Between the popular holiday areas around Port Sorell and Port Dalrymple, long, isolated beaches with reserved bush hinterland provide a peaceful and wilderness-like area for great bushwalks. One of three Boots N' All bushwalks in the area this year, this one starts from the Springlawn area at Bakers Beach, progressing north-easterly to Little Badger Head, through the delightful Copper Cove and north onto Badger Head itself. Return by the same route. Apart from the great exercise, the coastal scenery and vegetation should make it a great day.
Walk route:
The walk starts at about at the ranger station carpark, and heads northeast along the banks of Springlawn Lagoon, continuing past Archers Knob and up a short steep pinch to reach Little Badger Head after 5 km of tracked walking. Descend to Copper Cove over the next 1 km, and, again with some short uphill stretches, Badger Head is reached after a further 2.5 km, a little over 8 km from the start of the walk. While the walking is quite easy, the distances suggest a reasonable level of fitness is needed to keep up a good walking pace. Energetic and resilient children should be able to manage the walk.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in joining this walk, please phone or text John Tabor on 6428 6512, mob. 0475 566 389 to book in. The departure time is 7:30 am from Door of Hope carpark in South Launceston. Allow 1 hour to Bakers Beach if driving from the Launceston area. If you would like to arrange to meet elsewhere, please arrange with the leader, and please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of the listed time. The leader must be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.
To access this area from northern Tasmania:
From Launceston, follow the West Tamar Highway (A7) 24 km to Exeter, and turn left into the Frankford Highway B71, following it for 41 km through Frankford to reach the junction of Bakers Beach Rd C740 on the right, just short of the Franklin Rivulet (South East Arm) bridge. Head north a little over 13 km to reach the ranger station and carpark from where the walk starts. (It is also possible to follow the Bass Highway from Launceston, past Deloraine, then at Sassafras, head north via Chapel Rd C713 to reach Harford, then head east per below.)
If coming from the northwest, it's about 26 km to the start of Bakers Beach Rd, travelling via Bass Highway for just over 5 km (but only about 3 km east of the Mersey bridge), then just north along Port Sorell Rd (about 400 metres), turn right into Frankford Rd, aka Frankford Hwy), continuing east through Moriarty and Thirlstan, then south, turning east again just short of Harford, past the 2 Port Sorell bridges to reach Bakers Beach Rd.
Warnings:
L A long day’s walk – in excess of 3 hours each way.
You should carry wet weather gear as well as warm clothing in case of sudden weather changes. Walkers should carry water with them, suggest at least 1 litre. Also bring your lunch and snacks. For equipment and safety guidelines, Click Here.
Map details:
Bakers Beach and Badger Head: 1:100000 map is Tamar (TasMap 8215) and 1:25000 map for upper area is Port Sorell (TasMap 4644).
Map reference: Badger Head
Short ref. n/a
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
55G 4 70 507 54 50 558 -41.57426 146.38929
No peakbagger points will be reached on 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: Right-click here to download. Google Earth version of the track: Click here to open in Google Earth [if available on your device].
For the full listing of our extensive GPX and KML files, click here. To find one in a hurry, Ctrl-F to bring up a search box, and type in part of the name of the walk. For some walks, there will be more than one version. Right-click on the file and save target as to a location of your choice.
