs Track to Lake Evans and return

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

This is a five day walk in the northern Central Plateau Conservation Area  of Tasmania. The steep but well constructed Higgs Track climbs up to the plateau, and from there the walk is fairly easy, although some parts involve boulder hopping.

The blue lines on the map above indicate fairly well defined tracks. The orange track is indistinct and follows cairns —there's a more accurate map at this Alltrails page. The wide, pale-purple polygon is an approximate circuit around Forty Lakes Peak, not following any track or cairns, but it's mostly through grassland and easy to navigate. These routes are approximate and you should use official topographic maps for navigation.

Thanks to John and Vonda from the Hobart Walking Club for organising and leading this walk.

A walking track with elaborate stonework
A walking track with elaborate stonework

There's some pretty elaborate stonework on the way up. Most of the track is not as fancy as this, but it's very easy to follow and in good condition. There's an alternate branch near the top if you're interested in taking that (see this map), but the turnoff is easy to miss.

Walkers and their gear on the grass next to a hut.

At the end of the Higgs Track you'll find Lady Lake Hut.

A small tent in the foreground with a tree and a lake behind.

Late in the afternoon at the first campsite at Westons Lake

Pencil Pine tree beside a small pool
A small alpine stream with surrounding shrubs and grassland

Those red-tipped shrubs are Bellendena montana, known colloquially as Mountain Rocket

A tent pitched amongst shrubs
A calm lake with reeds and a distant mountain.
Dead Pencil Pine branches and a small alpine pool.
Walkers gathered around a stone hut

Late morning on day two.

Interior of a stone hut featuring a wood stove
Interior of a stone hut featuring a wood stove and table
The verandah of a stone hut with a seat made from fallen timber
Walkers leaving a stone hut
A small alpine stream with rocks and grassland
Walkers having lunch beside an alpine stream
Tents pitched in grassland
A weathered sapling, rocks and an alpine stream

On the loop back to Ironstone Hut on the morning of day three.

Shrubs and flowers in a gravel landscape

Pretty, but unfortunately it's a weed.

A tent pitched amongst shrubs and grasses with a mountain and trees in the background

After following an indistinct route marked by cairns from Ironstone Hut to Lake Ironstone, we arrived at Whiteleys Hut.

The foreshore of an alpine lake with shrubs and rocks

Day four was an easy saunter back to Lady Lake Hut.

A closeup overhead view of various grasses and mosses
A closeup overhead view of various grasses and mosses
A coffee cup perched on a verandah post with tents in the background
Rocks, grasses and shrubs beside a lake
Rocks, grasses and shrubs surrounding an alpine stream
A dead tree with two prominent horizontal limbs
A small eucalypt growing amongst shrubs and rocks
Several small eucalypts growing amongst rocks
Two tents pitched on a grassy area in front of a wooden hut

The afternoon of day four.

Day five is a half-day descent back down the Higgs Track.