Retired ranger Eddie Firth has traversed the Overland Track 150 times ... and vows to keep on trekking

THOUSANDS of bushwalkers from around the world have ticked the Overland Track off their wilderness bucket list. But few could match Eddie Firth’s record.

Eddie Firth, who was a park ranger on the Overland Track Tasmania for many years, has just retired. Picture: PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

THOUSANDS of intrepid bush walkers from around the world have ticked the Overland Track off their wilderness bucket list. But few, if any, could match retired Parks and Wildlife Service track ranger Eddie Firth’s record.

Making his first trip at age 14, the 57-year-old has traversed the challenging 65km track about 150 times since and intends to continue to do so at least once a year in retirement.

Mr Firth has many wonderful memories of his time on the track and hundreds of photographs of his time in the wilds.

But in a shed of his Barrington home is a more tactile link with the track’s past — a historic vehicle he believes took the first ever group of Hobart Walking Club adventurers into the Cradle Valley to walk the then mysterious and staggeringly remote Overland Track.

It was 1931 and it took the Hobart Walking Club members a full day to travel from the state’s capital to Cradle Mountain.

You had to be keen to walk the Overland Track back then. Even now, one person a year on average dies in the Cradle Mountain National Park from injury, illness or through being unprepared for the wild conditions.

Eighty-five years ago, the track was only what could be carved out by axe and getting to Cradle Mountain was a challenge in itself.

First the group took a train from the capital to Railton. From there it was a rail motor journey from Railton Sheffield before they had the luxury of travelling by car from Sheffield to Wilmot.

The last leg of the journey to Cradle Mountain was completed in a horse a buggy.

Once there, the club members stayed in a shack owned by Major Ronald Smith, the son of famed Waratah pioneer Philosopher Smith, and were then guided along the Overland Track by hunter Bert Nichols.

Retired Overland Track ranger Eddie Firth with his 1926 Chevrolet at Lower Barrington. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

“It is highly possible this car was involved in that historic journey,’ Mr Firth said as he shared memories of his 23 years working as a track ranger with the Parks and Wildlife Service and lifelong love affair with Cradle Mountain and the track which links it to Lake St Clair.

The 1926 Chevrolet was originally owned by Mr L. W. Tankard, who was the manager of the Don Store at Sheffield at the time of that first Hobart Walking Club trip.

The car was later sold to Major Smith who was a friend of Mr Firth’s family and the man who named the Overland Track and took a young Gustav Weindorfer into Cradle Mountain.

A photo taken in 1966 shows a young Eddie Firth, his brother and Major Smith with the prized vehicle, which was brown at the time.

After being sold on a few times, the car was found by Mr Firth in Penguin. He asked the owners to contact him if they ever planned to sell it. They did and it now lives in his garage — a perfect vantage point from which to see Cradle Mountain on a clear day.

Few people would have expected in 1931 that almost 100 years later up to 8000 people a year would travel to Cradle Mountain to pay to embark on the adventure across alpine country, button grass moorlands, rainforest and waterfalls into the open woodland of Lake St Clair.

Mr Firth was one of many who feared the area might be “loved to death” as its popularity grew but says new booking regulations and the charging of fees had quashed his concerns. Those fees now generate about $1.2 million a year to pay for staff and maintenance of the track.

Park ranger Eddie Firth, front, with ranger Eric Tierney, left, and engineer Tim Chappell. Picture: PARKS AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

“There are controls in place now to limit how many people are on the track on any day. There
used to be spikes where there would be 120 people a day leaving to walk the track. That is not sustainable,” Mr Firth said.

While Mr Firth is known for his association with the Overland Track, he’s proud of the conservation works achieved in other parts of Tasmania, particularly on Macquarie Island where he was involved in the successful cat eradication project of the late 1990s.

He also works with the Mountain Huts Preservation Society and is a member of the Northwest Walking Club.

The 57-year-old said he had always wanted to be a park ranger and loved the wilderness from a very early age.

After leaving school he trained as a boilermaker welder. But in his spare time he worked as a guide for Eric Sargent, of Devonport, who was the first person to run commercial tours on the Overland Track.

He then took up a “good job” at the Wesley Vale Paper Mill.

But he decided he would rather work for half the money doing something he loved and “went bush’ with the Parks and Wildlife Service.

And it is a decision he has never regretted.

Originally published as Retired ranger Eddie Firth has traversed the Overland Track 150 times ... and vows to keep on trekking