Track Reroute

Tuesday 30 June 2015

The management plan suggests a re-route the Beatties Tarn side track and rehabilitate the old track, (page 37) and martin Hawes in his 2008 report on tracks commented that he was “not convinced it’s practical or desirable to prevent access to the tarn”.

The track has been closed for several years because the original track traversed a very wet area where some of the water flowed over a small flat area and became degraded. This area also had a considerable sphagnum content.

An investigation with Brendan and Trevor from PWS revealed that the final 80 metres of the old track was on hard ground and only needed trimming. The remaining distance of 240 metres could be easily rerouted away from the wet area onto hard ground that had a rock base.

It is estimated that about 3 working bees should be enough to complete the work and it could opened for the centenary year of Mount Filed being declared a national park in 2016.

The rerouted track is only slightly longer than the old one. It is about 320 metres of track of which 80 metres is the existing but overgrown track and the remainder is rerouted but close to the former track.

Naming of Beatties Tarn

From Placenames Tasmania

A small tarn in the Mount Field National Park situated about half a mile easterly down the slope from Seagers Lookout. Mr J. W Beattie, notable photographer and historian see Tasmanian Tramp Number 11 page 41, also see Lake Jollytail

Route Selected

The satellite image below shows the route chosen for the proposed rerouted track

Photos of

This is an old photo from the Archives Office of Tasmania, possibly taken from the outlet. The old track meets the tarn further east

Notice the devastation from a bushfire

The photo below is the tarn in 2015