Thousands of bushwalkers book the Overland Track for summer season
Mainlanders have hogged the the best months to walk Tasmania’s Overland Track, as bushwalkers raced to snag a spot in the warmer months. Here’s how many have booked so far.
Tasmania
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Bushwalkers from the mainland have hogged the best months to walk Tasmania’s renowned Overland Track, as thousands of early birds jumped on the website to secure a booking in the warmer months.
Just after 10am there were more than 5000 walkers in the online queue through the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife page, after booking opened at 9am.
The ‘summer’ season for the 65km track runs from October 1 until May 31, and there are 34 spots available each day, equating to 8,296 in total across the season.
By 2pm more than 5000 people had booked a summer spot, with January and February completely booked out and just two places left in December.
The majority of those who had booked were from interstate, with 4,125 mainlanders swarming the bookings website, compared to 774 Tasmanians and 211 international tourists.
In previous years, the booking process for the walk has run less smoothly; Last year’s frenzy left some walkers waiting six hours to be let through to the bookings page, meanwhile, in 2022 the website crashed altogether.
Parks Minister Nick Duigan said there had been enhancements to the system this year.
“The booking system has performed well with no outages. The queue has been fully processed with people currently going straight to the booking function,” he said.
The walk, through the Cradle Mountain – Lake St Clair National Park, typically takes six days, through a remote, alpine track.
The journey is described as “physically demanding and emotionally challenging”.
“The Overland Track is Australia’s premier alpine walk. This exhilarating and life-changing journey attracts walkers from across the globe,” the Parks and Wildlife website says about the track.
“Almost half of the track is above 1000 metres in elevation on exposed plateaus in a remote area.
“This is a landscape of glacially carved valleys, ancient rainforests, fragrant eucalypt forests, golden buttongrass moorlands and beautiful alpine meadows.”
Bookings are also required for the winter season, but there is no fee for the track in the colder months.
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