Tasmania (Western Region)
Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park
Practicalities at the North Entrance (at Cradle Mountain Lodge)
At Cradle Mountain, the impressive modern Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre (daily 8am–5pm, later in summer; tel 03/6492 1133) provides information on the many day-walks available in this area of the park, and acts as a registration point for the Overland Track; it’s worth buying the Cradle Mountain Day Walk Map ($4) for more information. You can start here with a gentle ten-minute boardwalk circuit through rainforest and overlooking Pencil Pine Falls, ideal for wheelchairs or strollers. There’s also the “Enchanted Walk” which follows the creek through rainforest to Craddle Mountain Lodge (1km one-way; 20min). 
Five kilometres into the park from the visitor centre, Waldheim (“Forest Home” in German), is the King Billy pine chalet built by the Austrian-Australian Gustave Weindorfer in 1912, and now a museum (open 24 hours; free) devoted to the man who loved this wilderness area and helped to have it declared a national park. From Lake Dove car park, 2.5km on from Waldheim, you can take the Dove Lake circuit (2–3hr), an easy all-weather walk around the shore of the lake, or a popular, but steep and strenuous, day-walk from here to the summit of Cradle Mountain (6hr return; get advice from the ranger first). If you’re feeling lazy, you can opt for a scenic flight (Nov–May only) over the area with Seaair (tel 03/6492 1132; from $75 for 25min), who are based by the Cradle View Airport Restaurant.

Just on the edge of the national park, and within walking distance of the visitor centre, Craddle Mountain Lodge is the focus for accommodation, eating and drinking. Scattered through the bush around the lodge, which has only two bedrooms, are 96 luxurious serviced timber cabins, all with log fires, kitchenettes and bathrooms. At the lodge itself, guest facilities include lounges, a sauna – with a window providing bush views – a massage room ($30 for 30min) and free movies shown each night. Non-guests can book in to eat at the classy restaurant, or drop in to eat or drink at the tavern bar – if you’re there at 9.15pm you might catch a Tasmanian Devil creeping up for food from a lodge employee. You can hire bicycles from the lodge, there’s a general store selling expensive groceries, and fuel is available (no diesel). 

Cradle Mountain Tourist Park, 2km back along Cradle Mountain Road, has a campsite, two hostel-style heated bunkhouses sharing kitchen, toilet and washing facilities with the campers, and some basic huts plus well set-up cabins sleeping up to six, complete with TV and air-conditioning. The campsite has a small shop and is linked to the lodge in summer by a shuttle bus. Near the campsite entrance the licensed fast-food/bistro-style Cradle View Airport Restaurant also sells petrol and diesel (daily 8.30am–8pm). 

A bit further on, 1.5km from the park entrance, there’s more accommodation at Cradle Mountain Highlander Cabins. 

In the park itself, there are eight basic self-catering huts at Waldheim, which sleep four to eight people with generator electricity, pot-bellied stoves, no fridge or power points, and a shared amenities block – these are looked after by the National Park Visitor Centre.

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