Overland Track bookings problems continue

Walkers hoping to snag a hotly-contested spot on a world renowned Tasmanian track this summer continue to smash the refresh button amid ongoing problems with a booking system.

THE fallout from the collapse of the booking system used for the state’s most popular bushwalk continues, with prospective walkers facing long waits to find out if they have secured a slot.

Only 34 walkers a day are allowed to set out on the world-famous six-day 65km Overland Track, paying $200 to walk the track and stay in public huts between October and May.

Around 8000 people walk the track, which runs between Cradle Mountain and Lake St Clair each year.

Bookings for the coming summer season on the Overland Track were supposed to open on Thursday — but the Parks and Wildlife Service’s booking website crashed.

Walkers were told to join a wait list, but that too have now been closed and will take more than a week for staff to work through.

The Overland Track

“Bookings for the Overland Track were introduced more than 20 years ago to assist the Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) to manage demand and any associated impacts to the environment,” the Parks and Wildlife Service said in a statement.

“The Overland Track walk remains ever popular and is fully-booked each year across the peak spring, summer and autumn walking season.

“Today’s outage was due to unprecedented demand and was also affected by intermittent statewide internet outages.

“PWS is working with the service provider to implement a solution.

“We understand some walkers were impacted today, and we thank them for their patience and co-operation.

“We encourage walkers to join the waitlist via the PWS website to receive updates.

“Walkers should register only once so everyone on the waitlist can be contacted efficiently with updates.”

Greens leader Cassy O'Connor speaks to the media on parliament Lawns in Hobart on Wednesday, July 13, 2022.

Greens leader Cassy O’Connor said it was disappointing that bookings for such an iconic tourism drawcard was being plagued by technical problems.

“A properly functioning booking system is critical to managing numbers in wild places like the Overland Track,” she said.

“The Liberals came into office in 2014 and cut the guts out of Parks, then installed carefully chosen bureaucrats to pursue their privatisation of protected lands.

“Since then, Parks and Wildlife have been heavily focused on driving more and more tourists into protected areas.

“Now it seems, the politicised and under-resourced Parks Service can’t even get that right.

“We should have caps on visitor numbers to look after our popular parks, but it needs to be a well-managed policy, not the result of poor planning or ad hoc mistakes.”

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