Popular Overland Track online bookings open on Tuesday

Set your alarm clocks: bookings for the iconic six-day, 65km trek through pristine World Heritage Wilderness area opens this week, sticking to a strict 34-walkers-a-day limit.

Walkers on the Overland Track

Bookings for the popular Overland Track walking season will open this week, with the wilderness experience expected to sell out places quickly.

The 65km, six-day walk has gained international recognition for the journey that takes you through the heart of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, part of the magnificent Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.

On the Cradle Mountain Overland Track. GLOBETROTTER

Those interested in snagging a spot should set their alarms early for Tuesday, July 8.

At 7am, the virtual waiting room, accessed by a web link posted on the Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) Facebook page, will open allowing people to get prepared for the booking process at 9am.

At this time people will be randomised and placed in the queue to progress through to the booking site.

Tasmanian Expeditions – Overland Track. Picture: Jess Bonde

A spokesperson from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania (NRE Tas) said the PWS “highly recommends joining the waiting room prior to 9am” to ensure a place at the front of the queue as well as ensuring you have all of the personal information for your walking party on hand, have a credit card ready to go and have alternate dates in case your preferred date in unavailable.

Pre-sale bookings for the Overland Track opened on Monday, with walkers who had their track bookings in February cancelled by PWS this year due to bushfires given access to this sale only.

People in the distance, hiking through Overland Track, Tasmania on an overcast day. Photo – iStock

Only 34 places are available each day for the track, the exclusivity of the walk helping to drive interest and attract around 12,000 local, interstate and international tourists each year to the alpine environments.

The Overland Track is open year-round and attracts a booking fee of $300 per adult

during the peak season from October 1 to May 31 inclusive.

At all other times, walkers are asked to register their walk using PWS’s free online

registration system.