Mt ROLAND

 

1/ Mt Roland is an iconic mountain in north west Tasmania. It is 1230 metres high and can be seen from as far away as Devonport. It is a favorite with bush walkers, because the views from the top are simply awesome. The closest large town is Sheffield. This photo shows Mt Roland taken from its western side near Wilmot. The foreground lake is Lake Barrington, which is favorite venue for Tasmanian rowers.

2/ This photo shows the north face of Mt Roland taken from the southern edge of Sheffield. Mt Roland dominates the southern skyline of Sheffield.

3/ This photo shows the northern face Mt Roland from just before the Claude Road locality.

4/ This photo shows Mt Roland taken from the north west.

5/ This photo shows the southern side of Mt Roland. It was taken from near the Mt Claude Lookout.

6/ This photo shows the eastern side of Mt Roland. This photo should give you some idea, as to how steep the walls of Mt Roland are. It was taken from near Kenzies Hill.

7/ This photo shows Mt Roland from near Lower Wilmot. Mt Roland is so high that it frequently appears in gaps between the hills.

8/ This photo shows the western side of Mt Roland. The next mountain is Mt Vandyke. On the far right is Mt Claude. This photo was taken from near Lower Wilmot.

9/ This is another view of Mt Roland. It was taken from the Sheffield Lookout and it again shows how the mountain dominates the town. It shows the northern face.

10/ This is the southern face of Mt Roland. It was taken from the locality of Gowrie Park. The track to Mt Roland starts from Gowrie Park.

11/ This photo shows Mt Vandyke, the mountain just south of Mt Roland. It too is an impressive mountain to climb.

 

1/ This gallery records a trip that our club made to Mt Roland in 2012. It will show you what climbers see from the top of this mighty mountain. This image shows Mt Roland's northern face from near the settlement of Paradise.

2/ The soil of north west Tasmania is a very, rich, volcanic composition. This image shows this rich soil prior to planting a crop. In the background is the north eastern face of Mt Roland.

3/ This image shows Mt Vandyke, which is just south of Mt Roland. The buildings are part of the Gowrie Park settlement. The easy route to Mt Roland starts from near here.

4/ There is another more direct way to ascend Mt Roland and that is straight up the cliff face from a track that begins at the end of Kings Road. It climbs Mt Roland in the saddle between these two peaks. This route is strictly for experienced climbers.

5/ This view shows the approach to Mt Roland from the south west near Gowrie Park. Mt Roland is to the left and Mt Vandyke is to the right. It is a 14 kilometre return climb and is thus only suitable for experienced bush walkers.

6/ Once you reach the mountain you begin to ascend rapidly. You need to climb 400 metres to reach the plateau at the top. This view looks down to the countryside below.

7/ This is an exotic worm that lives in this part of Tasmania.

8/ Most of the climb consists of stepping up boulders. This image shows a typical section of the trail.

9/ The walls of Mt Roland tower over you as you ascend.

10/ Quite suddenly you reach the plateau and a vast panorama surrounds you. This view looks towards the south east. To the distant right is the Gog Range and beyond it are the peaks of the Great Western Tier Mountains.

11/ Finally we reached the summit and Rolands Tower beckons you. At the trig marker you are 1234 metres above sea level.

12/ This view looks north east across the Northern Coastal Plain from Rolands Tower. You can see two of our group on the northern side track. They should give you some idea of the size of the rocks.

13/ This image shows a rock outcrop on the north eastern edge of Mt Roland.

14/ This image was taken on our return journey. On the left is Mt Vandyke and beyond it on the right is Mt Claude. You can visit Mt Claude in the next gallery.

15/ This image shows at more of the rocky plateau of Mt Roland. It looks towards the south west.

16/ In the more shelter parts of the plateau are small trees and scrubs.

17/ This is a long range view of Reggies Falls. It is just beyond the exit track back to Gowrie Park. Reggies Falls is one of a number of waterfalls on Mt Roland.

18/ There is a lot of life on the plateau like this little gecko lizard.

19/ At different times of the year you can see many lovely flowering plants.

