20230422 Blue Tier

Blue Tier Sat. 22nd April 2023

This walk will explore some rarely visited parts of this iconic area of rainforest in the northeast of Tasmania. We will hopefully stop off at the Weldborough Pass Rainforest Walk for a 15 minutes warm up walk. After that we will move on to a spot along Lottah Road where we will follow two separate taped tracks, one on each side of the road, through the forest visiting some old mine sites and other relics as well as enjoying some of the beautiful forest and creeks found within it.
The walk will all be along tracks and should be about 7 km in total, with only about 150 m of climbing spread throughout the day. It is rated easy-medium and would be suitable for agile children.

Meeting Times and Places
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone Phil Andrew on 0408 014 757 or email pandrew.tas@gmail.com. The departure time is 7:30 am from Door of Hope car park. If you wish to meet with the group at any other place, please arrange with the leader. However, you still need to contact the walk leader, if intending to walk. 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.

Creek in Blue Tier rainforest – once a centre of intense mining. Phil Andrew photo

To access this area from northern Tasmania:
Proceed from Launceston via Northern Outlet, turning off at University Connector to head for Lilydale Rd. Follow through Lilydale and continue through Lebrina, Golconda, Nabowla and Lietinna to Scottsdale (70 km from Launceston via this route). The alternative Tasman Highway route has recently re-opened after repairs from flood damage, and may still be subject to delays. Check this website. That route follows the Tasman Highway through Waverley, crossing the Sideling to reach Scottsdale. Please advise the leader if travelling independently.
From Scottsdale, follow the Tasman Highway SE a further 53 km through Tonganah to Branxholm, then Derby and on past Morinna and the Weldborough Pass to Weldborough. (Alternatively the Mt Paris Dam road can be taken to the right about 1.6 km east of Branxholm through to Weldborough, though this is a gravel road). From Weldborough, continue a further 4 km to the Weldborough Rainforest Walk car park which is signposted. After this it is a further 2.5 km to the Lottah Rd turnoff on the left, then another 4.5 km along Lottah Rd to where an old road turns off to the right. This is where the main walk will commence.
Allow about 1 hour 40 minutes from Launceston to Weldborough.

Warnings:
The following codes apply from our 2023 walks calendar:
D Drive distance requires early departure
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
M Marshy or muddy sections – be prepared to walk with wet feet Winter bushwalking can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped; see www.sutas.org.au/bush-walking/bush-walking for some guidelines.

Map details: Crystal Hill: 1:100000 map is Tasmap 8415 (Forester) and 1:25000 map is 5642 (Victoria)
Map reference:
Short ref. n/a
Zone      Easting        Northing       Latitude      Longitude
55G      5 82 503      54 36 344     -13.2047     147.590565

No peakbagger points will be visited on this walk. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger’s Guide (2000 revision) which can be downloaded (Excel) from http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm  The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian peaks.
GPX version of the track: Right-click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to open in Google Earth [if available on your device].
Click here to browse our entire collection of walk tracks, including to find GPX (.gpx) and Google Earth (.kml) versions of the track for this walk.
Click here to learn about using your phone as a navigation device, or to find out about handheld GPS devices.