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Tasmania’s spiky shrubs, including bearded heath, prickly moses

and dagger needlebush.

Near the junction of these tracks, the Coastal Trail is a mix

of old, new and under-construction sections as it undergoes its

Three Capes transformation. We turn o the old track before

the descent to Lunchtime Creek and follow a scrub-cut align-

ment liberally decorated with helicopter-dropped 800kg bags

of gravel and loads of duckboard timber, before pitching camp

in an area earmarked for a Three Capes hut site.

East of here, the old and new tracks sometimes run two

dierent courses out to Cape Pillar. One contentious section

bypasses two of the old track’s most famous places, Hurricane

Heath and Perdition Ponds. At Hurricane Heath, scouring winds

that have literally blown walkers o their feet have transformed

normally 2m-high plant species into ground-huggers. Cairns

mark the route across what resembles a Japanese garden, replete

with bonsai, to the Ponds, the old track’s easternmost campsite.

The further east you tread the more isolated it feels; the heath

hums with birdlife and the twisting path aords a symphony of

views north to Cape Hauy and south to Tasman Island. The

crescendo comes at Chasm Lookout and The Blade, from which,

improbably, one looks down at Tasman Island’s 200m-high clis.

Walking back to Fortescue Bay the next day, we’re more

conscious of Three Capes signs. Tag tapes mark the helicopter

drop zones; garden stakes number the sections; diamond tags

label zones around which the path must detour to protect

endemic flora and create buer zones for the carefully monitored

wedge-tailed and white-bellied eagle nests.

It’s a mammoth job, says Simon Wyatt, one of the owners of

track construction company Mountain Trails, when we meet

him and his crew near Bare Knoll. They’ve been out here on the

3.98km Separable Portion 5 (SP5) for several months already,

with work due to be completed within the year. All the signs

point to serious eort – there are track-width excavators, piles

of rocks, power carriers and hand tools of all kinds.

The supply helicopter chatters overhead, dropping in gravel

and timber on four-minute turnarounds from the Fortescue Bay

base. It’s hard work, but the crew agrees that it has rewards. “I

like the bush and hate town,” says Simon. Joel Hodson sums it

up: “Living and working in this scenery is unbeatable.”

The trail is a mix

of old, new and

under-construc-

tion sections as

it undergoes its

transformation.

Dolerite drama. The Candlestick, captured

from the western side of Cape Hauy.

Hard yards. Tom Burns (above, at right), a track worker with

construction contractor Mountain Trails, places edging rocks

by hand on a new section of Three Capes Track near Bare Knoll.

TASMANIA PARKS & WILDLIFE SERVICE hopes the Three

Capes Track (3CT) will be seen as the coastal equivalent

of the iconic Overland Track. The aim is to create an

“achievable walking experience” for people of all

ages and abilities and PWS is having a red-hot go at it.

With a budget of about $25 million for its first

(eastern) part, the 3CT will feature 90cm-wide paths

of gravel, rock and timber. Up to 60 people a day

are expected during the October–May peak season

and they’ll book online and pay a fee (still to be

determined; the Overland fee is $200 for 2014–15).

It will be Australia’s only hut-based walk where the

huts have mattresses and cooking facilities; walkers

won’t have to carry tents, sleeping mats or stoves. A

guided commercial walk will use private huts.

Buildings for accommodation, cooking and eat-

ing plus PWS staff quarters will be linked by decks or

walkways. A prototype hut was installed at Lunchtime

Creek this winter. “One of the design parameters was

to try and produce something that’s simple and ele-

gant,” says PWS hut project manager Andrew Wagg.

Designed to blend in with the environment and to

be durable, the huts will be steel framed and finished

with Colorbond steel, fire-resistant blackbutt timber

and cement sheets. Their outward-sloping windows

are to reduce the risk of bird strike.

The complete eastern part of the track is sched-

uled to open in late 2015.

THREE CAPES TRACK

Stretching along the Tasman Peninsula for up to

82km, the track will lead walkers to picturesque

Cape Raoul, Cape Pillar and Cape Hauy.

COURTESY TOURISM TASMANIA

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