20/ I also spotted this exotic flower.

 

1/ This is north western face of Mt Claude. It is part of a chain of mountains that starts with Mt Roland in the north followed by Mt Vandyke and then Mt Claude. I took advantage of a logging area to take this photo. You can see in this image the desolation caused by these loggers. They were logging right up to the edge of the conservation area.

2/ The walk up to Mt Claude is relatively easy. It starts at the Mt Roland lookout on Olivers Road, where you can look to the north to see this magnificent view of a distant Mt Roland. You can either return to the point or exit from the end of the Mt Roland Trail at Gowrie Park.

3/ You ascend most of the way to the summit on an old road put in by the electricity company.

4/ As you ascend you see great gorges and distant mountains.

5/ This view looks towards the south at the peaks of the Central Highlands. It is a telephoto shot.

6/ This view looks towards the mountains of the south east. It is also a telephoto shot. The Central Highlands are usually snow covered in winter and present a magnificent sight.

7/ When you reach the summit you see a vast panorama of snow covered mountains.

8/ The landscape varies greatly in terms of the vegetation that you see.

9/ This view looks back to the south towards the way that we had come. Beyond it are peaks of the Central Highlands.

10/ Around us were steep walls of snow covered rocks.

11/ Finally, we reach Mt Claude and this was the view to the extreme west. Mt Claude is 800 metres above sea level.

12/ To the west of Mt Claude we could see Lake Barrington. This is a major venue for boat racing.

13/ By the time we reached the summit of Mt Claude, a cloud was enveloping it.

14/ Our group stopped to enjoy their achievement before we began our return journey.

15/ This view looks at a rocky outcrop at the summit. Beyone are the peaks of the Central Highlands.

16/ Some of the lovely things you see in the wilderness are quite small, like these icicles.

 

1/ Fifty Dollar Falls is a massive waterfall in northern Tasmania south of Mt Claude. There is no easy way to reach them and they were named only recently by the first canyoneers to visit them. This gallery shows a trip our club made to them in 2012.

2/ Our club started their journey on a rugged forestry track that diverged north east from Olivers Road. They then bush bashed their way to the north east. Geographically it was only about 2 kilometres in length, but the lack of a trail made it much harder to progress. The first part of the journey was through a regrowth forest. These miserable little saplings are the first regrowth to emerge after the loggers have cut down the ancient, giant trees.

3/ In some areas a strange kind of moss grows on the semi open ground.

4/ We then followed Kearneys Creek for some distance, as shallow creeks are often an easier way to travel than through dense bush.

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5/ At one point we had to cross Kearneys Creek. The scout party had already set up a cable to ensure our safety. Water and moss can make crossing streams a considerable slip hazard. If just one of our group had injured their leg, it would have ruined the whole expedition.

6/ This image shows you the upper section of Kearneys Creek that eventually becomes the falls.

7/ We now reached the rugged country that the loggers could not penetrate. Here we found some beautiful, old trees covered in moss. From this point we were descending.

8/ We now bush bashed our way to the south east following the Creek to reach Fifty Dollar Falls.

9/ There were many small cascades and lovely fresh water pools on Kearneys Creek.

10/ Finally, we reached the vast canyon, which the falls plunge down into. It was a massive 70 metre drop to the pool at the base of this canyon.

11/ Our group lunched here at the edge of this precipice. We did not have the abseiling equipment needed to descend to the base of the falls.

12/ This shows a pool near the top of the falls.

13/ This was as close as we were able to get to the top of the falls.

14/ This image shows the full extent of the falls. The various cascades plunge about 50 metres to a large pool at the base of the falls. Fifty Dollar Falls was only recently named by canyoneers. On of their group lost $50 while abseiling down, only to find it again at the bottom. This was interpreted as a good reason give these unnamed falls their new name: Fifty Dollar Falls.

15/ This image shows the top section of the Fifty Dollar Falls. The area at the top left is what you can see in image 13. The first cascade drops about 10 metres.

16/ This image shows the middle section of Fifty Dollar Falls. This section has the largest cascade.

