Cape Pillar Track

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A long overnight-capable walk from Fortescue Bay along the Old Cape Pillar and Cape Pillar tracks to Tasman Island's cliff-top views, sharing sections with the Three Capes Track.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

14.5 km

Est. time

5 hr 38 min

Elevation gain

1074 m

Route type

Out & back

Steepest stretch: +308m over ~300m (around the 1.7km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Tasman National Park, Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

+ Add to tracks / plans

Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Cape Pillar Sheoak

Allocasuarina crassa

Rare (Tas) — found nowhere else on Earth▾

Rare (Tas) — found nowhere else on Earth

A shrub or small tree found only in the Cape Pillar area of the Tasman Peninsula and on Tasman Island, both entirely within Tasman National Park — its entire natural range spans just 10km. Listed as rare under Tasmania's Threatened Species Protection Act, threatened by inappropriate fire and the soil pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi.

How to spot it

A dioecious shrub to small tree, usually 1-2m (occasionally to 14m), with smooth bark and spreading branchlets up to 170mm long bearing scale-like leaves in whorls of 7-10. Female plants carry cylindrical woody cones 15-34mm long. Look for it on the exposed dolerite clifftops around Cape Pillar and Cape Hauy.

Family Casuarinaceae · Source: Wikipedia: Allocasuarina crassa

Photo: Murray Fagg (CC BY 3.0 AU) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Attenborougharion rubicundus

Near Threatened — TAS: Near Threatened▾

Near Threatened — TAS: Near Threatened

Attenborougharion rubicundus is a species of air-breathing semi-slug, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs in the family Helicarionidae.

How to spot it

These semi-slugs are about 27.5–45 mm in length and are bright green and bright red. The species has a flattened body and their reproductive system has an irregular shape compared to the usual V-shaped rows.

Family Helicarionidae · Source: Atlas of Living Australia + Wikipedia: Attenborougharion rubicundus

Photo via iNaturalist Australia (CC-BY-NC 4.0 (Int)), collected by Nick Fitzgerald

Forty-spotted Pardalote

Pardalotus quadragintus

Endangered (IUCN)▾

Endangered (IUCN)

A tiny, dull-plumaged pardalote found almost nowhere outside a few colonies in south-east Tasmania, chiefly Maria Island and Bruny Island, which hold about 99% of the world population. Tasman National Park sits within the South-east Tasmania Important Bird Area recognised for this and the swift parrot.

How to spot it

9-10cm long, olive-green above with a dull yellow under-tail and black wings dotted with roughly 60 small white spots — plainer than the similar spotted pardalote, with no obvious eyebrow stripe. Sticks to dry eucalypt forest, especially manna gum (Eucalyptus viminalis).

Family Pardalotidae · Source: Wikipedia: Forty-spotted pardalote

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons