Mount Field, halfway between New Norfolk and Lake Gordon, is a very old park. It has grown from the original Russell Falls nature reserve established in 1885 to include ski fields and alpine wilderness (the full history is here) but its early history is still very apparent today.
The original (lower) section is a beautiful family-friendly scenic reserve beside Tyenna River with a network of easy walking tracks linking the visitor centre and the camping ground to three waterfalls and a stand of particularly tall trees. The alpine section, at the top of 15 km of winding gravel road, is very different and I will write about it separately.
The Waterfalls
Russell Falls are the centrepiece of the park so I have to include a photo although you have seen dozens of glossier shots on tourist publicity and perhaps my conventional one on the introduction to these 2024 Tasmanian posts. Here’s one that’s a bit different, one I took at the same time of year in 2020 when there hadn’t been so much recent rain.
Horseshoe Falls, just above them, are much smaller but worth the very short extra walk, while Lady Barron Falls are further away but nearly as impressive as Russell.
The waterfall circuit track includes the Tall Trees and the official guide reckons the 6 kms take 2 – 2.5 hours. Allowing more, though, means you can stop as often, and look as long, as you like – at birds, ferns, pademelons or falling water.
The Tall Trees
Mt Field is just down the road from the Styx Valley, home of some of the tallest trees in the world, so the enormously tall eucalypts here shouldn’t surprise us but they do: we just can’t fit them into our world-view.
Or our cameras – not in a way that makes their size comprehensible, anyway.
This shot was the best I could do. The trees in it are not the biggest in the park but at least there’s enough context to show their stature.
Species: Eucalyptus regnans, Mountain Ash, the tallest flowering plants (conifers, the only taller trees, are not ‘flowering plants’) in the world.
In numbers: perhaps 70-75 metres in my photo, up to 85 metres in the ‘Tall Tress’ area, over 90 in the Styx, 100 elsewhere in Tasmania. Comparable to: 20-storey building or these record-holders.
Practicalities
Bitumen road all the way to the park entrance; powered and unpowered sites for caravans, campervans and tents; camp kitchen, amenities with hot showers (bliss!); good cafe in the visitor centre; picnic shelters and day use areas (and we’re only an hour from Hobart so why not?); bookings and Park Passes.
- Introduction and index to Tasmanian destinations, late 2024.