By this time of the year, we can hope for some pleasant sunny weather -
ideal for a ramble down a beautiful forested gorge, quite close to
Launceston and North-west Tasmania.
After a car shuttle to save the return walk, we start at the upper end
of Holwell Gorge, a little north-west of Holwell, and follow the gorge
down and northwards at a leisurely pace, past three waterfalls, to the
picnic area at the end. There will be plenty of time for a leisurely
barbecue lunch (bring your own food), chatting and catching up with
friends, and head home mid-afternoon, exploring more of the Tamar region
if you like. Total walk distance is about 4 km - mostly downhill! While
the track is not suitable for wheelchairs, strollers and bikes, it
should present no difficulties for supervised young children.
Further information about Holwell Gorge (ignore the out-of-date closure
warning) can be found at
http://waterfallsoftasmania.com.au/waterfalls/holwell_gorge_falls
| Thinking of
bringing along a children's or youth group? Click for Information for Leaders working with Children and Youth |
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk
leader, Andrew Madden, ph. 6399 3315 to book in. The
departure time is 9:00 am from the Door of Hope Church
car park, Launceston.
If you would like to arrange to meet the group
elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any
meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The
leader should always be notified of any other people you intend to bring
along, and you should always contact the walk leader if intending to
participate in a particular Boots N' All walk.
To access this area from northern Tasmania:
From Launceston, follow the
West Tamar Highway through Riverside and continue to Exeter (22 km).
There is more than one way to Holwell from Exeter. The map appears to
suggest that taking Winkleigh Rd. (not
Frankford Hwy just 100 metres south) is the shortest option. Follow
Winkleigh Rd. approx. 12 km and turn left at O'Reilly's Rd. About 3 km
will bring you to Nettlefold's Rd. Turn right and go a further 2.5
km to Holwell Rd. After about 500 metres, turn left into Kerrison's Rd.
The top car park for the gorge is about 1.5km along. However, it is
possible that the group will meet at the bottom carpark to organise the
shuttle. In that case, don't
turn into Kerrison's Rd. but continue north about 3 km past Holwell and
turn left into the short track to the Holwell Gorge car park and picnic
area.
Alternatively, if you don't mind a longer but fully sealed route, leave
Exeter via Frankford Highway and continue west/southwest about 20 km to
Frankford, then follow Holwell Rd. north. Holwell and Kerrison's Rd.
will be reached after about 8 km.
A third alternative is to leave the West Tamar Highway via Flowery Gully
Rd. just short of Beaconsfield, and after just under 2 km, turn right
into Denman's Rd. Approx. 3 km will bring you to Holwell Rd. Turn left
(south) and just under 5 km will bring you to the short track (right) to
the Holwell Gorge car park and picnic area.
Warnings:
Please take note of the weather forecast on the day. Be aware of
possible hazards such as insect bites and snakes.
Map details and references:
For Holwell Gorge, 1:100000 map is Tamar
(Tasmap 8215) and 1:25000 map is Beaconsfield (TasMap 4843).
Short ref. n/a
Zone Easting Northing
Latitude Longitude
55G -41.16.543 146.46.022
Three are no peakbagger points associated with this
walk. For listing of peakbagger
points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger's
Guide (2000 revision) which can be found and downloaded (as an Excel
spreadsheet) from
http://tastracks.webs.com/peakbaggers.htm
The same web page contains several other listings of Tasmanian
peaks.
GPX version of the track:
Click here
to download. Google Earth version of the track:
Click here
to download.
Right-click on the file and “save target as” to a location of your
choice. (Suggest you click the “Last modified” at top to sort by date to
get the most recent at top to find the file for the next walk).
When you have downloaded the track file, double-clicking on the Google Earth (kml) track should open Google Earth and zoom in to the location if you have Google Earth installed on your computer. The .gpx version of the track should import into mapping software or devices that support gpx tracks and waypoints.