The 70km Port Davey Track, used by only a few hundred walkers a year, connects Lake Pedder to Melaleuca in the Southwest National Park, deep in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The track undulates across buttongrass moorland, across the Crossing Plains beneath the rugged Arthurs, and the Lost World Plateau between the Erskine and Rugby Ranges. Despite the gentle gradient, the walk is a challenge, including navigating muddy tracks and sculling the channel of Bathurst Harbour in row boats. The modern Port Davey track finishes at the isolated and tiny settlement of Melaleuca, accessible only by boat, plane or foot. Still, this is far more connected than the original Port Davey Track, cut between Bathurst Harbour and Maydena in 1898 for shipwrecked sailors! At Melaleuca our Ranger Relay will change members and resupply before their final leg down the South Coast Track.
Map by Phil Wyatt. Photos by Jessica Hewenn.
The Ranger Relay will have just paddled across Lake Pedder before this.
They will finish on the South Coast Track.
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