17/ This last image shows the end of the Fifty Dollar Falls, where it reaches a large pond.

18/ To exit the area we had to proceed down stream and again cross Kearneys Creek.

19/ We then had to bush bash our way through a dense forest.

20/ Finally we reached open country south west of the falls from where we were collected by our bus.

21/ I saw some really exotic examples of fungus on this walk, like this lovely, highly poisonous, red fungus.

22/ There is a sarcastic saying that you can eat every kind of fungus "just once". This saying warns you that many kinds of fungus are highly poisonous, like this one.

23/ Fungus have some very exotic shapes and colors. It took me some time before I realized that this was some kind of fungus - not a plant.

24/ I also discovered some very colorful berries, like these purple berries. The Tasmanian Aborigines know which ones you can eat, but, unfortunately, I don't.

25/ These berries also looked very tempting, but again, I simply don't know whether or not they are safe to eat.

 

1/ Some of the best view of Mt Roland can be had from near Wilmot. This photo shows the western side of Mt Roland seen from near Wilmot.

2/ This is the iconic view of Mt Roland seen from the Henry Buxton Lookout north of Wilmot. The mountain to the right is Mt Claude and the mountain in between is Mt Vandyke. In the foreground is Lake Barrington. This is a 20 kilometre long lake that makes accessing Mt Roland difficult from Wilmot.

3/ The roads around Wilmot have lovely rural scenes, punctuated by lovely hills and mountains. This strange object is a decorated letter box.

4/ The road to Wilmot is through some of the most lovely, rural landscapes in Tasmania. Note how Mt Roland is peeping over the hill to the right.

5/ The view to the south of Wilmot is of the spectacular mountains of the Central Highlands.

6/ Lower Wilmot is a locality north of Wilmot with some interesting old buildings. This is the old school.

7/ This is the old church at Lower Wilmot.

8/ Wilmot is a hamlet in a valley. This photo shows the northern edge of Wilmot. There is a store and a petrol pump at Wilmot.

9/ Wilmot has a number of historic buildings. This is the lovely, Federation style church.

10/ The other church in Wilmot has now be turned into a museum. Here you can learn about the history of the area.

11/ This is the Old Bake House. It is one of Wilmot's historic buildings.

12/ This is Cradle Manor. It was once the home of George Coles. He founded the Coles Myer chain. This is the largest chain of stores in Australia. Next to his home, until very recently, stood the oldest store in Australia. Unfortunately, it has been burnt down.

13/ This is a disused, historic store at Wilmot. The lost store look similar to this.

14/ Lake Cethana is a lovely hydro lake south of Wilmot.

 

1/ Moina is a locality south of Wilmot and west of Lake Cethana. A number of great bush walks are in this area. This photo shows the Bridal Veil Falls. It is about 40 metres high. This fall is accessed from a track that begins at the Lemonthyme Lodge.

2/ The trail to Bridal Veil Falls consisted of a 4WD track, followed by a bush trail that included planked sections. The trail passes through lovely, fern groves and mystical, myrtle forests.

3/ The trail passed over a number of mountain streams. Note how the rocks are moss covered only on the northern, sun deficient side of this stream.

4/ This photo shows the rich variety of vegetation that the trail passes through. It was a truly mystical place.

5/ This photo shows the variety of light that reaches you through the forest canopy. In most places it is dark, but in some sections deficient of large trees, it is bright. Note the orange ribbon on the bottom right of the photo. These ribbons are used to mark the path in poorly defined sections. You need to watch for these to stay on the trail.

6/ This is a close up of moss covered rocks. They look like cushions.

7/ There is a large variety of fungus in the forest. This is a close up taken at ground level.

8/ This large tree was in the process of falling down. However, it has been stuck for so long in this position that moss has grown on it. The bush track is just to the left of this tree. Much of the track in this section was just a trail and in places, it was hard to follow.

9/This photo shows another mountain stream. Note the proliferation of ferns around it.

10/ Much of the forest was dark and enchanting with flickers of light everywhere. The track is just visible to the right of the centre of this photo. The orange ribbon on the sapling near the track marks the path.