The park, which covers 7,250 hectares (17,915 acres), is now part of Tasmania’s World Heritage Area. Its most distinctive feature is a dolerite range jutting from the landscape in a sharp spine that has been sculpted by repeated glaciations.

A track cut from Geeveston to the Hartz Mountains in the 1840s soon became one of Tasmania’s earliest popular bushwalks, due to its proximity to Hobart.

Most people visit this park to bushwalk. In an easy daytrip from Hobart you can feel as if you are in the heart of the Southwest Wilderness. Waterfalls lace the range, tarns glitter on the moorlands, and on a clear day the views from 1,255-metre (4,118-foot) Hartz Peak are panoramic in the true sense of the word.

Platypus are extremely shy, but you may see one, if you stand quietly beside one of the tarns or streams. Echidnas are a little more common, and may cross your path during the day. Most marsupials are nocturnal, but Bennetts wallabies and pademelons sometimes venture out in daylight.

• Lake Esperance (1.5-2 hours)
• Hartz Peak (three-five hours)

Camping is permitted in this park but there are no camping facilities.

On the way from Hobart (see How to Get There), you pass through the town of Geeveston, where the Forest and Heritage Centre has a wonderful gallery interpreting the forestry history of the region. Here you can buy Parks Passes and also tickets to the Tahune Forest AirWalk, which is in a Forestry Tasmania reserve 26 kilometres (16 miles) from Geeveston at the end of the C631 (the sealed road between Geeveston and the turnoff to the Hartz Mountains National Park).

From Hobart follow the signs on the A6 (which begins with the Southern Outlet) to Huonville and then Geeveston. From here, the C631 to the Tahune Forest Airwalk takes you to the signposted turnoff to the Hartz Mountains. The car park is 10.5 kilometres (6.5 miles) from this junction, along unsealed road that is sometimes subject to snow in winter.

• National parks and reserves
• Preparing to walk in the outdoors
• Park entry fees

Parks and Wildlife Information

• Phone: (03) 6264 8460
  Fax: (03) 6264 8473

• Forest and Heritage Centre
  Church Street
  Geeveston
  Phone: (03) 6297 1821
  Email: tvingeeveston@forestandheritagecentre.com